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

WHICH DODGE WILL YOU PICK AFTER WINNING THE DAYTONA 500? “I would take the SRT-8 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I’ve already got the Viper. They gave me one for winning the most races last year.”

WITH 12 TEAMS IN THE CHASE HOW MANY TEAMS WILL REALISTICALLY BE GOING FOR THOSE 12 SPOTS? “I’d say right around 12. I would say going into Richmond you’re not going to have the closeness we had last year. That’s my personal opinion. The last few years I don’t remember more than 12, maybe 13. Last year it was more like 11. The drama is going to be in The Chase this year, not getting to The Chase.”

COMMENT ON ROAD COURSES “The road courses are definitely my weakest link. Last year we qualified fifth and second at the road courses. It’s not about making a lap. It’s not about making a lap. I can make a lap around them. It’s just about putting the full race together and just being able to go fast the entire race. It’s something we need to figure out as a team. We’re going to test more on road courses this year. We’re going to try to be more prepared when we go to Sears Point and Watkins Glen.”

COMMENT ON SHORT TRACKS “I think (short tracks) were a struggle at the start because the cars were so heavy and so much different from anything I’ve ever driven. We haven’t won at any short tracks, but the last two year we’ve run up front at a lot of them. I’m getting better setups now for the short tracks. I don’t think the car of tomorrow will be a huge deal at Martinsville. It’s a pretty short track. “

COMMENT ON POINTS SYSTEM “It would have been a big benefit for us last year. I think it’s a neat rule. It’s fine. It’s something different. It puts a little more on winning and the consistency isn’t quite as big a deal, but it’s still going to be huge. Consistency is going to be a big part of winning the championship, but also winning races is going to be a little bit bigger, too.”

HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE YOU DON’T LOSE YOUR EDGE ON THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS? “We definitely don’t want to lose anything on my best tracks. I’ve always been better on those types of race tracks. It’s a momentum type track. The goal would be to do the same amount of testing on the mile and a half tracks and do more testing on the road courses and short tracks. We’ve already started that, so hopefully that’s the key to having a better season and finishing better in the points.”

COMMENT ON COT “Personally I like the car we drive now, but we have a new car and that’s the way it is. We’ve done some short track testing with it. I haven’t done anything over a mile yet. On the short tracks it was fine. I think it’s going to be just fine at Martinsville and Bristol. We’ll figure out the rest as we go. I think it’s a safer car and it’s the car of the future. We’ll just have to like it and get used to it if we want to run well in Nextel Cup.”

WILL YOU HAVE TO BE REALLY CAREFUL NOT TO WRECK THE COT IN THE FIRST FEW RACES? “You could really get behind in a hurry, and the thing of it is the car of tomorrow isn’t even done yet. We don’t even have templates to know what we’re supposed to run. Teams are limited for sure. You crash one at Bristol, you’ll have another one so you’ll run that at Martinsville and hope you don’t crash one there in practice because you’d probably be out. The teams have to build them under a lot of rules and not know all the rules. It’s a tough spot. Hopefully they’ll figure out exactly what they want and what they want the car to look like soon so the teams can finish these things up and be prepared. We’ve got a really big test coming up and we don’t have the car ready yet.”

:o he has a viper??? I'm so jealous, that's my all-time favourite car!! Awesome quotes. Thanks for posting.

Is it February yet?! :bitter I'm ready to go racin!!

dude has a viper :na even though i'm a chevy girl, that is one hot car!

I'm stealing his car. LOL. B)

Very cool =o)

He got the Viper last year for winning so many races with Dodge.. I do believe. I think they gave it to him in Phoenix...

I am so ready for it to be Feb!!!

I have the same worries about the COT as Kasey, those first few COT races scare me to see how its going to go and how many COT cars the teams will have ready.

But wooohooo its almost racing time!

Sounds like he's not that worried about much of anything so far. That's good. Relaxed Kasey = Competitive Kasey.

Thanks for posting!