Sunday, October 4, 2009

Kansas Post-race Quotes

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
Finished 6th
"The Budweiser Dodge was pretty decent. We got off a little bit, but the last two runs, last 100 laps, we were a top three or four car. The two tires didn't help us at the end. We thought more would take two. It seemed to work for some earlier in the race. Looking back, we probably should have taken four. Maybe we could have been top five with four. We decided on that together. We had a good car all day. We got behind there at one point, but fought back and got the Budweiser Dodge where it needed to be. We weren't that good on restarts; it just takes my car too long to get going, so the late cautions didn't help. Other than that, we had a solid day. We've always run pretty strong in all these Chase races and have pretty good cars this time of the year. I think we should be good in the final seven races. We're definitely a ways back (in the Chase point standings), but we gained a little today. It was an all-right day. This is a really good team. They do a great job. Last week, we fought hard and got eighth. This week, we actually had a good car. It's just tough battling all those guys, they run so good. California is another good track for us, a track we're pretty good at. We'll try to be solid top-10 again."

KENNY FRANCIS (Crew Chief, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
"We had a decent finish. The Budweiser Dodge ended up sixth. The guys worked hard today. Kasey worked hard driving the car. It came down to strategy there at the end. It's tough to know what to do. Two tires had worked good for a lot of guys all day. We hadn't tried it all day, but thought, well, let's go ahead and try it even though there were a lot of laps left. It got us up front track-position wise. We had been running third to fourth and that moved us up to second. Too many of the others took four and they just overtook us. Sixth place is a real good finish for the Budweiser Dodge. We're happy with that. We had a little problem with debris that caused the car to overheat a little early. We finally got tape off and then it run too cool. That hurt us a little bit. The guys did a real good job. The car handled pretty good all day. The motor
ran pretty good all day. All in all, it was a good day. It's tough when you get up there in front. I figured more would take two. I thought for sure some of the guys in the back would take two, but it didn't happen. That was a lot of laps to take two tires. We tried two. It was a good finish for us."

AJ ALLMENDINGER (No. 44 Valvoline Dodge Charger)
Finished 17th
"Well, as bad as we struggled in practice on Saturday, I knew we had our work cut out for us today and we didn't run too bad. We struggled at the start of every run and then it would get going. The track was pretty tough today with the seams but we got a decent finish out of it."

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Best Buy Dodge Charger)
Finished 20th

"That was some day. Our Dodge dodged wrecks all afternoon but we made it through. We are getting better and better each week. I think Wally Rodgers and I are making progress and that's showing in our results. Today was about survival. When you start 42nd and finish in the top 20 you have done something in this sport."

REED SORENSON (No. 43 McDonald's Monopoly Dodge Charger)
Finished 26th
"That was a tough race for us. We struggled with the handling. It seemed like everything we threw at it didn't help. We were just so loose at times I couldn't drive it and did all I could not to wreck. Kansas is a pretty tough track."


Credit: Richard Petty Motorsports PR

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