Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012
NASCAR Nationwide Series
NRA American Warrior 300
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Post-Race Quotes
Dodge PR
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Brad Keselowski (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger) Finished Second TALK ABOUT THAT LAST LAP. IT MIGHT TAKE YOU A WHILE TO DESCRIBE EVERYTHING THAT WENT ON. “You ain’t kidding, a lot going on. I tried to make a move on Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) coming to the white and he blocked it so I figured I’d just give him a push and he took that push and just ran with it and got in front of Kevin (Harvick). I couldn’t keep back up with him. Maybe if I had another lap but who knows. Ricky did a great job and congratulations to him and his team. Just a long day but proud of my team for recovering from being two laps down for speeding on pit road and come back with a decent day.”
WHAT DID KEVIN HARVICK HAVE TO SAY TO YOU AFTER THE RACE? “He was wondering about a caution there with I think it was 20-some to go. The yellow came out and I guess he thinks it’s from a water bottle and somebody else just told me it was from something else. I don’t know yet. I’ve got to look through and see. Only NASCAR knows what’s going on. I’m just in the car.
WE (ESPN) WERE TOLD THAT THE YELLOW DID NOT COME OUT BECAUSE OF THE WATER BOTTLE. “Okay. I didn’t know there was a yellow for a water bottle to begin with so it’s all news to me. I don’t know what’s going on. That’s the first I heard of it when Kevin walked by. I defer to NASCAR, whatever their reason is. I don’t know what the yellow came out for. The Discount Tire team did a good job.”
YOU WERE DOWN TWO LAPS BUT CAME BACK. “All my fault. I sped on pit road and the guys rallied around. Great effort and good battle there at the end. Just proud of a decent day and a good finish out of my team. I’ll have to re-watch the race to see what everybody else is talking about ‘cause I really don’t know. I mean, obviously, yeah, I threw a water bottle out. Everybody in the dang garage throws a water bottle out and their tear-offs off their nose. I don’t know what’s going on. NASCAR doesn’t throw yellows for that usually so if they said there’s another reason I got to believe it.”
Jeremy Bullins (Crew Chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger) “The beauty of some of these long Nationwide races is that we had time to recover from some mistakes that we made. We got a couple of speeding penalties early but this Discount Tire Dodge team never quits. We had a plan and worked on getting the wave around, worked on getting the Lucky Dog, and managed on saving a set of tires for a late caution. Brad did a great job saving fuel and we caught a caution late to be able to put on four fresh tires. It was a great night for the Discount Tire Dodge team.”
Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger) Finished Ninth “We were just way too loose all night long. We were able to get to cars in front of us over the long run and then we didn’t get any of the long runs for a while and our car just never got better. I made a mistake coming on pit road that put us behind and we were able to scrape a ninth-place finish out of it. We did everything that we could do with the Alliance Truck Parts Dodge. We might have been able to gain a few more spots. I think that we had a top-10 car.
MEDIA CENTER QUOTES
Brad Keselowski (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger) CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS ABOUT THE CAUTION AND THE WATER BOTTLE? “Sure. If the water bottle would have been the cause for the yellow it went out of my car 15 to 20 laps before the yellow came out. I don’t know verbatim what lap it was or specifically what lap it was. I guess that’s why I was caught off guard with the comments about the water bottle causing a yellow. I don’t know why the yellow’s come out. The yellow’s come out all the time in the race without an explanation. It is what it is. That’s not a question for me; it’s a question for everybody that runs the show. I’m sure they felt there was a reason; they threw the yellow, that’s their right. That’s their job as the sanctioning body of NASCAR, any questions to that need to go to them. Do I feel guilty for throwing a water bottle out of my car? No. Everybody throws that stuff out the car. You watch on Lap 15 or 20 when the sun went down, tear-offs and water bottles go out of every single car. That’s how racing works. If you go down on the infield at these tracks after the race I’m sure that you’ll find water bottles. NASCAR knows that, and if they decide to throw a yellow that’s their prerogative, but most times they don’t. That’s their call. I can’t speak for NASCAR. I’m not going to say that I didn’t throw a water bottle. Heck ya, I threw about three of them out through the course of the race and I do every race and will continue to do so. I think most of the field will so I don’t know how the two are linked together without NASCAR saying so. The questions need to go to (them) or Kevin’s questions do, not to me. I can understand Kevin being frustrated. I’d be frustrated too. I was very frustrated after Watkins Glen when I had the dominant car and didn’t win. But you know sometimes in racing you do everything right and it just doesn’t work out. If you’re not mad about it you’re not a racer. So how can I sit here and bash Kevin? Kevin is a racer; he had the best car and didn’t win. If he wasn’t mad as hell I’d personal be mad at him because that’s his job and that’s why he’s a great racer. Just give his some time. He’ll figure out the situation with NASCAR and cooler heads will prevail. That’s just the way it is.”
