Friday, Sept. 2, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
AdvoCare 500
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Brad Keselowski Open Interview
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CHANCE TO WIN THE $3 MILLION WITH THE SPRINT SUMMER SHOWDOWN? “It’s an awesome promotion and ‘m proud of Sprint to put this on to give everyone an opportunity for great things, especially the fans. Obviously, there is an element for teams, which has my guys excited. Another element is for the foundations and charities that all of us drivers represent. It’s all for a great cause and I’m proud to be a part of it. I’m just excited to see which one of us can win it, if we can get it done.”
WITH A $3 MILLION BONUS ON THE LINE, DOES IT TURN THE RACE INTO AN “ALL-STAR” TYPE RACE FOR YOU? “I think the timing is rather perfect because all of the drivers, for the most part, have figured out who’s going to be in and who’s not. I applaud the timing to run for this. It really doesn’t make a difference for Kyle (Busch) or myself who are locked into the Chase. It should be interesting on how that plays out.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RECENT RUN THAT YOU’RE TEAM HAS BEEN ON? “It’s been an amazing run and I feel awful privileged to have as fast of race cars that I’ve had over the last few weeks. When you run through a point in time that you don’t have fast race cars, it certainly feels good to get into some good equipment and get going. It’s certainly an honor. I wish I could pinpoint what it is. I have a hard time believing that having a broken foot makes you a better race car driver. I think that it’s the team coming together and clicking as one and I’m proud to be a part of that.”
DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE THEORY THAT THINGS RUN IN CYCLES? “I think that it’s more than just in NASCAR. It always does work in cycles. You try your best to capitalize when you’re on top of the cycle. You try your best to try and minimize the amount of time when you’re on the bottom of the cycle. When you have success, you can try and learn and try and repeat it and try to minimize the bad part of it. We’re on the top of the cycle right now and can very easily turn around put us at the bottom of the cycle when it counts in the Chase. We’ll just ride the wave and hopefully it works out for us.”
THERE IS PLENTY OF TALK ABOUT GUYS LIKE STEWART, KAHNE, ETC, WHO HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL AT ATLANTA. ARE YOU (KESELOWSKI AND KYLE BUSCH) LIKELY TO BE UP FRONT AT THE FINISH AS THE TWO WHO HAVE WON HERE LAST YEAR AND YEARS PAST? “I don’t think that you can look at previous stats and draw conclusions from them. If that’s the case, you’d look at Terry Labonte, Bill Elliott, etc.. and they’d still win. They were the guys to beat 10, 15 years ago. Things change in this sport. The cars change. What it takes to be successful changes, all those things. I’d like to think that my past stats here and other places are just that, stats. We’re going out to try and break them. I don’t think that it’s always fair to look at stats and draw conclusions. It’s good that we run the races.”