Newman defends switch to old Dodge

Newman's qualified 11th for the race, but teammate Kurt Busch qualified on pole position. The pair were the fastest two Dodges in the field, beating a raft of the latest specification Charger models.

The team, along with Petty Enterprises, brought the older machinery to the race track to attempt to solve the Charger's downforce imbalance, which is too biased towards the front.

The team, along with many Dodge runners, have struggled with the Charger on what NASCAR calls 'intermediate tracks' - the two mile and one and a half mile ovals - and the team hope that bringing back the 2004 car for some races will improve their overall pace.

"I think with the way Kurt qualified we're capable of doing a lot of things," Newman said. "When you beat the field by three-tenths in qualifying you've got a really fast car. I want to drive the best Dodge there is according to NASCAR rules.

"That's the bottom line. We take the fastest race car to the race track. That's our job as teammates, both Kurt and I, and people at Penske Racing. Dodge is what we're driving."

Busch, whose race ended after an accident with JJ Yeley, said: "I hope once we understand more about this '04 car it'll help us build a better overall car for what we need for Dodge.

"I won the championship in '04. That's an easy number to remember for me. We tested the '04 against the '05 at Vegas. The '04 ran with more adjustments that could be made to it. Both cars were the same speed for me, but the '04 has more room to play.

"We learned as a team what we need to do. We've definitely got cars that can go fast when the track is fresh and green just like Newman has shown before. We just need to build a little more downforce into it and keep the front valence on the car."

The car was previously known as the Intrepid, but is now simply known as the 2004 Dodge, because the Intrepid isn't manufactured anymore.