Dodge Motorsports NSCS Race Advance Samsung 500 Texas Motor Speedway Saturday, April 9, 2011 www.media.chrysler.com www.twitter.com/teamdodge
DODGE AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
• Dodge has three wins at TMS (Kurt Busch – 2009, Kasey Kahne – 2006 and Ryan Newman – 2003).
• Dodge earned three consecutive poles at TMS (Newman made it a sweep in 2005 and Kahne started from the pole in the spring race in 2006).
• Dodge’s Kurt Bush has one win, three top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 16 career starts at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Dodge has the only Sprint Cup win from the pole at TMS (Kahne – 2006).
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 2010 Coca-Cola 600.
• Dodge 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.
• Dodge has posted wins each season since it’s return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).
FAST FIVE!
• The Dodge brand has teamed up with Universal Pictures for a multi-tiered partnership to support the upcoming action-thriller “Fast Five” that will be released in theaters April 29. Promotion elements include a month-long paint scheme on Robby Gordon’s No. 7 Dodge Charger and a Fast Five Sweepstakes where fans have an opportunity to win one of five custom “Fast Five” 2011 Dodge Charger R/T models. As part of the partnership with Robby Gordon Motorsports, the first 200 fans to register at www.dodgemotorsports.com or www.speedenergy.com will receive a special “Fast Five” movie viewing with Robby Gordon on Saturday, April 30, in Richmond, Va. The No. 7 Fast Five/SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T will be on the track during the month of April at Texas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Richmond International Raceway.
DODGE NEWS AND NOTES
• Dodge’s Kurt Busch is currently fourth in the Cup Series driver standings, 14 points behind the series leader.
DID YOU KNOW
• Dodge has recorded seven Sprint Cup wins in the state of Texas. In addition to three wins at TMS, Bobby Allison took Dodge to victory lane in the only Cup race at Houston’s Meyer Speedway (1971). Dodge had three wins in the eight Cup races at Texas World Speedway in College Station (Bobby Isaac, Buddy Baker and Richard Petty). • Kurt Busch won the 2009 Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the largest margin of victory (25.686 seconds) since the inception of timing and scoring in 1993.
• Penske Racing’s Brad Keselowski made his Dodge Sprint Cup debut at the Texas Motor Speedway during the 2009 fall event driving the No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger.
2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST • Kurt Busch Start: 2nd – Phoenix Finish: 5th – Daytona • Brad Keselowski Start: 9th – Phoenix Finish: 15th – Phoenix • Robby Gordon Start: 30th – Daytona Finish: 16th – Daytona
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY BEST • Kurt Busch Start – 3rd – 2006, ‘09 (fall) Finish – Win – 2009 (fall) • Brad Keselowski Start – 35th – 2009 (fall) Finish – 14TH – 2010 (spring) • Robby Gordon Start – 9th – 2006 (fall) Finish – 18th – 2003 (spring)
FROM THE ENGINEER “The Sprint Cup pole speed at Martinsville last weekend was 96.509 mph. The Sprint Cup pole speed at Texas last November was 195.397 mph. One of the great features of the Sprint Cup Series, and one of the toughest on engineers, is the widely diverse venues teams deal with every week. This week, going from the slowest track in the series to the reigning fastest track really helps to accentuate that point. Aerodynamics and flat-out horsepower took a back seat last week in Martinsville, but they’re certainly at the forefront this week in Texas.” Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering
INSIDE THE NUMBERS • Dodge’s Kurt Busch’s driver rating of 14.2 is 12th amongst current Sprint Cup drivers competing in the last six races at Texas Motor Speedway.
DODGE QUOTES “Each place may look the same, but each driver and crew chief will tell you that it drives very different and requires you to work hard on your race setups. It’s a tough track, that’s for sure and it’s so fast. With this race being at night under the lights, I guarantee you that Texas will feel like it’s the fastest one of them all. There’s just a lot of high speed action at Texas. You really have to get up on the wheel and grit your teeth. You have to push your car extra if you’re going to make it stick and get that extra speed out of it.” Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T
“Texas really is a unique racetrack and a unique layout. From above it looks like any normal 1.5-mile track, but the transitions into and off of the corners are quite a bit different than Charlotte, Las Vegas or any of the other mile-and-a-halfs. There is a lot of banking into the corners, which means you can carry a lot of speed in and to the center, but you lose that speed on exit as the track flattens out. It’s difficult because normally you can carry the same amount of grip and speed on both corner entry and corner exit. You have to adjust accordingly and sometimes that’s hard to do at 180 miles per hour. It’s easy to find yourself in trouble, especially off of Turn 2.” Brad Keselowski, No 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T
DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK “The cowboy hats, getting to fire the six-shooters, the whole big western theme; that’s a great trademark that Eddie (track president Eddie Gossage) and the Texas track have going for them. The celebration doesn’t end in Victory Lane as Eddie has always carried the winners around to the Speedway Club to raise a special toast to the massive crowd gathered there. It’s all just so cool and that’s about the best way that I know how to describe it.” Kurt Busch, No 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger
