Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011
Dodge Final Race Quotes
Dodge Motorsports PR
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Bank of America 500
Charlotte Motor Speedway
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ultra Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 13th “It was just a frustrating night for our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. I thought we had the lucky dog there about halfway through the race. We were just tight in and loose off all night. And we got bit twice when the caution came out right after we pitted under green. But we got the free pass and got back on to the lead lap and we at least came away with a respectable finish. We did lose a few points, but we’ll try to get them back next week. Faster race cars will make for better decisions.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 16th “We missed the setup just a little bit and I did a bad job in qualifying. Between the two, that put us behind. We were a 10th- to 15th-place car. On your bad days, a 10th- to 15th-place run isn’t bad. We got behind on track position and got about every bad yellow you could catch after pitting under green. You can’t make up for that when you keep catching those bad breaks. That’s just part of the deal here. Real unfortunate it happened that way, but we did a great job of taking the bad breaks and at least not getting a 20th day out of it. If we just didn’t catch the yellows the way they came, we would have had probably an eighth- or ninth-place day. We caught the strategy wrong every time, but I don’t feel bad about the effort, I don’t feel bad about the calls. We just got a lot of bad breaks. We still made up some points, at least on Jimmie (Johnson). We got rid of what could have been a really, really bad day, what looked like for a long time would be a 23rd- or 24th-place day. I feel like I know what was wrong; I wish could run this race again tomorrow and come back with a little different setup. We just didn’t catch the right breaks.
“This particular tire and track combination is so different than everywhere else we go. What it takes to be successful, we just didn’t have in our back pocket. This is a completely different mile-and-a-half than the rest of them and we didn’t have what we needed tonight.”
PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) “It was a tough fight all night. We didn’t qualify where we needed to be. Our car wasn’t good enough to pass, we were just hoping to get in that sequence where could do a little different strategy to get toward the front. This never played out. We tried short-pitting to gain some track position and the cautions fell wrong. This was a frustrating night. We recovered somewhat at the end. Finishing 16th is not where we wanted. We’re on the edge, but we’re still in the hunt. We’re still within reach, but we have to put together stronger runs to have a shot.”
TRAVIS GEISLER (Director of Competition, Penske Racing) “I guess when you look at 13th and 16th as a terrible night, I guess that’s a good sign of where the program is. Certainly, it was a struggle. Twice there, we got caught pitting and the caution came out. With that going on and still end up 13th and 16th, we can still survive and go racing from here. There’s still a lot left in this Chase and it’s still a pretty tight deal. We’re just going to have to put our game face on and need to capitalize on these next couple wild cards, looking at Talladega and Martinsville.”
WAS A LOT OF IT JUST BAD RACING LUCK OR WAS THERE ANYTHING MECHANICAL THAT YOU CAN PUT YOUR FINGER ON? “You know, you make you own luck. Yes, it was bad luck that the 21 ran out of gas and stopped on the back straightaway when people think he could have gone a little differently when all of the Roush cars hadn’t pitted, yet so it was just convenient (smiles). If you look past all that, hey, we just weren’t fast enough, that’s all. Any time you’re relying on race conditions to make a race for you, you’re not good enough and that’s just all it was. It was a matter of lacking some speed and lacking overall grip for the car. We’ve got to go to work on it and figure out what we missed here this weekend with both of our cars and go on and see what happens at Talladega.”
