Friday, Sept. 9, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR
Richmond Int’l Raceway
Wonderful Pistachios 400
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Final NSCS Qualifying Quotes
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 11th “We had to get through tech and we had to rush that thing through and then strap my belts on and get out there and just try to do the best we could. The car has been real tight in qualifying trim and it stayed that way. Might have left a little out there being on the tight side of things but all in all a good run with our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge.”
WAS IT NERVE RACKING WAITING ON YOUR CAR AND THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU HAVE TO HOP IN IT AND GO? “The way the tech area is setup with this tent and that tent, with wheelbase gauges and weight gauges and there’s about 6,000 people in the infield with all these pit passes and the crew guys have to dodge everybody trying to get the car through tech.”
WHEN YOU CAME OUT HERE YOU DIDN’T HAVE A CAR. “We were just late getting through tech, whether it was wheelbase or a weight distribution problem. Had to go back and forth with the different measurements and so we got it through. It was last minute. Jumped out there and went for it. It was a good run with our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. The pole right now is a 1.29 and we ran a .31 so you always wish you could get those hundredths [of a second] back but that’s why Sprint Cup racing is so competitive.
YOU PICKED UP A BUNCH FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING. WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR YOUR CONFIDENCE AND THE TEAM’S CONFIDENCE ENTERING THE RACE TOMORROW? “We’ve been on the tight side for qualifying practice and we still stayed there and then in race trim our car starts out tight and then heads way to the loose side so we still have our work cut out for us.”
ARE YOU A LITTLE ENCOURAGED BY THE GAIN? “It’s good to pick up but where you win this race if your car is good from lap 20 to 60 of a fuel run.”
IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE TROUBLE GOING THROUGH INSPECTION, WOULD IT HAVE BEEN EASIER OR BETTER ON YOU? “Sometimes you’ve just got to jump in there and let ‘er rip. It may have helped us.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 19th “It was just a little off, not sure where. Need to be a little better than that. We’ve been a little off this whole weekend here just getting our cars where they need to be so we’ll just have to keep working on it.”
HAS THE CAR BEEN TIGHT OR LOOSE? “No, we just can’t get our cars to turn. We’ll just have to go back to the drawing board.”
ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 37th “We’re in so that was good. We saw some improvement with the car in practice today, tried a bunch of stuff and got pointed in the right direction on tire pressures. At the end of the day, the car drove the best it’s been so far.”
