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echo: nascar
to: All
from: Mike Powell
date: 2006-06-19 09:13:00
subject: MIS Winning Team Quot 1/2

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

NOTE: Kahne scored his circuit-leading fourth victory of the season and the
fifth for Dodge at Michigan International Speedway since Dodge rejoined the
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup circuit in 2001. Dodge has won more races at Michigan than
any other track and is tied with Ford with five wins each at MIS since 2001.

"I was happy either way, whether they started the race back or not. I thought
we had a good shot. The team has done a great job this season and they give
me a car capable of winning every week. I made 'em work a little harder this
weekend, but everything worked out. They did a great job with the car and
that's the fourth time we've won with it this season.

"We had a great car. We had a problem early on with debris. We got some
debris on the car and it overheated. We had to pit. I was trying to pass Jeff
Gordon, racing with him and then we just had to pit and get it off the nose
and go from there. We fell back to 38th and started battling back from there.
Kenny (team director Francis) took two tires one time and passed some cars on
pit road and the pit crew probably passed 10 cars with pit stops. It was a
great car to drive and a great team to work with."

COMMENT ON YOUR NEWFOUND PATIENCE "You do need patience on these type of race
tracks. The air is such a big deal and if you put your car in the wrong spot
against another car or certain areas in the corner you can spin yourself out
in a second. You do need patience, but at the same time you need to charge up
there. We knew the rain was coming. I knew it would be here sometime around
lap 100. We did all we could to pass cars. I think I was four-wide at one
time and three-wide another time. My spotter said that wasn't being patient,
but I was like 'well, it was open. I really couldn't tell it was four wide.'
It worked out and we're just happy to be in victory lane."

COMMENT ON YOUR BACKUP CAR "It wouldn't have been good if we'd had to get the
backup out because we had no time on it. Things change. It's probably a great
car. I don't even know which car is back there. Kenny would know. (Told it
was the California car). It ran fourth there. It's a good car, but we knew
what we had with the car I was driving yesterday and just needed to make the
repairs to it. It wasn't too bad. It was bad enough it took a long time to
fix, but it wasn't bad enough to pull out there spare. We knew where that car
was, and that's the car we wanted to race."

KENNY FRANCIS (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger Team Director)

"That was interesting. It was nerve-racking, that's for sure. I think part of
the key to it for sure was being on the pole and having that pit box. The way
it's laid out here that's a big advantage under caution. It's a big
disadvantage under green, but under caution it's a big advantage and I think
it's more important to have good pit stops under caution than green. It was
nerve-racking. We knew it was going to rain, and we kept watching the radar
in the pit box. When they finally did throw the yellow, I couldn't believe it
wasn't raining. It was just surrounding. Kasey did a good job on that
two-tire deal just holding 'em off and maintaining where he was at. That was
pretty tough. Everybody around him got four and he was just on two. He was
trying to pass cars, and this track is so hard to pass on. You really need to
run the top. The guy sitting up there running the top, even though you're
half a second faster, it's hard to get by him."

KASEY KAHNE

COMMENT ON THE WEATHER "In the car I just knew I needed to be there by lap
100 and try to get back to the front. We came pretty close to that, and I was
happy with that. As team director, Kenny made the calls that really helped us
get up there quickly. He was probably a lot more nervous or something than I
was because I was just doing all I could in the car and whatever we got we
got."

HOW CONCERNED WERE YOU WITH CARL EDWARDS AT THE END? "I wasn't really
concerned at the time. We were pretty good. I was getting lap times and I
really didn't know where they were, if they were closing or not, but I know
what I was hearing. We were pretty equal. We beat 'em out and got by the 41
pretty quick and opened up a little bit of a lead there and I was doing all I
could to stay up there. We probably had a little bit left in our car if we
needed to, but there was really no reason to go harder than I was. If we had
gone 200 laps, it probably would have been a good show between the 9 and 99
because Carl was really good."

COMMENT ON FOUR WINS IN FIRST 15 RACES "I probably wouldn't believe you (if
told that at first of the season). We barely got one last year and couldn't
get one in '04. To say we'd have four wins and four poles at Michigan, that
would have been a tough thing to think it was for real, but it is. We've been
able to do that, and it's pretty awesome. I think Jimmie has three wins now,
and it's pretty surprising to have one up on those guys. They've been doing
it and are really good. There's a bunch of good teams, Biffle and Edwards and
a lot of 'em, and we're leading the pack with victories right now. I'm happy.
Keep it up and keep the communication up and we'll be in that Chase. That's
the goal to get in The Chase."

KENNY FRANCIS

COMMENT ON THE WEATHER "It's pretty nerve-racking sitting up there trying to
figure out if it's going to rain or not and whether you need to stay out or
take two tires or whether you can afford to take four. There's so many smart
guys down pit road, and there's so many willing to take a chance. I was
afraid someone in the back that didn't have anything to lose was going to
take a chance and do something to beat us. That could happen if you made the
wrong decision at the wrong time. You sit up there with your heart pounding
trying to figure out what to do."

COMMENT ON THE DODGE CHARGER "I feel like we've got a good package. Obviously
I haven't run any of these other packages from the other manufacturers. I
don't know how theirs really work. I think we've got a good package worked
out, but they are super sensitive. It's amazing how easy it is to get one
messed up. When we wrecked in practice we made a couple of small adjustments
and the car was just terrible. It was probably wasn't his fault. It was our
fault for getting the car off, but you make small changes and I think
everyone experiences this. Sometimes you make small changes and it reacts
real big and sometimes you make big changes and you hardly get any reactions.
It's a real struggle in general right now to figure out the setups. I think
it still hasn't something to do with the small spoiler. I think it's made
everything more sensitive, but our Dodges run real good. We're happy with
them. We're real comfortable with them, but that's not to say we couldn't
make 'em better."

KASEY KAHNE

DO YOU FEEL LIKE LOCKING UP THIS CAR? "We look forward to racing it again.
They're also doing a couple of new cars right now that I'm looking forward to
driving at Indy testing. They've built very similar to this car. The car we
had at the all-star race was built identical to this car and it felt as good
or better in the all-star race that night. Too bad I destroyed the thing."

HAVE YOU HAD TO READJUST YOUR GOALS? "At the start of the year I made up my
goals for the team and what I was going to do better this year. That was
bring cars home in one piece and get in The Chase. Communication was another
spot I needed to work on. So far I've stepped up. I've communicated better
with Kenny. Whether the car was 21st at Darlington or first at Texas we
brought it home in one piece without scratches and that's less work for the
guys fixing things I hurt and more time to prepare and make things at
Evernham Motorsports better. So far I've been able to do that. I just want to
keep it up with my goals."

HAVE YOU EVER HAD A WEEKEND LIKE THIS? "I never have. It's been a great
weekend. We've had some ups and downs, but even when we were down I was mad
at myself for crashing the car. I knew what it was. It was my third lap and
we needed to pull it in and work on it. A small adjustment would make it
better. I hit the wall and cost my guys a bunch of extra work and that's what
I didn't want to do. As soon as I did it I knew they'd do a good job fixing
it up as good as it was."
>>> Continued to next message
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