Monday, August 15, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR Watkins Glen International
HELUVA GOOD! SOUR CREAM DIPS AT THE GLEN
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sprint Cup
Post-Qualifying Quotes
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 2nd “It was just a really good Dodge Charger today. I’m really proud of my guys for giving me a fast Miller Lite Dodge Charger. I wanted to win, but if I’m going to lose on a road course to someone, Marcos Ambrose is the man. He’s so good on restarts and I thought we had a shot at it and that’s all you can ask for as a driver. We were really good on long runs today. I’m proud of the day. I’m proud of the finish. It was a good points day for us.”
HOW IS YOUR ANKLE? “It’s sore. But when you have fast race cars like we do with our Dodge Chargers, you don’t even think about the pain. We made it work throughout the race.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RACING AGAINST MARCOS AMBROSE? “He’s so fast on road courses. It was awesome to watch and even better to race him to the finish. It was a hell of a race. Turn 1 on the restart was just awesome. If you’re going to win a road course race, you have to go and beat Marcos. I’m really happy for him.”
TAKE US THROUGH THE FINAL RESTART? “It was a heck of a restart into Turn 1. Kyle (Busch) got into Turn 1 pretty good. It looked like he might have locked his brakes up a little bit. He shoved up the hill and I was able to get up underneath him. I guess Marcos was in-between both of us and I didn’t really know that. I had to make some room, otherwise I think we would have wrecked. We made it all fit. I had a good run coming into the inner loop, but just didn’t quite execute the move. I was in position to win the race, but I just wasn’t quite good enough to beat Marcos. He’s so good here. He deserves the win for sure. If there’s a guy you should lose to on a road course, it’s Ambrose. There’s no shame in finishing second to that guy. I’m proud of the effort and proud of the weekend. The last two weeks have been amazing.
HOW DID THE BACK HOLD UP? “It doesn’t feel good. You can get through a lot when you’re running well and these Miller Lite Dodge Chargers are really fast.”
PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) “It was an awesome run. I’m really proud of the effort. These guys continue to build fast Dodge Chargers and we’re having shots at winning races. Brad did an amazing job today despite playing hurt. He dug in and gave us a great race. He’s come a long way the last few months and it’s great to see his hard work pay off. To be a championship team, you have to be good on every type of track we race at and we’re proving that we can run anywhere right now.”
HOW CLOSE WERE YOU GUYS ON FUEL AT THE END OF THE RACE? “We were close. We knew that we had enough to make one green-white-checkered run. After that, I think that we would have had to come in and pit. It was really close. Brad did and awesome job saving us fuel and that was the difference.”
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 38th “I had a big problem getting into the braking zones today, the rear brakes locking up. I had to crank eight rounds of front brake in our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge just to survive. All that does is generate brake heat and I blew out the left-front tire. It was just a bummer of a day and not anything that we expected. It must have been something with the brake package. Whatever (Brad) Keselowski found at Road Atlanta, I had a problem with today.”
YOU HAD CONTACT WITH 43. WHAT HAPPENED? “My brakes just locked up. We put new master cylinders on the car and I was locking up the rear brakes. I’m sorry I ruined his day and his chances today.”
HOW WAS THE FOG? WAS IT TOUGH TO DRIVE THROUGH? “It’s fine now. You know that you can race if NASCAR says that it’s good to go.”
