Ryan Newman Wins Third Straight Pole; Dodge Qualifying Quotes from Pocono

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 alltel Dodge Charger)
NOTE: Newman captured his third straight pole, fourth of the season and the 41st of his career in career start No. 202.

“It felt really good. Obviously the conditions got pretty good just like right now with the cloud cover around the track. It was a good run for the alltel Dodge. I thought I could have pushed it a little harder because it stuck so good. I just hope Mother Nature cooperates with us. These guys are doing a great job. We did six laps today in practice, three in race trim and two in qualifying trim and an idle lap besides that. It was an abbreviated practice for us, but they did a good job unloading a fast racecar right off the truck. That makes a big difference. We had a measurement issue (before qualifying). It was two tenths off. It was good before. That was a good lap. I can’t complain about it at all. The guys are doing a great job. I don’t know what else to say. They’re making them comfortable for me to drive and I’m just pushing the pedals. We had a good car at Dover, just not quite good enough. I think this car has potential to be a dominant racecar.”

“I really didn’t know what was going to be a good draw first of all. We were right in the middle of the pack. We just happened to be a little late getting through the house and caught a good cloud. That was nice, but the guys have done an awesome job with the alltel Dodge to be fast off the truck. We did three laps in race trim and two more in qualifying trim and just really can’t complain. These guys are doing an awesome job for me. It makes my job a lot easier. It was a good lap. It was smooth. The track picked up so much grip after practice that we totally bypassed the 53-second bracket. We went from a 54.18 to a 52.90. Part of that’s the racetrack and part of that is the guys stepping it up so much.”

COMMENT ON WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE TO ALLOW YOU TO WIN THREE STRAIGHT POLES “Just that performance I talked about. The guys doing a good job, bringing a fast car to the racetrack with the right balance. The momentum we have going back winning the pit crew challenge has definitely helped the entire team, and that makes a big difference. Taking nothing away from Martin Truex that race win last week definitely helped him in qualifying today, I guarantee it. You can’t put a time on it, but success breeds performance.”

DID THE RUN YOU HAD LAST WEEK GET OVERSHADOWED? “I wouldn’t say I got overlooked. Obviously more things were important. Just from our team’s perspective. We had a really fast car at Dover. It just wasn’t quite as fast as Martin’s. I think both teams did an excellent job all day. Aside from his starting position, outside the top four or five, that’s not easy to do for 400 miles anywhere. It was a good momentum-building experience the entire last weekend was for us or four days ago or whenever it was.”

TALK ABOUT HOW TRUEX HAS EVOLVED “Back in 2005 I got a chance to race against Martin a lot in the Busch Series. He’s a great driver. We’ve always raced clean. I’ve never had an issue on the track or off. I have a lot of respect for him. We both have a lot in common with fishing and racing. My wife likes to shop and so does his girlfriend. Everything is good.”

WHY WERE YOU LATE GETTING TO THE LINE? “There was a measurement on the car that we had passed this morning. We didn’t change anything. The measurement wasn’t meeting it, so we had to go back to the stall and change one thing to get back through, which was just a time delay basically to get back out there. There was nothing intentional. That’s the way it works out when you’re trying to put the numbers right on the number.”

DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GETTING CLOSE TO GETTING BACK TO WINNING FORM? “I’d like to think so. I never thought it would have slipped away in the first place, but to answer your question I think as long as we keep putting ourselves in position and qualifying as well as having fast racecars in the race as well as getting those top five and top 10 finishes, we’ll be in position at some point. It’ll be nice to click off three wins in a row and not just three poles in a row.”

SINCE IT DID GET AWAY FROM YOU, DOES THAT MAKE YOU APPRECIATE SOME OTHER DRIVERS MORE? “I watched Gordon go through his so-called slump where he hadn’t won any poles or races in so long. When it’s not happening to you, you don’t think it’s gonna happen. I guess at some point whether it’s the team or driver of the combination, it may get away. It’s definitely difficult to go through that time and it makes you appreciate when you get back running better, those times even more.”