Sunday, July 17, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
LENOX Industrial Tools 301
Post-Race Quotes
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil/AAA Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 10th
“It was a good hard-fought battle for our team. We led laps early on and then had a little bit of a fade. It was a battle at the end trying to decide if we needed to come in and top off (fuel), put fresh tires on it or defend our track position. All in all, it was a good day. We’ll take that 10th-place finish. We just need to polish up and be better when we come back here in the Chase. That’s what it’s all about, being strong at the end. My guys with the Shell-Pennzoil/AAA Dodge did a good job today.
“We were on the defensive side hanging on to our track position today, we weren’t on the offense. We ended up running out of gas on the last lap, but we put ourselves in position to try and get the best finish we could and 10th was that today. It was warm, but you always have to battle it (heat). I love July and August, it’s nice and hot out.”
STEVE ADDIINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil/AAA Dodge Charger R/T)
“I’m proud of this team; we had a fast Shell-Pennzoil/AAA Dodge. We couldn’t get off the corner the way we needed. We fought that. That forced us into a strategy of playing the track-position game instead of coming in and topping off (fuel). We went from fourth to 10th on the last lap when we ran out of fuel.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 35th
“The car was really, really tight and we didn’t have a lot of speed today. I was running as hard as I could to keep from going a lap down, the 24 was coming so fast. I didn’t want to go a lap down, was doing all I could and blew a right front tire. I was pushing a little too hard, but that’s what you’ve got to do. You have to stay in front and try to save our day. It wasn’t meant to be and ended up blowing a tire, probably from brake heat. That’s the way it goes. You have to be fast or you get desperate and do things you shouldn’t do. I was probably driving a little too hard.
“We didn’t have very good long-run speed and the car started to push really bad. When you push really bad, it puts a lot of heat in the right front tire and that’s probably what caused the blowout. It’s disappointing. We had pretty good short-run speed, but wasn’t able to make the most of my car today. We’ll go back and work on it some more. We’ve been running pretty good as of late. We can’t let this stop our momentum. We’ve got to keep plugging away and not let this hold us back.”
