Penske, Ganassi Racing Pace Solid Dodge Effort At Talledega

By Raygan Swan, NASCAR.COM
October 8, 2007
11:55 AM EDT

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- They didn't get collected in the Big One nor did their engines blow. They weren't even taken out by the lone Canadian on the track as feared by nearly half of the Cup garage.

All in all, the Dodge drivers had a good showing in Sunday's UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Reed Sorenson finished in the top 10, while thee other drivers -- Juan Montoya, Kasey Kahne and David Stremme -- came home with top-20s.

"It was a good run for us," said Sorenson, who finished 10th in Chip Ganassi's No. 41. "We ran in the top 10 for most of the race and we managed to finish there, which is a good thing in a race like this. I think we were a little better than where we finished, but we got shuffled out and had to work our way back up there."

Kahne, who after a mostly season-long malfunction is showing incremental progress in GEM's No. 9, said after finishing 16th: "We had a real good day. At the end nobody would follow me. Cars would come and go all different directions. I couldn't get a car behind [me] the last 18 laps. That was the whole problem. Other than that we had one of the better cars out there."

And while Ryan Newman's No. 12 was the highest finisher in fifth, he wasn't happy with the racing. The single-file racing was a disappointment, he said.

"It was crazy," he said. "To see single-file racing and the guy that wins the race is sitting in the back all day just lounging around ... that's not racing to me. I hope it wasn't what NASCAR intended with this car. I'm not complaining about the car because the old car did relatively the same thing."

Newman said he was riding around, on and off the gas, with one hand running 15th.

"It's not racing. If we're going to do that why don't we just make it a 100-mile race and we'll tear them all up in the first 50," he added.

Kurt Busch, who finished seventh in the No. 2, said he did his best to try and push his Penske Racing teammate Newman to the win.

"The cars like to be nose-to-tail as far as drafting," he said. "It seems like the side draft was not as effective so the rear wing allowed the air to escape off the deck lid. That is why I saw more nose-to-tail racing."

A Chase contender sitting seventh in the standings, Busch said Sunday was a success.

"You want to win every race you can but if you can't you need a top-10 finish," he said.