Sunday, August 19, 2012
Dodge PR
Pure Michigan 400
Michigan International Speedway
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Post-Race Quotes
http://twitter.com/teamdodge, www.media.chrysler.com, www.drivesrt.com
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 2nd COMMENT ON THE FINAL RESTART WITH YOU AND GREG BIFFLE. “He just did a great job. He had a fast car and passed me legit and I couldn’t keep up with him. Between the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) the 16 (Greg Biffle) and the 55 (Mark Martin) those three cars were just I think the class of the field today. My team just did an awesome job just executing on pit road and strategy and everything it takes to make it happen to get us up to the front. We just needed that little bit more speed to be able to get with him. I tell you what it felt good to be racing up there at my home track here at Michigan. There’s nothing I want more I want than to win here at Michigan and you can feel a little bit of foreshadowing going on with the Chase coming on and those cars running right by each other. It’s an honor to get to race with guys like Jimmie and Greg and be door-to-door. If my team can continue to execute like they did today I think we’ve got a real good shot at this championship so I’m very, very proud.”
TAKE US THROUGH YOUR DAY AND HOW DO YOU JUDGE IT? “Well I think they’re going to start calling me silver medal at Penske Racing because we finished second in three out of the last four races. I’m proud of our effort. I just want to get that one more spot. I want to win races and we’ve been running solid and I’m proud of that but we want that one more spot, too. A great weekend at my home track in Michigan and extremely proud of the effort and how my team is shaping up as the Chase is about to begin.”
YOU MUST BE PRETTY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE WEEKS TO COME. “I feel like the best is yet to come. It’s been good as of late so hopefully it’ll be great.”
YOU SAID THAT JIMMIE JOHNSON WAS STUPID FAST BUT THEN HIS ENGINE EXPIRED. “The 48 had a dominant car. He and the 16 and the 55 had just a lot of speed. We just didn’t have enough to run with ‘em. My guys on pit road and everybody on the team did an excellent job and got us out toward the front. I’m very proud of them for that but we just needed that little bit more speed to hold them off and we didn’t have that here today with the Miller Lite Dodge. But just super-proud of our effort and got a lot to be proud of. I think he was a good one to two-tenths faster than we were and that’s pretty significant in Cup these days. His team has done a great job finding speed and my team is doing a great job executing.”
THIS RACE HAD A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING. “I mean, crazy day. That’s the thing about racing: when you think you’ve seen it all, you haven’t. Who would have thought we’d have seen a car spin down and hit the inside wall in that kind of fashion. Unbelievable and I hope everybody was okay but just another crazy day here in Michigan.”
WHAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR MIND WHEN YOU’RE BATTLING JIMMIE JOHNSON AND GREG BIFFLE? “What’s going through my mind is how far this team has come and how close we were to getting one of the biggest victories of my career to win here at Michigan. We were close. We just came up a bit short and just needed a little bit more speed to run with them. My team is doing a phenomenal job executing with different strategies and keeping the car in one piece. If we can keep that up in the Chase we’re going to be tough to beat.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT 48 THAT YOU ARE NOTICING ON THE TRACK? “Well it handles well down the straightaway and the corners so he’s got both those going for him. When you got that, if you can run a mistake free race you’ve got the ability to dominate. They’ve got that going on and we’ve just got to force them into mistakes.”
WHAT COULD HAVE YOU DONE DIFFERENTLY ON THAT LAST RESTART? “No, not really. Greg did a great job and he had position.”
THIS IS YOUR SEVENTH CONSECUTIVE TOP 10 FINISH. YOU HAVE A LOT OF MOMENTUM ON YOUR SIDE. “Absolutely. Our team is just executing something phenomenal and that’s so important in this sport. We needed to have a little bit more speed. We have top five, top 10 speed with I feel like the best execution in the garage. If you add a little bit of speed to that we would be tough to beat in the Chase. I’m proud of where we’re at. I want that one step more so I can get Roger Penske’s first championship and we’re not far away.”
Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 12th “Not a bad day. I felt like it was a pretty good from the point that we started in the back and worked our way up and by the midpoint of the race we were running in the top five. I ran there for quite a bit. We just got off on our strategy and that kept us from getting the finish that we wanted. There were too many yellows at the end because we had a good long run car. Man, it was like whatever you seem to have you don’t get enough of but too many restarts there and just couldn’t move forward. You get by one guy then all of a sudden three guys behind you have a run on you.”
IT SEEMED LIKE THE RESTARTS TODAY WERE CRAZY. “They were plenty crazy and once everybody knew about like what happened being on the bottom they all tried to shove the guys on the outside up into the gray. Everybody is playing defense and it made it quite interesting and then somebody tries to move the guy up on the outside and somebody else has the bright idea that they are going to go underneath him. It was an exciting day. Obviously I wanted a top 10 at the beginning of the day. We didn’t get it but real proud of all the guys that work on this Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger. I was super-happy with the way the car was handling; best car I think I’ve ever driven here since the first time I came here in the Cup series. It’s a shame that we have to wait until next year to come back. Hopefully I get the opportunity to be here in the Cup series.”
