SRT Motorsports – Dodge NSCS Race Advance – Kentucky
Quaker State 400
Kentucky Speedway
Sunday, July 1, 2012
www.media.chrysler.com, www.twitter.com/teamdodge
DODGE AT KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
· Dodge scored a pair of top 10s at last year’s inaugural Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. Brad Keselowski led Dodge with a seventh-place finish, Kurt Busch was ninth. A Dodge was at the front of the field for 120 of the 267 laps in last year’s race. Keselowski led 79 laps while then-teammate Busch led 41.
DODGE NEWS AND NOTES
· Both Dodge’s qualified inside the top-six at the inaugural race last year: Kurt Busch started third and Brad Keselowski sixth.
· A.J. Allmendinger earned his second top 10 of the season last weekend at Sonoma. He finished ninth.
· Brad Keselowski’s first of three wins in 2011 came at a 1.5-mile track – Kansas. His only pole last year was also at a mile-and-half track – Charlotte.
FROM SRT ENGINEERING “It’s been five weeks since the Sprint Cup Series has raced on a mile-and-a-half speedway so the trip to Kentucky Speedway this week will be a welcome one for plenty of teams. This series is all about racing on many different track configurations but the mile-and-a-half is the backbone of the sport. Kentucky is a classic example of a mile-and-a-half. Even though its only our second visit there, engineers in this series have plenty of experience with the high banks, wide corners, big speeds that Kentucky offers and will bring a thick notebook of ideas to help conquer it. After five weeks away, getting back to a mile-and-half track this week will be like a summer vacation to many in the series.” Howard Comstock, SRT Engineering, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
DID YOU KNOW?
· The Dodge Charger street car is the only rear-wheel-drive model in Sprint Cup Series competition that is available with a V-8 engine.
· SRT Motorsports includes all of Chrysler Group’s NASCAR racing efforts for Dodge and RAM.
· Dodge Motorsports can be followed on Twitter at @teamdodge.
2012 SEASON REWIND
· Dodge has won two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season. Brad Keselowski took the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge to victory lane at Bristol Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.
· A.J. Allmendinger scored a season-best finish of second at Martinsville.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
· 4 – Different winners at the four races on the 1.5-mile tracks this season (Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin).
· 6 – Number of cautions in last year’s inaugural event at Kentucky.
· 10 – Number of races that remain until the 12-driver field is set for the 10-race Chase that will determine the 2012 Sprint Cup champion.
DODGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Ride quality is probably the most important thing to worry about at Kentucky. The bumps in Turns 1 and 2 can really upset the car. I feel like that was one of our better areas during the race last year and a place where we were really able to make up some time on the rest of the field. For the second year in a row we are taking the same car that we raced at Kansas earlier in the season. The two tracks seem to be very comparable. Brad was in position to challenge for the win in the first race at Kentucky last year. We didn’t get any breaks by having to continuously restart on the inside line and ended up seventh. But we feel confident that we’ve made our cars even better since then and can go back and win the second race at Kentucky Speedway.” Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dogde Charger R/T
DODGE QUOTES: “If you can get your car where it’s comfortable over the bumps in Turns 1 and 2, that’s obviously going to be the fast way around Kentucky. Sometimes that is easier said than done so some drivers will choose to enter a bit higher to avoid the bumps. Usually that will establish a second groove around the middle of the race, which can lead to some great side-by-side racing over the final laps. It’s definitely a place with a lot of character, despite the fact that it looks like a lot of the other intermediate tracks that we visit.” Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T
“Kentucky is another one of the tough mile-and-a-half tracks. The Sprint Cup Series had never raced there until last year, but I had tested on the track about three years before. We saw just how tough Kentucky Speedway can be last season during our inaugural race there. With qualifying getting rained out last year, we started way back in 23rd. We fought a loose condition just about all race long and never could get a handle on it. We wound up finishing 28th. It certainly wasn’t what we were hoping to put into the record book for the first-ever Cup race there. Our Shell-Pennzoil Dodge team has shown a lot of strength on the intermediate tracks this season. We’ve had some fast race cars and have been able to qualify really well. But we’ve had all kinds of problems – like the fuel system issues and mechanical trouble – that have prevented us getting the good finishes.” A.J. Allmendinger, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T
