Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes NSCS Race Advance LENOX Industrial Tools 301 New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sunday, July 17, 2011
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 leads all current Dodge drivers with three Sprint Cup victories at NHMS. Busch won the rain-shortened spring event in 2008. Busch swept both events in 2004 prior to joining the Dodge family.
. Dodge’s Brad Keselowski earned his first career pole at last year’s fall event at New Hampshire.
. Dodge has earned the pole in five of the last 13 races at NHMS when qualifying was not postponed.
. First Dodge Sprint Cup Series Win at Loudon: Ward Burton, 07/21/2002, New England 300, 92.342 mph avg. speed.
. Last Dodge Sprint Cup Series Win at Loudon: Kurt Busch, 06/29/2008, Lenox Tools 301, 106.719 avg. speed.
DODGE NEWS AND NOTES
. Dodge’s Kurt Busch has finished 15th or better in eight consecutive races and was outside the top 10 in only three (Michigan – 11th, Dover – 14th, Daytona – 14th). His average starting position the last six races is 7.0; his average finish is 7.6.
. After 18 races in the 2011 NSCS season, Dodges from Penske Racing have collected four poles, two wins along with six top-five and 14 top-10 finishes.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
. Dodge’s Kurt Busch has scored top 10 finishes in five of the last six races at New Hampshire.
. Dodge’s Brad Keselowski has three consecutive top 15 finishes.
. Penske Racing has four Sprint Cup wins at NHMS.
DID YOU KNOW
. Dodge’s Kurt Busch has 15 combined wins at the seven race tracks leading up to the Chase – (New Hampshire – 3, Pocono – 2, Michigan – 2, Bristol – 5, Atlanta – 3).
. Dodge’s Brad Keselowski is only three points out of the top 20 in the driver point standings.
. Only four of the 32 NSCS races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway have been won from the pole.
. Dodge’s Robby Gordon earned his first career Sprint Cup victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2001.
THE DODGE BOYS
. Dodge has 209 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
. Dodge’s most recent win came at Infineon Raceway. Kurt Busch led 76 of the 110 laps en route to victory in the Save Mart 350. The victory was the second for Dodge in 2011.
. Dodge teams have posted 49 victories 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 its return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).
. Dodge claimed two Sprint Cup victories in 2010.
. A Dodge has started from the pole in four of the last seven Sprint Cup races – Brad Keselowski (Charlotte) and Kurt Busch (Kansas, Pocono and Michigan).
2011 DODGE SPRINT CUP REWIND
. Race 1: Kurt Busch won the season-opening Bud Shootout and a Gatorade Duel at Daytona International Speedway.
. Races 12-15: Dodge earned four-consecutive poles.
. Race 13: Keselowski won Kansas. First Dodge win of the season
. Race 16: Busch dominated at Infineon. Earned first road course win of his career; his first win of the season.
2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST
. Kurt Busch Start: 1st (Kansas, Pocono & Michigan) Finish: 1st (Infineon)
. Brad Keselowski Start: 1st (Charlotte) Finish: 1st (Kansas)
. Robby Gordon Start: 30th (Daytona) Finish: 16th (Daytona)
ODDS AND ENDS
. Kurt Busch is the only driver in the Sprint Cup Series who has been in the top 10 in the season point standings every race. Two other drivers – Carl and Tony Stewart – have been in the top 12 all season.
. Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch combined to lead led 120 of the 267 laps in last weekend’s race at Kentucky – Keselowski led three times for 79 laps and Busch led twice for 41 laps. Keselowski finished seventh and Busch finished ninth.
FROM THE ENGINEER “As we go to Loudon this week, teams are faced with a unique engineering problem. No other track on the Sprint Cup schedule comes close to the configuration of this flat one-mile circuit. That means there are no current notes for a one-mile track to draw from. Phoenix and Dover are both on the schedule and both are one-mile tracks, but they’re completely different configurations. So what does a top-line Sprint Cup team do to prepare for a race on a configuration we haven’t seen since last September? Every competitive team in the garage has probably been to The Milwaukee Mile this spring as a testing venue for Loudon. Much like Loudon, Milwaukee is a mile, it’s flat, both straightaways are actually straight, and even though the radius of the corners are slightly different than Loudon, they’re close enough that teams find plenty of value in a Milwaukee test. Milwaukee is not on the Sprint Cup schedule, but it surely is on every team’s radar.” Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering
DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTES OF THE WEEK “The summer stretch is here and we run all these tracks and none of them are in the Chase with the exception of New Hampshire. So yes, New Hampshire is really important in that respect in that we’ll be coming back there during the Chase. I don’t think that you really pinpoint any of the upcoming races as a time when you just completely start focusing in on the points. It just sort of all blends in to where you hope that you’ve built up a cushion when it comes down to two or three (races) to go where you’re comfortable heading into the Chase.” Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T
“We don’t need to change anything concerning how we approach the last few races before the Chase. We’re in a good spot to be one of the wild cards, but we obviously aren’t quite there yet. (Crew chief) Paul(Wolfe) and I have always taken things race by race. With the way we have been running over the last couple of months, we should be able to make our way inside the top 20, and contend for more wins which should guarantee a spot in the Chase.” Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T
Crew chief Paul Wolfe on this weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway “Loudon is a unique racetrack. It has aspects of both Richmond and Phoenix all rolled into one. We work really hard to get the car to turn the center (of the corners) and maintain forward drive for late into a run. It’s a very flat layout, which presents a lot of different challenges. With no banking to catch the car, it can be very hard on brakes because the straightaways are long and you can build up a lot of speed before you get to the corner. It is so hard to pass, you really need the complete package to win there – good brakes, handling and pit stops.”
