Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR
Martinsville Speedway
Tums Fast Relief 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Post-Race Quotes
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 14th We had a little bit of everything today with our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. We struggled a little bit during the middle part of the race and lost a lap, but we took the wave around, caught a caution and made it up. I really hate I got into Jeff Burton, but the 39 got into me and I got into Jeff. Paul Menard got into us and I spun out. The car was fine, but nobody would let you get to the inside. We decided to go for it on that last caution and got tires. We came in 14th and finished 14th, so it was a wash. We’ll try to make up some points next week at Texas.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 17th “That’s racing on these short tracks. It will come back around for the Miller Lite Dodge team. We got some good racing in the middle section of the race, got the good lanes that we needed, but at the end we just didn’t catch a break. We ended up on the outside for the last few restarts and that wasn’t the place to be. That’s just this style of racing. You can’t control your own fate. The car came to us, the track came to us. The guys had a good plan. Our Miller Lite Dodge was a top-10 car. We came up a few laps short.”
PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) “A long day for us. We started off not really where we needed to be. We were really struggling. Brad stayed calm and we kept working on our car and felt like halfway through the race we had ourselves a top-10, top-five car at worst. We were doing what we needed to do in this championship battle to gain points on the 99 (Carl Edwards). That last restart at the end, it looked like the 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) got into the 11 and just a chain reaction that spins us out.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT LAST RESTART? “I guess the 88 got into the 11 and kind of a chain reaction got into us. It was definitely a tough day. We weren’t where we needed to be at the beginning. Everybody worked really hard. I was proud of the effort. We kept adjusting on the car. Brad stayed out of trouble and we put ourselves in position to do what we need to do today and that’s gain points in the 99. Frustrating day for us for sure as hard as we worked to get our car to be able to run up front. At the end of the day, the guys on this Miller Lite team will keep working hard and we’ll just do what we can do.”
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE PICTURE FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS, WHAT DO YOU THINK? “Well, obviously, it’s tough now. Carl has got such a lead on everybody, but you know, we might have to just roll the dice a little more. He’s kind of had everything go his way and it might just be that year, you know, everybody has those years when things seem to go their way. It’s definitely going his way right now, but the best thing we can do is try to find speed in our cars and get good finishes.”
ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW PHYSICAL THE RACE WAS TODAY? THERE IS A LOT OF BENT UP CARS HERE IN THE GARAGE AREA. “It seems like there was quite a bit today, maybe more than most, but I don’t know that I’m necessarily surprised about it. It’s just Martinsville.”
ARE YOU GLAD TO GET MARTINSVILLE BEHIND YOU? “It was a tough day for us. We made gains on our car. We brought a new race car here and we felt like we had a car that could run top-five which is our goal here. Just things didn’t go our way. That’s a part of it. We’ll go on to Texas.”
TRAVIS GEISLER (Competition Director, Penske Racing) “The finish is disappointing, but you have to look at the good parts. They (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team) had a great race car today and really fought hard to race their way to where they got to. Obviously, the 99 has all the luck in the world on his side right now. He got a lap down twice today and got the lucky dog and ended up with a good finish. I feel like we raced our way to a fifth-place finish, fifth to eighth easily. As long as you can do that week in and week out, it will come to you. That’s the thing this team has to hold its head high about, getting that Miller Lite Dodge to the front every week. If they do that, it will come together for them.”
