Saturday, June 16, 2012
Dodge PR
Alliance Truck Parts 250
Michigan International Speedway
NASCAR Nationwide Series
Post-Race Quotes
http://twitter.com/teamdodge, www.media.chrysler.com, www.drivesrt.com
Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger) Finished 6th “We had a really good Challenger. Our problem was we could never get track position. We got it one time and then we had to take four. We thought we were going to be on the right plan and then everybody pitted under green. It was just one of those deals. The Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger was good. If we could get clean air we were just a little bit too tight. We freed it up trying to get ourselves a little bit better there at the end. We pushed the 54 (Kurt Busch) up there and just couldn’t hang on it ourselves. One of those days but it’s super tough to pass. I’m pretty interested to see what the Cup race looks like tomorrow. That’ll be interesting because you can get to the person, you can run ‘em down from a straightaway, but it’s really hard to get it (a pass) done. Now they have another 250 horsepower. I was wishing that I had another five today.”
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE OUT FRONT IN CLEAN AIR AND BACK IN THE PACK? “We could run the same times back in traffic it was just that we’d burn up the right-front tire trying to get around anybody. We could run up to ‘em, get close to ‘em, turn underneath ‘em; just couldn’t complete the pass. I was really good through the middle of the corner but as far as the straightaway goes it’s not enough.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI WAS BEHIND YOU DURING THE FINAL LAPS. DID YOU THINK YOU WERE IN POSITION TO PASS A FEW MORE CARS? “I don’t know if they forgot to put the tapered spacer on the 22 (Keselowski) but he gave me a heck of a shot there going down the straightaway. I was thankful for it. It got us another spot out of the day but I wish we’d have had another 50 laps. We decided we had to come in, we actually blistered the left-front so it was good choice to come in but we restarted 14th with 20-some laps to go and you know, there was just not enough time. It was probably the right thing to do. I’ve got to thank Chad (Walter, crew chief) and all the guys that work on the Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger. I’m thankful for the day that we had. Just wish we could have been a little better.”
YOU HAD A GOOD POINTS DAY. “We lost one point to the 3 (Austin Dillon). I don’t know if the 2 (Elliott Sadler) led at all today but we led and beat him. Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) had a tough weekend. We’ll take any points we can get on these boys.”
Brad Keselowski (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) Finished 10th “We were a little off all around. I think the handling of the car was the strong suit. We just didn’t really have the speed in it. I missed some of the things I needed to do to execute the race. But we did get something out it. I guess it could have been a lot worse day.”
DID YOU HAVE A PLAN TO PUSH HORNISH AT THE END OF THE RACE? “No, but I just had the opportunity and I took it.”
Chad Walter (Crew Chief, No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger) “We led some laps. We tried to work some pit magic and it semi-backfired on us and we didn’t quite get the car like we wanted it. We ran real hard. We had to go a lot to keep up with the guys. Once you lose first, second and third-place it’s really hard to hold on to some of those guys. And then a couple of those teammates started drafting a little bit and made it even more difficult. We kind of got ourselves out of sequence and Sam made a very good call from the cockpit to come and take four tires and make an adjustment to help the race car and I think that during that last four-lap dash that’s the reason we got from 10th to sixth.”
