SRT Motorsports – Dodge NSCS Race Advance
Subway Fresh Fit 500
Phoenix International Raceway
Sunday, March 4, 2012
DODGE AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
· Dodge is seeking its first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Phoenix International Raceway.
· Dodge has earned four poles at PIR since returning to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 (Casey Atwood – 1, Ryan Newman – 3).
· Dodge earned its last PIR pole at the 2008 spring Cup event when it swept the front row (Ryan Newman and Elliott Sadler).
DODGE NEWS AND NOTES
· The Dodge Charger Pursuit pace car will make its debut at PIR this weekend, serving as the pace car for both NASCAR races.
· The 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Dodge Charger R/T will be revealed on Sunday, March 11 in the Neon Garage at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
· Brad Keselowski has made five Sprint Cup starts at PIR with a career-best finish of 15th (spring – 2011). He set career bests in wins (3), top-fives (10) and top-10s (14) in 2011.
· A.J. Allmendinger has made seven starts at the one-mile track with a career-best finish of sixth last November.
· Robby Gordon earned a career-best PIR finish of seventh at the 2001 event.
THE DODGE BOYS
· Dodge has 212 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins.
· Dodge teams have posted 52 victories since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
· Dodge has posted wins each season since its return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).
DODGE HISTORICAL DATA
· First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Lee Petty, 2/1/53, West Palm Beach, Fla., 100 miles, .5-mile track.
· Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Kurt Busch, 10/2/2011, AAA 400, Dover Motor Speedway, 119.413 mph avg. speed.
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY FACTS
· Prior to joining Dodge, driver A.J. Allmendinger earned his only Sprint Cup pole at the spring race in 2010. He finished 15th.
· Only four races have been won from the pole in 31 Sprint cup races.
· There have been 22 different winners in the 31 Sprint Cup races at PIR.
· The record for the least amount of cautions for a Sprint Cup race at PIR is two, set at the fall race in 1999.
DID YOU KNOW?
· Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) surpassed 200,000 Twitter followers Monday night during the live coverage of the Daytona 500 on Fox. He had 65,000 followers when the race started and gained over 135,000 new followers during the event.
· There was only one lead change in the 1990 Cup event. Rusty Wallace started from the pole and led the first 50 laps before Dale Earnhardt took control and led the final 262 laps of the 312-lap event.
· PIR hosted only one Sprint Cup race each season from 1988 until 2004. The track received its second date in 2005.
· SRT Motorsports includes all of Chrysler Group’s NASCAR racing efforts for Dodge and RAM.
· Dodge is an Official Passenger Car of NASCAR
DODGE FACTS
· All three Dodge Charger R/Ts raced in the 54th running of the Daytona 500.
· Brad Keselowski’s DNF in the Daytona 500 was his first behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger in 75 Sprint Cup races.
FROM THE ENGINEER “When we went to Phoenix for the Sprint Cup race last November, it was all new – new configuration, new banking, new surface, and new engineering headaches. Early in the weekend, the track created a real challenge for the teams to find enough grip just to be able to get around the corners, let alone try to race the corners. But by the time we got to the race, the track had ‘rubbered in’ and drivers could not only challenge the corners, but also the other drivers. Most people left satisfied with the new facility. We go to Phoenix this week, which track will we find? We won’t know until we get there if it’s going to be the slick surface we started with last November or the much friendlier asphalt we ended up with in the race. Determining which surface Phoenix gives us will be the number one engineering challenge of the week.” Howard Comstock, SRT Motorsports Engineering
FROM THE CREW CHIEF “With the off-season, it’s hard to predict what the track is going to be like after they had the repave last year. Goodyear is bringing the same tire back (as the Fall race), so I think that will keep things pretty similar. We’ve done some work in the off-season preparing to go back to Phoenix and we’re really looking forward to going back. Our Penske Dodges ran really well at PIR in the fall and we’ve have a solid baseline start from when we unload.” Paul Wolfe, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T
DODGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK ‘We’ve all looked at last year’s Phoenix race as a starting point, but I think you’d be very naïve to think that that’s how we’re going to race. The five or six months of sunshine and age to the asphalt, we saw that racetrack go through huge changes from tire test to pre-test to start of race weekend to the end of race weekend. It continually migrated. We’re going back and we’re going to start from where we were, but I think we’ve got our eyes pretty wide open that there will be a migration of where we are.” Todd Gordon, crew chief, No 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T
DODGE DRIVER QUOTES “Last year I thought I had a chance to win the race so I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be interesting to see how the new pavement has developed over the winter, whether it’ll be really slick or have grip. For me, I feel really comfortable. I feel like I have a good feel of the racetrack. The 22 car last year had a chance to win the race so, in theory, we should be really fast.” A.J. Allmendinger, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger
“I like the new Phoenix. They did an outstanding job in making a good racetrack better. It’s obviously going to take a few years before the track is in optimal condition, but with it being in the desert, that process can sometimes be accelerated. I’m anxious to see how much it has aged over the winter. We saw last year that guys, myself included, were making passes through the dogleg. I don’t think anyone expected that going into the race. And the run you get off of Turn 4, down the frontstretch, has stayed the same.” Brad Keselowski, No 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
