Friday, Oct. 7, 2011
Kansas Speedway
Dodge Motorsports PR
Brad Keselowski Open Interview
Hollywood Casino 400
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TRANSFORMATION THAT YOUR TEAM HAS GONE THROUGH SINCE YOU WON HERE IN JUNE? “After the struggle of last week, which really wasn’t a struggle, we ran great and had a fluke problem, but after that it’s easy to look back and be disappointed. It’s cool that we come back to Kansas and get a chance to really remember how far that we’ve come. I can still remember being in the garage in the spring and having that feeling of desperation and now we don’t feel that way. Now we feel that we’re where we belong with the direction of the program at Penske Racing. Our Dodges are fast. It’s just a completely different feel.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DETROIT TIGERS BEING IN THE ALCS AGAINST THE TEXAS RANGERS? “Detroit is a special town to me. It’s a fixture to what it means to be and American. It’s an immigrant city. You can tell by my last name that my family immigrated to Detroit to build cars. It’s an American dream city. It’s nice to see, despite some of the economic setback, that things are going well in Detroit.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT BEING IN A HIGH-PRESSURE SITUATION IN RACING AND YOU HAVEN’T PERFORMED LIKE YOU WANTED TO? “Yeah, last week was one of those weekends. There’s a lot of pressure throughout the Chase. The further you get into it, the more pressure there seems to be especially if you have a shot at winning the championship. Last week, we got back on the lead lap with about 20 laps to go and I was faster, but had aero-push and could not move. Those 20 laps were some of the most frustrating laps of my career, knowing that anyone of those positions could be life or death come Homestead. Not being able to pass any of them was really, really frustrating. That’s part of the sport.”
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU DO TO TRY AND GET RID OF THAT STRESS? “I try to surround myself with good people and I’m surrounded with a good team and friends and family. That’s who I count on to get me through the tough times.”
WHY DO YOU THINK THE CHASE POINTS BATTLE IS TIGHTER THIS YEAR? “The new Chase point system has affected the way that the Chase is setup and the way that it operates. For us, we look at it like we just can’t have that bad race. It’s a lot easier to turn around your season with this new points system. If you were where we were at, in 25th, and have a few good weeks, you can really move through the field. That’s really cool.”
