four77fan
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(6/19/04 9:44 pm)
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From Penske
BOOKLYN, Mich. (June 18, 2004) – Penske Racing’s NASCAR trio returned to its true qualifying form Friday as all three drivers earned top-10 starting positions for Sunday’s DHL 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Ryan Newman led the contingent in his ALLTEL Dodge, nailing down the fourth starting spot with a 190.064-mph lap that consumed 37.882 seconds on the 2-mile track.
Next came rookie Brendan Gaughan in his Jasper Engines and Transmissions/Kodak Dodge with a lap of 189.868 mph, or 37.921 seconds, for the sixth starting spot.
Veteran Rusty Wallace rounded out the top 10 in his Miller Lite Dodge, posting a 189.788-mph lap that consumed 37.937 seconds.
“We got in a good lap, but it wasn’t great. It could have been better,” Newman said after recording his ninth top-five and 11th top-10 starting position this season. “I messed up in [turns] three and four a little bit. The track slowed down for sure.”
Newman has a new car for the Father’s Day race that has never undergone an on-track test, but it has been in the wind tunnel.
“You’ve got to have a little bit of everything here. Horsepower is important and downforce is important. Drag is important,” Newman said. “You’ve got to have the balance like always. Coming in, knowing we’re capable of getting to victory lane is always a good feeling. To be able to duplicate that is sometimes tough. We’ve done it before. We’ll just do our best and see how it works out.”
Gaughan missed top rookie qualifying honors by a mere six-hundredths of a second.
“We’re starting off good, so we’ll see if we can finish it off,” Gaughan said.
“Michigan was good to us last year in the trucks. Our truck was dominant here last year. Right now, I’d just like to have the car just as balanced. When cars are good, balance comes easy. This one feels pretty balanced.”
Wallace also was happy with his qualifying lap.
“I got a little too high down in [turns] one and two, but I really liked the way we got through [turns] three and four,” said Wallace, who has won five races at Michigan.
“We didn’t work on race setup at all today, but the weather will be good tomorrow, and I think we’ll be ready for Sunday.”
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