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[/media-credit]Friday, May 11, 2012
Dodge PR
Darlington Raceway
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Bojangles’ Southern 500
Post-Qualifying Quotes
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 15th “This is a hell of a place to go qualify at, that’s for damn sure, but I think our Dodge was respectable. Probably not a pole winning car but definitely strong enough to qualify in the top 15 and we ended up 15th. I think it had a little bit more in it than what I was able to get out of it, a tenth or better, but all in all it’s something we can go race from.”
WHAT MAKES QUALIYIFYING SO CHALLENGING HERE AT DARLINGTON? “Going back and forth between practice and qualifying trim. It’s so important here to find speed in your car to commit at the right level and you just don’t know what that level is. It’s always changing.”
A.J. Allmendinger (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 16th “Our Dodge was a little bit loose. I don’t think we had a pole car but we had better than a 16th-place car. I wish I could hit the reset button and redo that lap. I came to the green okay, got into one good and then I just got too low, too early and just completely messed the rest of the corner up. Got through three and it was really loose in three so I think we lost a little bit of time there. Wish I could do it over again. That was on me.”
HOW MUCH IS THE DIFFICULTY OF QUALIFYING HERE IS JUST THIS TRACK? “It’s all of it. We’ve had a really good day. The Shell/Pennzoil Dodge has been quick. The race trim was good, the Q-runs were good and as much as you try to think positive and think okay, let’s go out there and put a good lap in, it crept in the back of my mind we haven’t put anything wrong with this car yet. There’s no stripes, everything looks solid, the last thing you want to do is bounce it off the wall before you start this race. It’s a tough place. You look at the lap times and there so close. Just wish I could do it over again. It’s a long race and honestly starting 16th isn’t the worst thing in the world. I’m just mad at myself. I always want perfection and I’m nowhere close to that but we deserved a better qualifying run. If the car is as good as it was today we can go to the front and we’ve got 500 miles.”
