Saturday, July 9, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR
Kentucky Speedway
Quaker State 400
Race Final Quotes
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 9th “We ran up front all night. Our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge was tight into Turn 1 and loose into (Turn) 2 and we had to keep adjusting for that. We were sixth, two guys stayed out in front of us, came in under caution and put four Goodyear’s on the car and the car just wouldn’t turn. Our car was really fast early in the race, but it wasn’t as fast as we wanted it once the sun went down and we went racing in the night. We grabbed another top-10 finish, but I think we’ll look back at this one and think we maybe let one slip away late. We were in the catbird seat on the last restart, but we just couldn’t execute. I’m proud of my guys. It’s hot. They worked hard all night. We’ll take the ninth-place and head to Loudon.”
STEVE ADDINGTON (crew chief, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) “When we stopped for fuel only and stayed out on the lead lap and caught the caution, we were able to come in and bolt four tires on the car. We tried to be aggressive and the car tightened up a bit; we probably should have just left it alone. The 00 came down on us a bit and jumped sideways off of Turn 2 and that was it on that last restart. The guys fought hard. The Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger was fast. We just didn’t have enough at the end to go get us a win.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 7th “It was an incredible Miller Lite Dodge tonight. I led a bunch of laps and I have to thank my team for that. Everyone at Penske Racing has a lot to be proud of. I would have liked to have gotten a better finish from where we ended up. I really want to thank my teammate Kurt Busch. He’s helped me out a lot over the last few weeks and made me a better racer and has allowed me to go out and race hard. I want to thank him for that.
“At the end, the restarts are just a crapshoot. If you get the bottom lane, you’re going backwards. I kept getting in an odd position and just kept getting on the bottom lane. Every restart just kept playing against us. A great effort by this race team and that makes me proud. We led laps and were competitive all night. I’m proud of the effort of this race team, but disappointed in the results. It’s just a product of double-file restarts. That’s why drivers hate them because some tracks are great and they put on a good show, and then there are tracks like this where it just completely screws your day.”
WERE THE RESTARTS TOUGH BECAUSE OF THE BUMPS ON THE TRACK? “It was a combination of the bumps on the race track and being on the bottom. When you restart on the bottom lane, not only don’t you have air on the nose, you don’t have air on the right side of the car. The right side is what keeps these cars from spinning out. When you don’t have that air, you’re awful.”
IF YOU WERE ON THE OUTSIDE FOR THOSE RESTARTS, WOULD THAT HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE? “Absolutely. There’s a reason why the leader takes the high lane on the restart.”
WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF THIS TRACK? “I like the track. You can run multiple grooves. You just can’t run multiple grooves side-by-side. I think the track is more of a driver’s track than I thought it would be coming in here. That’s good. We’re just fighting the same things every week as a group.”
HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO BE OUT FRONT TONIGHT? “Excruciating. When we took the lead, we picked up about a half-a-second. I hear all the time that people say these cars are all equal, that’s BS to that.”
PAUL WOLFE (crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) “It was a strong run for this Miller Lite Dodge team. It wasn’t the finish we wanted, but we were in contention all night and there’s nothing more that I could ask for. This was a nice step for our program. All the hard work that we’ve been putting into this car is finally starting to show. We didn’t get the win, but we got some good points and that puts us closer to the top 20. I’m proud of my guys.”
