Dodge Motorsports NSCS Race Advance
Sylvania 300
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
NASCAR Sprint to the Championship – Race 1 of 10
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DODGE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
• Dodge has three wins at New Hampshire (Ward Burton, Ryan Newman and Kurt
Busch).
• Penske Racing’s Kurt Bush (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) leads all current Dodge
drivers with three Sprint Cup victories at NHMS.
• Busch won the rain-shortened spring event in 2008. He swept both events in
2004 prior to joining the Dodge family.
• Dodge holds the track qualifying record of 133.357 mph (28.561 sec.) set in
September 2003 (Newman).
• A Dodge has started from the pole in six of the last 12 races at NHMS when
qualifying was not postponed.
THE DODGE BOYS
• Dodge has 207 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
• Dodge’s most recent win came at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch led
252 of 400 laps en route to victory in the Coca-Cola 600.
• Dodge has claimed two Sprint Cup victories in 2010.
• Dodge teams have posted 47 wins since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s
premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Lee Petty, 2/1/53, West Palm,
Fla., 100 miles, .5-mile track.
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway:
David Pearson, 3/19/67, 75.937 mph avg. speed.
DODGE IN THE CHASE: NEW HAMPSHIRE
• 2004: Former Dodge drivers Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman were in the
inaugural Chase. Both had problems in the first event at NHMS with Newman
finishing 33rd and Mayfield 35th.
• 2005: Three Dodge drivers (Mayfield, Newman and Rusty Wallace) made the
Chase field with Newman winning the opener at NHMS. Newman ended up sixth,
Wallace eighth and Mayfield ninth in the final standings.
• 2006: Kasey Kahne was the lone Dodge driver in the Chase field. Kahne
started 33rd and finished 16th at Loudon.
• 2007: Kurt Busch was the lone Dodge representative; Busch started third and
finished 25th in the Chase opener at Loudon. He finished seventh in the final
Chase standings.
• 2008: There were no Dodges in the 2008 Chase field.
• 2009: Kurt Busch was the lone Dodge representative among the elite 12.
Busch started third and finished seventh at NHMS.
KURT BUSCH – INSIDE THE CHASE NUMBERS
• Competing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the fifth time: 2004 –
Champion, 2005 – 10th, 2007 – Seventh and 2009 – fourth.
• Enters the 2010 Chase fifth in the standings. He earned 20 bonus points for
wins at Texas and Charlotte
• Through 26 races this season, Busch has eight top-five and 15 top-10
finishes.
• Has competed in 58 Chase races since 2004, 40 of those have been in a Dodge
Charger, with 15 top-five and 32 top-10 finishes.
• Has three wins at The Magic Mile (2004 – 2, 2008). Best start at the
1.058-mile track was second in July 2007.
• Has finished sixth or better in last five races at New Hampshire. Started
third and finished third in spring race this year.
• In 19 races at NHMS, Busch has led 366 laps, sixth best all-time, with seven
top-five and 10 top-10 finishes and an average start of 13.4 and average
finish of 13.7.
• Kurt Busch has led 1,237 laps in the final 10 races.
• At the 10 tracks hosting a Chase event, Busch has 157 starts with nine wins
along with 38 top-five and 70 top-10 finishes.
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY FAST FACTS
• New Hampshire’s 1.058 mile speedway has identical front and backstretches
that measure 1,500 feet.
DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The one change that I’d like to see is a separate point system for the 12
Chase drivers. They should be running against each other and not the entire
starting field. That way, if you run into problems during a race and finish
30th, it doesn’t completely eliminate your chances. If it’s structured like
that, it will definitely add to the excitement by keeping it close all the way
down to the final race. You could still have eight or more drivers with a
shot at winning the title going into the final race weekend. Can you imagine
the publicity value of that scenario going down to the wire?”
Kurt Busch – No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
ENGINEERING TALK
“So, the Chase begins this week at Loudon. The teams are no doubt ready with
their best chassis for this very-flat, 1.058-mile oval. They’ve had weeks to
prepare for it. But it’s not that easy. The very-flat Loudon is followed by
Dover, a one-mile track, but high banked. The next stop is the high-banked,
1.5-mile track at Kansas followed by Fontana, a test on a two-mile track. And
that’s just the first four races of the 10-race Chase. Teams are now
definitely in the crunch part of the season, a new engineering challenge and a
new chassis every week.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering
DODGE DRIVER QUOTES
“I know from experience that if you can get it going in the right direction at
Loudon, you can keep the momentum growing and sort of build some insurance for
something bad happening later on during the 10-race stretch. But, on the
other end of the equation, with so much hype and such great expectations you
have going into the first race of the Chase, I’ve definitely seen just how
much of a blow it can be to get started on a bad note. When you look at my
career, winning the first Chase in 2004 – and especially what happened in the
years since then – mine is probably as good of example as any when it comes to
considering the importance of getting a good finish in that first race. I
guess it’d be really accurate to say that I’ve definitely seen the good and
the bad.”
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
“New Hampshire is one of the most challenging tracks that we run at because
the cars generally want to get loose entering the corners and there is no
banking to hold you. There are not a lot of places to run and be fast. You
want to be right down at the bottom (of the track) so your car has to be set
up for one particular area, but you still have to be able to move around a
little bit to get around people or take their
line away from them.
“We’re out there trying to help the No. 2 team get through some more things on
race weekend as far as trying to check some more stuff off the list. I think
that’s how we’re best served in trying to help them during the Chase.”
Sam Hornish Jr. No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
“I don’t have any specific goals for the Chase races that we don’t have any
other week. We want to go out and do the best we can and challenge for wins.
That doesn’t change because we can’t win the championship. It probably gives
us some added incentive to go for wins because we don’t have to worry about
points. You do have to be mindful of who you are racing because you don’t
want to put yourself in bad spots with a guy in the Chase, but if I have a
fast car I’m going to get all the positions I can.”
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Penske Dodge Charger
