SRT Motorsports – Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Advance
Irwin Tools Night Race
Bristol Motor Speedway
Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012
DODGE AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
· Brad Keselowski is the most recent winner at Bristol Motor Speedway. At the fourth race of the 2012 season in March, he qualified fifth and led 232 laps en route to his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at the .533-mile track.
· Dodge has eight Sprint Cup wins at Bristol: David Pearson, Bobby Allison (2), Richard Petty (2), Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski (2).
· Dodge has eight poles at BMS: Bobby Isaac, Neil Bonnett, Ryan Newman (2), Kasey Kahne, David Pearson, Richard Petty and Kurt Busch.
· Dodge holds the BMS track qualifying record, set by Ryan Newman in 2003 (14.908 seconds at 128.709 mph).
· A Dodge has finished first, second or third in eight of the last 13 Sprint Cup races at “The World’s Fastest Half-Mile Track.”
DODGE NEWS AND NOTES
· Dodge’s Brad Keselowski has a scoring average of 4.42 in his last seven Sprint Cup series events’ including three-consecutive top-five finishes. He has never finished outside the top 20 at BMS. In five career starts at the high-banked track, he has an average finish of 10.4. He has led more laps at BMS (347) than any other Sprint Cup track in 112 starts.
· Dodge’s Sam Hornish will pilot the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger again this weekend at Bristol. He finished fifth two weeks ago at Watkins Glen. Hornish replaced former Penske driver A.J. Allmendinger at the Coke Zero 400 last month at Daytona.
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY FAST FACTS
· When constructed in 1960, the turns were banked 22 degrees and the seating capacity was 18,000.
· A Guinness World Record was set in August 2008 when the sell-out crowd completed the largest crowd wave in history.
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: Brad Keselowski, 06/30/2012, Quaker State 400, Kentucky Speedway, 145.607 mph avg. speed.
THE DODGE BOYS
· Dodge has 215 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins.
· Dodge teams have posted 55 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).
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 is an Official Passenger Car of NASCAR.
· Bristol Motor Speedway is the 4th largest sports venue in America, and the 8th largest in the world, with a capacity of up to 165,000.
2012 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BESTS
· Brad Keselowski Start: 5th (Bristol) Finish: 1st (Bristol, Talladega and Kentucky)
· Sam Hornish Jr. Start: 8th (Daytona) Finish: 5th (Watkins Glen)
QUICK FACTS
· There will be four jet dryers available for use this weekend; it takes approximately 60 minutes to dry the .533-mile track.
· The Bristol Motor Speedway track record for cautions is 20. It’s happened three times, most recently 8/23/03.
· The track surface at BIR was changed from asphalt to concrete in 1992 prior to the fall event. The track was resurfaced between races in 2007. The upper groove of the turns was erased by a milling process after the spring race in March.
· The last seven Bristol races had a margin of victory less than one second.
· The race winner at Bristol has started from the pole 22 times; 82 of the 103 races have been won from a top-10 starting spot, 52 from the first two rows.
FROM THE ENGINEER – RACING AT BRISTOL “Another reconfigured track for 2012 and another challenge for engineers. The Bristol track surface has been “ground” since we ran there in the spring to make the track more like the old Bristol that didn’t have progressive banking. Did it work? Reports from the test we ran there mid-summer showed a mix of results and opinions. Some said it was more like the old track but some said they didn’t see much difference. As engineers, we have to be ready this week with setups for both Bristols, the one with and the one without progressive banking.” Howard Comstock, SRT Motorsports Engineering
DODGE QUOTES “Bristol to me is a man’s racetrack and I respect that place so much. I think it takes a level of respect for it. From day one, the first day I walked in there, I respected it but I also wanted to win there. I wanted to prove to myself and others that I could be the man to win at a man’s racetrack. So it’s always been a challenge to me and it’s one that, for some reason, has taken a piece of me somewhere deep inside and made it rise to the next level. I just love it for that reason. There are few things in life that can do that to anyone and Bristol is that place for me. To be on the cusp of three wins in a row there is something that was, and still is, beyond my wildest dreams. But here we are and we are going to do everything in our power to get it done in the Miller Lite Dodge this weekend.” Brad Keselowski, No 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
“I feel like Bristol is a place that was very difficult for me when I first came over here and began running stock cars, but it’s somewhere that I have really grown to enjoy. Racing at Bristol is a unique experience. You’re doing the pace laps and going slow getting ready to start the race and you look out the left-hand window and you can see inside the car below you. Not to mention that you’re over on the left side of your seat, which is different than it is in the race. To me, the pace laps are one of the neatest things about Bristol because you realize how banked the track really is.” Sam Hornish Jr., No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger
DODGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK “As a crew chief you look forward to going to Bristol because you don’t have to worry about aerodynamics or ‘dirty air.’ It’s all about finding mechanical grip and forward bite. If you can do that, your driver can be successful. Track position will be important. Running up front should keep you out of trouble and in position for a good finish. Everyone on the Miller Lite team knows that we are on the verge of something special this weekend, but we don’t want to place any added pressure on ourselves. Three wins in a row at Bristol would be something to be proud of, but no more so than getting another win before going into the Chase.” Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
