Friday, Feb. 17, 2012
Daytona International Speedway
Dodge PR
Budweiser Shootout Practice Quotes
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
http://twitter.com/teamdodge www.media.chrysler.com
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) WHAT HAPPENED? “Some guys in front of me got together. It’s just the way it is. It’s the first time that we get back on the track and everybody is aggressive, learning what the limits are. Sometimes you get caught up in that. Our Miler Lite Dodge got caught up in it. It’s better to do it now than next Sunday. We’ll learn something from it.”
AJ Allmendinger (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) CAN YOU TELL US WHAT HAPPENED? “Everybody is getting the feel of it out there. The 51 car was moving around a lot; he was three wide a couple of times. I kind of got through the middle of the three-wide pack and thought that we were OK. It looked like the 51 and the 14 were hooked up and the 51 made a late move around the 56. When you’re pushing somebody and you just get off-centered to the left side of the car, it’s going to turn it. To me, that’s what happened and after that, I was just behind it.”
ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO A BACK-UP CAR? “Yeah, she’s destroyed. It’s not what we want in the first practice. It’s what happens here. It’s back to pack racing to a certain extent. You can see cars just in the pack are already over heating. Everybody is anxious. It’s disappointing. I’ll try to taken the lessons there, understanding what was happening and figure out what we want to do. Obviously, tomorrow is going to be a free-for-all. I think there are some lessons learned for the 500 on where to put yourself. Not a good start on the first day. We’ll keep working. We made a change from the first to second run and picked up a little bit of speed. We were struggling a little bit off the corner, so I felt like the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge was a little quicker and more stable; at least we had that. We’ll see tomorrow.”
WAS IT HARD TO DRIVE IN THE PACK? “It’s the same way. Every time that I could see Brad (Keselowski) or get with him, I’d try to work with him. We had a good run going through the middle a couple of times and you just stall out. You can stall the guy out next to you and the guy next to him. It’s a big pack again. It’s going to be interesting. I still think in the end with two to go, three to go, you’re going to hook up if you’re at the front of the pack and push each other and just melt one down trying to get to the line. It’s definitely back to the way it used to be.”
WILL YOU GO BACK OUT IN PRACTICE TONIGHT? “No. I’ve wrecked enough cars today. That’s a good thing with the Penske Corporation. They build the cars the same; the cars are pretty equal. So it’s not like we’ve got to go out there and get a feel of what the next car is going to feel like. All the cars are close. The guys do a good job back in the shop.”
