Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series
Good Sam Club 500
Talladega Superspeedway
Post-Race Quotes
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished Fourth “It was interesting the whole race. Our Miller Lite Dodge was fast all day. I worked really hard with Dave Blaney all day. He was a great, great helper and I owe a lot of credit to him. We stayed smart and brought it up front at the end.”
HOW WILD WERE THOSE FINAL LAPS? “Crazy. I told the guys in the spotter’s stand that Dave Blaney and I had this, they could walk downstairs and grab ’em a Miller Lite ’cause there was nothing you could do for us once they dropped the green. My team, they gave me the car. It just came down to teamwork with Dave at the end. I want to say thank-you to Dave Blaney and his whole team. It all came together there at the end. This is exactly how we needed to leave Talladega, with a strong finish, gained points on the leader, gained points on really all the Chase cars. I’m very proud of the effort, proud to have a good day and very fortunate to have missed all the wrecks today. It must have had something to do with in-memory of Dan (Wheldon) on the back of the car. It was a great day for us and I just want to say a shout-out to him and his family.”
THAT WAS A WILD FINISH. “Just a typical wild Talladega finish. You know, I was pushing Dave Blaney and I couldn’t see that there were two cars in front of him until we got to the start-finish line. I thought for a second we were going to run one-two; that was going to be a lot of fun. Dave did a great job today. It was a pleasure working with him and his team and we brought home a solid day for the Blue Deuce. This is what we need to do. We needed to have a strong run here. We put ourselves in contention and you know the fates didn’t smile on us, but we still got a great finish out of it and I’m proud of my team.”
IT LOOKED LIKE WHEN THAT LAST RESTART WENT GREEN, YOU GOT SEPARATED A BIT? “Yeah, it was just the way that the draft worked today. It’s just part of the way that this thing works. We were able to stay committed together and that made a big difference.”
YOUR THIRD IN POINTS, THIS WAS THE WILD CARD RACE. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS HAVING THIS RACE BEHIND YOU? “We’re still in contention and that we have a damn good shot at winning this championship.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOU AND DAVE BLANEY TODAY AND HOW YOU STUCK TO YOUR GAME PLAN? “Dave’s a smart racer and he was awesome all day. We had a good game plan. We stayed patient. We stayed smart and at the end, it came together.”
WHEN DID YOU AND DAVE DECIDE THAT YOU WERE GOING TO WORK TOGETHER? “Tuesday (smile).”
PAUL WOLFE (crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) “It was a great day. You never know when a wreck is going to happen and we were able to stay out of one today. We came down here with a plan to work with the 36 car and it worked out. It shows that when you have two cars committed to each other like we did today, that it can work.”
THIS RACE WAS SUCH A WILD CARD. WAS THAT THE KEY, STAYING WITH THE PLAN? “Yeah. We knew that this was a race that we needed coming out of with a good finish. I told Brad that if we came out of here with a top-five or top-10 and keep ourselves in position for this championship that it would be a great day. We did that today. We’re still in it. We gained points today and I’m proud of this team’s effort all weekend.”
TRAVIS GEISLER (Director of Competition, Penske Racing) “It was an awesome day for the 2 team. The 2 team’s plan came together and Brad was able to stay out of trouble all day. We managed to get in the right position at the right time and bring home a great finish.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE 22 TEAM’S DAY? “It’s a 50-50 shot out here and we had one guy on the good 50 percent and unfortunately, Kurt got caught up on the wrong side. We got 50 percent through and 50 not through. That’s restrictor plate racing. We’ll salvage what we can the last four races and keep digging for wins.”
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 36th “We were doing good all day, running with Regan Smith, and just had nowhere to go. The 47 go flung by Michael Waltrip, he went low, we went high, and he was starting to come back up when I was zigging and zagging. Our championship hopes are done just because of this two-car Talladega draft.”
ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 37th “What a bummer. I thought this might be the day that we get this SPEED Energy Dodge in victory lane. We had a great car. We ended up having a problem with the rear gear, started to leak some oil on the track and NASCAR made us park the car. It’s a bummer. It may have happened when we lost the rear bumper cover and that could have caused a weird vacuum under the car. We’re really not sure. Our car was fast. We led laps. We ran great with Trevor (Bayne) all day. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
