Dodge places four in top 10 at Daytona

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Dodge places four in top 10 at Daytona

Posted Monday, Feb 16, 2009, 10:09 am in Employee News

Daytona 500 Mother Nature figured prominently in the outcome of Sunday’s Daytona 500.

The event was halted by rain after 152 of 200 laps were completed. Had she intervened just one lap earlier, Dodge most likely would have successfully defended its Daytona 500 title.Elliott Sadler took the lead on lap 122 in the No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger. He had a strong push from teammate Reed Sorenson from the second spot as reports of rain converging on the 2.5-mile track intensified.

Sadler held the point for 24 circuits, but when Sorenson was tapped from behind on lap 146, the rear end of the No. 43 McDonald’s Dodge Charger lost traction briefly which allowed eventual winner Matt Kenseth and runner-up Kevin Harvick to make the pass and take aim at Sadler.

The two drafted past Sadler’s No. 19 Stanley’s Dodge Charger just as the rain began to intensify. The caution appeared just after lap 146 was completed.

After six laps under yellow, the red flag was displayed and the cars were stopped on pit road. After a 20-minute wait, NASCAR officials announced the race had been called at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Fla.

“On one hand, I’m very happy and on the other, I’m really disappointed,” Sadler said. “We got a top-five finish for Stanley, Dodge and Richard Petty Motorsports and that’s a great (Daytona) 500 finish for us. On the other hand, I was one lap from winning the Daytona 500 and that’s hard to swallow. With the off-season that I’ve had, I feel like I deserved that win more than anyone. I really wanted to go to Victory Lane. I just needed to hang on for one more lap to win the Daytona 500.”

All seven Dodge teams made the field for the 51st running of “The Great American Race” with four finishing in the top 10 including all three entries from Richard Petty Motorsports. AJ Allmendinger finished third in the No. 44 Valvoline Dodge Charger, while Sadler held on for fifth. Sorenson was ninth and Kurt Busch finished 10th in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger from Penske Racing.

“I’m very proud of the boys,” Richard Petty said “They ran hard—and smart—all day long. This is one heck of a way to start the season. This is how we wanted Richard Petty Motorsports to start. I think George (Gillett Jr.) and I have something good here. This is just the beginning, and we’re excited for the next couple races. Hopefully, this isn’t the last time that you will see those boys at the front of the pack working together like that.”

Allmendinger started 20th and had worked his way into the top 10 by lap 50. He remained in the top 10 the rest of the race, advancing as high as second. His third-place finish was a career best in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

“The Valvoline Dodge was really fast today,” Allmendinger said. “I could run up front all day. The car was really consistent. It felt really good to run up front with everybody. The guys at Richard Petty Motorsports build great cars. I was hoping it would rain when Elliott was leading, Reed was second and I was fourth. That would have been a really great result for the team. I was trying to push Reed and Elliott as much as I could. They are the ones that got me into the race (Sadler and Sorenson dropped back in the field to team up with Allmendinger in Thursday’s 150-lap qualifying race and helped him earn one of two transfer spots to the Daytona 500). It was my turn to return the favor and try to get them the win.

“Kevin had a great run and got under me. That shuffled Reed out. I had to dive down with him because I was going to get really shuffled out if I didn’t get back in line.

“It’s a great result. I wish we could have finished the race. The car was fast. I would have loved to have had a chance to win the race. To finish third after everything we’ve gone through in the off season is great.”

It was Sadler’s sixth straight finish of 11th or better in the Daytona 500. He was sixth in last year’s event.

“If you’d told me at the beginning of the day that I would finish fifth and lead some laps in the Daytona 500, I probably would have taken it,” Sadler said. “It’s a great way to get a good start to the season. But to be a half-a-lap short of being the champion of the Daytona 500 is very emotional to me. I had a chance to win it. I just made one mistake off turn four; I didn’t drag the brake enough.

“I really wanted to go to Victory Lane with my guys. I needed this after the off-season that I’ve had. It didn’t work out, but I’m happy for my guys. We had ourselves in position to win.”

Busch was involved in a 10-car mishap on lap 124. Although the team managed to make repairs during the caution, the No. 2 Dodge was without a rear bumper, eliminating the opportunity to receive help via the bump draft.

“We ended up without a rear bumper, but with all the hard work that went into the preparation of this car, it feels good to have a top-10 finish with the Miller Lite Dodge and Penske Racing,” Busch said. “I had nowhere to go in the wreck. I hit somebody, somebody hit me and I spun around. The mishap tore the rear bumper off, so that eliminated the push from the bump draft. It feels pretty good to be 10th after what we went through.”

Horsepower wasn’t an issue for Sam Hornish Jr. in the No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, but overheating was. Hornish had to drop to the rear of the field out of the draft a couple of times to let the engine get more air. The rain came just as he had launched another run toward the front. He finished 32nd.

David Stremme was running 10th in the No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger and headed to pit road for tires and fuel on lap 118 when he cut down a right rear tire, causing extensive sheet metal damage. Stremme finished 33rd. The No. 12 Dodge was the Daytona 500 champion in 2008.

The Dodge Boys

Finish, Driver, Car
3rd, AJ Allmendinger, No. 10 Valvoline Dodge Charger
5th, Elliott Sadler, No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger
9th, Reed Sorenson, No. 43 McDonald’s Dodge Charger
10th, Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
29th, Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger
33r, David Stremme, No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger
32nd, Sam Hornish Jr., No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger

Daytona 500 results
1. Matt Kenseth
2. Kevin Harvick
3. AJ Allmendinger (Dodge)
4. Clint Bowyer
5. Elliott Sadler (Dodge)
6. David Ragain
7. Michael Waltrip
8. Tony Stewart
9. Reed Sorenson (Dodge)
10. Kurt Busch (Dodge)
(Other Dodge Drivers)
29. Kasey Kahne
32. Sam Hornish Jr.
33. David Stremme

[rickaren]

Drivers, owners, crews applaud Daytona results

Posted Monday, Feb 16, 2009, 11:34 am in Motorsports


Here are quotes from some of the Dodge drivers, owners and crew chiefs after the group took four of the top 10 spots in the 51st running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday.



Richard Petty (Richard Petty Motorsports)

“I’m very proud of the boys. They ran hard—and smart—all day long. This is one heck of a way to start the season. This is how we want Richard Petty Motorsports to start. I think George (Gillett Jr.) and I have something good here. This is just the beginning and we’re excited for the next couple races. Hopefully this isn’t the last time that you see those boys at the front of the pack working together like that.”



AJ Allmendinger (No. 44 Valvoline Dodge Charger)

Question: You raced your way into the 500. What are your thoughts on a third-place finish? “The Valvoline Dodge, the car was really fast today. Could run up front all day. Was really consistent. Felt really good to be there and be able to run consistent up front with everybody. Everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports building great cars. I was hoping it was going to rain when Elliott was leading and Reed was second and I was fourth. That would have been a really great result for the team. I was trying to push Reed and Elliott as much as I could. They are the ones that got me into the race. It was my turn to return the favor and try to get them the win.



“Kevin had a great run and got under me. That kind of shuffled Reed out. I had to kind of dive down with him because I was going to get really shuffled out if I didn’t get back in line.



“It’s a great result. I kind of wish we could have been able to finish. I think the car was fast. Would have loved to have had a chance to win the race. To be top three with everything we went through in the off‑season, hopefully get some more sponsors on the racecar, keep this thing going after race eight.”



Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger)

Q: Your thoughts on your Daytona 500? “Yeah, if you’d havetold me at the beginning of the day if I would take a fifth‑place finish and lead some laps for the Daytona 500, I probably would have took it. It’s a great way to get a good start to the season. But to be a half a lap short from being the champion of the Daytona 500 is very emotional to me. Had a chance to win it. Just made one mistake off of turn four. I didn’t drag the brake enough. Kevin (Harvick) and Matt (Kenseth) had a really good run. I thought maybe if I blocked to the outside somebody might come with me. But they had such a good head of steam. Really wanted to go to Victory Lane with my guys. I needed this after the off‑season that I’ve had. Really would have been cool. Didn’t work out, but happy for my guys. Great mentality all night long. Had ourselves in position to win. We’ll go to California and try to ride some of this momentum.”



Q: Elliott, I don’t want to rub salt in the wound, but they said on the radio you said this is your luck. It’s raining on the radar and not raining on the racetrack. What do you do?



Sadler:“It’s funny. My crew chief told me for the last 45 minutes of the race that it’s raining on the radar. You know, this is his first race with me as a crew chief. I said, Welcome to Elliott Sadler’s world. It’s probably raining all around the racetrack. When I need it, in the lap where I get passed, it starts raining in turn three. It’s the way it is. If I would have made a better and smarter move, I’d be in Victory Lane right now. Really wanted it. I put my heart and soul to come in here to Daytona, Speedweeks, try to compete at the top of my game, ’cause I knew I had a lot of eyes on me to run good. It was cool running up front. It was great having Reed and AJ behind me pushing. It would have been cool to finish like that, but just wasn’t meant to be. Very hard to swallow. Very emotional. We’ll try to get ‘em next week.”



Q. Elliott, when the 17 gets under you there, what is going through your head? Do you feel like it’s lost at that moment? Did you feel sick to your stomach?



Sadler: “Yeah, I was a little sick to my stomach. I choose to go high because my car wasn’t really good on the bottom the whole day. When my spotter told me the 29 was pushing the 17, I could see him coming. Had a really good run. I had to either make a choice, let him go to the outside of me or under me. I decided to let him go under me and hopefully try to side draft a little bit. They had such a good head of steam.



“You know, I can play that pass back in my head a million times between now and when I leave to go to California, but it’s not really going to change the outcome. I needed to do a better job leading the race and put my car in a position to make it wider for them to pass. I can sit here and try to be a Monday morning quarterback, but it’s not going to work. We’ll take it as a loss and need to do a better job next time, worry about when we come back here in July.”



Q. Elliott, for this to be a Cinderella story you would have had to have won. It’s still quite a story when not too long ago you lose your ride, then you go into court, and then you’re restored to the ride. First time out you have a better finish than you had all last year. The old term, The Lord works in mysterious ways. You’ve had quite a mystery over the last few months.



Sadler: “I’m going to be honest with you. I’m not going to lie to you. I was getting pretty emotional under the caution when it was raining a little bit in turn one and two. I thought it was going to be called a little bit earlier than it was. I was getting emotional in the car thinking, Wouldn’t this be the coolest story? I came down here as a fan the first time in 1979 and finished second to Ward Burton, and now to have a chance to win the race.



“Seen guys like Harvick and Newman and them celebrate the last couple years on last‑lap passes, and how fun it looks like to me in Victory Lane. I had a lot of that cool stuff going through my head. But, you know, just wasn’t meant to be.



“You know, it’s tough. It’s hard to swallow. But I’m proud of my guys. New team. New pit stops. They all worked out great tonight. To look in their faces when the rain was coming down when I got out of the car, man, that was hard, because I felt like I let them down.”



Q. AJ and Elliott, last year GEM and Petty Enterprises are struggling teams. The first race out, three guys in the top nine. How much do you think this means to this new team?



Allmendinger: “I think it’s a big deal. It was a tough off‑season for everybody. It was a long off‑season. There’s a lot of stuff that went on throughout the team with the merger. We came here, and I think it shows how strong the team is now. Elliott and Reed were a big factor of why I got into this race. That was a lot of teamwork that was involved to get that to happen.



“Like I said, I wish it would have rained a little bit earlier so we could have had a Cinderella story, had Elliott and all of us in the top five.



“But overall the team’s done a lot of work in the off‑season. Brand‑new racecars. Everybody’s putting a hundred percent effort into it. You can see when you go to the shop and at the racetrack just everybody’sattitude—even from the five races that I was there last year—everybody’s pumped up to be here and excited. You got the King (Richard Petty) walking around saying hi to everybody, making sure everybody’s good. It’s a lot of fun at the racetrack right now. I look forward to going to California and just carrying this on.”



Q. AJ, you had a tough year last year. You were in kind of a spot. You showed good at the end of the year. You had some strength at the end of the year. You still lost a ride. Do you feel any kind of vindication now? Would you credit your results to car or personal improvement or both?



Allmending: “I mean, I think you quickly learn in this sport that it doesn’t owe you anything. I mean, you got to earn everything that you get. You can sit back and feel bad about yourself or whine about everything that’s going on. But there’s a lot of people in this world that are a lot less fortunate than I am right now, even everything I went through.



“For me, it ultimately comes down to two decisions. You can quit or work harder and make something happen. I’m never going to quit. I’m going to keep working harder. That’s my attitude.



“I know if I can go out there and do everything that I can on and off the racetrack, I can go home, and whether I have a ride, run well, don’t run well and just go home and feel good about myself and not second guess anything. That’s all you can control.



“As for results, I mean, I credit most of the team. I don’t have a lot of restrictor plate racing and had to learn a lot and have great teammates that are great on these racetracks to help me learn. I had to learn quick. But overall, you know, they brought great racecars. There were times we struggled in these two weeks. There were times we were great.



“Today I just got to give a lot of credit, you know, all the credit, to Sammy Johns and Mike Wolf, my crew chief, my engineer, the whole race team. The pit stops were great. My pit crew has only had two or three weeks to work together. They had tryouts to put together for this team, and they had great stops all day. I give all the credit in the world to them.”



Q. I’m not sure where each of you were at the time, but what was your view of the big wreck with Earnhardt and Vickers? What did you see of that? What did you make of all that?



Allmendinger: “For me, I don’t know exactly where everybody was running, but I was pretty far up. I saw Vickers get dropped to the bottom. Earnhardt was down there. From there, after that, it was pretty much a big commotion.



“My spotter did a good job to get me through. At that point it’s not a lot of driving skill; you pray you pick the right line and go through it.”



Mike Shiplett (Crew Chief, No. 43 McDonald’s Dodge Charger)

“Our McDonalds Dodge ran great all day. We got loose there in the middle of the race, but kept working on it with Reed (Sorenson), trying to get us some rear grip. Once we got up near the front, the car handled a lot better. We were in perfect position behind the 19 (Elliott Sadler) trying to protect the lead and then the 17 (Matt Kenseth) and the 29 (Kevin Harvick) just pushed up and got Reed loose which cost him some spots. Overall, it was a great top-10 finish for McDonald’s, Dodge and Richard Petty Motorsports.”



Sadler (Driver, No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger)

“On one hand, I’m very happy and on the other, I’m really disappointed. We got a top-five finish for Stanley, Dodge and Richard Petty Motorsports and that’s a great (Daytona) 500 finish for us. On the other hand, I was one lap from winning the Daytona500 and that’s hard to swallow. With the off-season that I’ve had, I feel like I deserved that win more than anyone. I really wanted to go to Victory Lane. I just needed to hang on for one more lap to win the 500.”



Mark McArdle (Vice President of Competition, Richard Petty Motorsports)

“It was a good solid team performance by everyone at Richard Petty Motorsports. I’m very proud of everyone that contributed to a great day. We put ourselves in a position to win the race and it just didn’t work out. It was a great job by the 44 (AJ Allmendinger) and 43 (Reed Sorenson) to push Elliott (Sadler) and protect him for the lead as long as they did. It was a great day for us.”



Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“We ended up without a rear bumper, but with all the hard work that went into the preparation of this car, it feels good to have a top-10 finish with the Miller Lite Dodge and Penske Racing. Are we down on power a little bit? Yes, maybe! But the car is handling as good as we can make it. I had nowhere to go in one of the wrecks. I hit somebody, somebody hit me and I spun around. That tore the rear bumper off. I wasn’t getting bump drafts from the back, but the car was going OK. It feels pretty good to be 10th after what we went through.”



Pat Tryson (Crew Chief – No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“The car was pretty good all race. It handled good. We ran most of the night in the top 10. We would have liked an opportunity to get a little more. The only problem, we didn’t have a rear bumper, so it was hard for people to push us. We had decent speed. I thought we could get another spot or two, but overall, it was a pretty good night for the Miller Lite Dodge.”



Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger)

“We had a really fast car. We just overheated twice and had to go to the back of the pack and get some fresh air. We ended up having to pit two laps early versus what everybody else had to do because the temperature went over 300 degrees and the engine started shooting water out. It’s just unfortunate. We can’t figure out how to keep it cool. We’ve got twice as much opening (tape on the grille) as everybody else. We’ve got a small problem somewhere.”

[rickaren]

Petty says teamwork keyed Daytona success

Posted Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009, 4:47 pm in Company News

petty press conference
Richard Petty, of Richard Petty Motorsports, yesterday talked about the success of his crew and Dodge Motorsports during a teleconference with the media. Here is a transcript of part of that press conference:

Q: You must be proud of rpm’s three top-10s at last weekend’s Daytona 500?
A: I really was. We had all the guys working together. Circumstances beyond our control maybe kept us from winning the race, but we had good circumstances to be able to finish as good as we did. All in all, it was a pretty good day for us.

Q: Six months ago, could you have imagined petty enterprises or Richard Petty Motorsports being in the position (they are) leaving Daytona?
A: It’s a whole new world the last six months as far as Petty Enterprises, GEM (Gillett Evernham Motorsports) and Richard Petty Motorsports. It all came together at the end of the year. We were looking for something for Petty Enterprises. We really weren’t doing what we needed to be doing and we looked at GEM and talked to them. They were looking to expand, so we said let’s just put the two teams together and so far, it’s been pretty good. Right out of the box to be able to do as good as we did at Daytona and get all the people to work together; we’re really satisfied with the results so far. We’ve got to get ready and go to California now.

Q: What is your take on the incident last week between the 88 and 83 at Daytona?
A: About 10 minutes before (NASCAR) was about to call the race, I was doing a rain dance on top of the truck because we had three in the top-five. The accident was just an accident. I look at it one way, the drivers look at it one way and the poor guys that got knocked out are really going to look at it. It really became an advantage for our new team because it took three or four of the guys that were running up front out of the picture. In doing that, it made more room for us to get in the picture. Circumstances were really against a lot of people, it just happened to be for us most of the way. If we could have gotten a few more breaks there at the end of the race, we may have won the race with the 19 car. It wasn’t meant to be. We’re going to take it and be ready to go to California.

Q: What were you most proud of with your team while at Daytona?
A: It probably goes back to the Thursday race (Gatorade Duel No. 2) when the 43 car and the 19 car came back to help the 44 car, because the 44 car had to make the race (earn a spot in the 500 through the 150-lap qualifying race). With them (19 and 43) back there helping the 44, it was a total team effort. A lot of people have four teams, but a lot of times they’re not ‘four’ teams; they work against each other. At Daytona, all four (RPM) teams worked together. It was really very pleasing for me to see four teams working together. We’ve had two teams and we had a heck of a time trying to get them to work together. It was a full team effort not only leading up to the race, but even during the race.

Q: Did you ever think that stock car racing would go west of the Rocky Mountains and what is your first memory of racing in California?
A: (NASCAR) was a Southern sport; it stayed in the south forever it seemed like. Finally it broke out and got all over the United States. In 1953, my dad went to Oakland—they had a half-mile track in Oakland, Calif., and we drove the race car out (to California) and he ran the race and we drove it back home. We went back the first time Riverside (Speedway) was running … I think in ’58 … my brother and Dale Inman drove a car out there. So we’ve been out to the West Coast, but they weren’t Cup races. They were West Coast races. I thought racing was big because we raced every weekend … two or three times a week … and never thought about going all over the country. Then in ’71 when RJR (R.J. Reynolds and the Winston brand) got involved, they cut a lot of the 100 mile races out. They wanted to run 250 mile races and above. So when they did that, we had to find places that we could run 250 miles at a time. Everything kind of jelled and then the last 8 or 10 years, it all just came together and became a national sport.