Sunday, November 11, 2012
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
AdvoCare 500
Phoenix International Raceway
Post-Race Quotes
Dodge PR
http://twitter.com/teamdodge, www.media.chrysler.com, www.srtmotorsports.com
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 6th HOW ABOUT THE FINISH AND EVERYTHING YOU HAD TO DRIVE THROUGH TO GET THERE? “You know, I raced pretty hard last week at Texas and a couple guys gave me flack for it but there’s a difference between racing hard and what we saw today. That was borderline ridiculous. But we survived and I’m proud of everyone on the Miller Lite team for that. We had a great car and things just didn’t quite play to our strengths but that’s okay. I felt very lucky to make it through all the cars today.”
YOU HAVE A 21-POINT LEAD IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP. WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL THOUGHT WHEN YOU REALIZED THAT JIMMIE JOHNSON HAD BEEN INVOLVED IN THE ACCIDENT? “My initial thought was that I heard he blew a right-front tire and I was thinking what conspiracy theorists are going to come up with a theory on this one and then you realize that the same thing could happen to you. And so you try not to let that get into you too much and try to just focus on what you got and make sure you don’t have the same problem. That was really what I was thinking. Obviously there are no guarantees. We could go to Homestead and have the same problem and Jimmie, you know, takes the point lead back over. No guarantees but very proud to have that points lead heading into next week.”
TAKE US THROUGH THE RUN HERE TODAY ESPECIALLY THAT LAST LAP. “Yeah, we had a really, really strong car on the long runs but I wasn’t very good on the restarts. That’s something I’ve got to get better at. The team did a great job giving me an awesome car and we survived the carnage, specifically on the last few restarts. I felt very luck for that.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AS YOU HEAD INTO THIS CHAMPIONSHIP RUN? “Nothing is over until it’s over. And the same problems that Jimmie had today we could have next week at Homestead. So we just need to keep our head down and focus on what lays ahead.”
THIS WAS A CRAZY RACE TODAY. “It’s really tough to just survive a race like that physically and mentally and I felt very lucky to do so. It makes me feel like that could happen the other way around next week and we could be right back out of this thing. You can’t take anything for granted in this sport.”
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN THE RED FLAG CAME OUT? AND YOU COULD HAVE HAD AN ISSUE WHEN DANICA SPUN ON THE LAST LAP. “Yeah I don’t know what happened that she came around. I guess it laid oil down and we all hit it and wrecked. Just one crazy deal after another.”
THIS WAS NOT AN EASY RACE TODAY. WHEN DID YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO JIMMIE? “Quite honestly I’m disappointed. I felt like we had a car to win the race and things just didn’t fall our way to be able to pull that off. So that’s quite honestly how I’m feeling. But the points stuff, I feel good about that. Don’t get me wrong, but I also don’t feel like anything is guaranteed.”
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING AS YOU GO TO HOMESTEAD-MIAMI? “I don’t know if it’s what the fans like. You know, like I said, I just felt very lucky to survive today.”
WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN YOU SAW JEFF GORDON AND CLINT BOWYER GET MIXED UP RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU? “I wasn’t surprised but I was. I was disappointed that that’s the way it went down.”
YOU SAID YOU WERE DISAPPOINTED YOU DIDN’T WIN THE RACE. DO YOU FEEL LUCKY YOU DIDN’T GET ANY MARKS? “Oh absolutely. I felt very, very lucky to not get caught up in a couple of those incidents. You know, sometimes you’ve got to catch breaks and we’re catching breaks this year. I’m very thankful for that.”
THERE WAS NO BETTER EXAMPLE OF THIS BEING A TEAM EFFORT THAN YOUR SPOTTER TALKING YOU THROUGH WHAT WAS GOING ON BETWEEN BOWYER AND GORDON. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? “Well, you know, if we don’t survive that we obviously don’t come out of there with the point’s lead, so that was very critical. All year long we’ve had a team that’s rallied around each other and found a way to persevere through adversity. I’m very, very lucky to have them and I know that. This is a team sport. NASCAR racing doesn’t get the credit for that but it really is a team sport. We rely on each other and fall back on each other in times of weakness and boost each other up in times of strength. Joey (Meier), my spotter, had my back on that and Paul (Wolfe, crew chief) had my back on the pit calls, giving me a fast car. Obviously, it’s my job to do all I could do to stay out of all the wrecks today and that’s why we’re in the position that we’re in.”
WHAT IS THAT LIKE FOR YOU WHEN YOU SEE ALL THIS GOING ON AROUND YOU? “You know, you’re just thinking what next, that’s all you can think and trying to put yourself in position to not be a part of it. I hate laying up in a race car. I’d rather go for the win and do all those things we did with that late-race pit call to come in and put tires on and try to drive through the field. And it kind of backfired because it put us in the midst of all the carnage. But that’s part of the sport and shows the commitment we have to winning races.”
YOU HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF DAMAGE TO YOUR DODGE CHARGER. WHAT HAPPENED? “We got caught up in that last wreck and I felt very, very lucky to just make it past the start-finish line.”
WHAT WAS YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE 48 (JOHNSON) HAVING SOME ISSUES? “Well, I was wondering what conspiracy theory was going to come up for that one (smiles). I felt bad for him and I know that the same thing can happen to us next week and this is why it’s not over until it’s over.”
YOU SAID EARLIER THIS WEEK THAT WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT HOMESTEAD YOU THINK ABOUT GOING THERE AND WINNING THE RACE. WHAT IS YOUR PLAN NOW? “Same thing – we go to Homestead and win the race. We’re going to do all we can to make that happen. When you run up front, you control your own destiny.”
WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS WHEN YOU SAW WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE 48? “Yeah, I was wondering what conspiracy theory was going to come up. Those things happen in this sport and it’s hard to understand or accept sometimes but it’s just part of it. It’s very unfortunate for that to happen to Jimmie. I don’t want to win the championship that way. I want to earn it as best I can. We caught bad breaks and he caught a bad break. But quite honestly, those same things could happen to us. We can get a flat tire next week and put him right back in it. So, that’s why you never count anything until it’s over.”
AT WHAT POINT WERE YOU TRYING TO BACK OFF OR GO FOR BROKE WITH ALL THE CHAOS GOING ON AROUND YOU? “I think if you look at the late-race pit calls that we made to come in and put tires on, that shows our commitment to go out and winning the race. We wanted as much of a points cushion as we could get and winning the race was going to do that for us. Obviously, that didn’t work out but we still put in a solid effort.”
WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN DANICA PATRICK HIT THE WALL AND CAUSED THE BACKUP AT THE START-FINISH LINE? “Well, we just all hit the oil that she layed down. We were all out of control and I saw it happening and thought ‘Oh boy I’ve got to get all the way to the start-finish line.’ But I got clipped and made it through sideways. That just shows you when you have good fortune on your side, it’s a good thing.”
HOW CLOSE WERE YOU TO THE BOWYER-GORDON INCIDENT? “Well, it looked close but it wasn’t quite that close. I’ve got to thank my spotter for, you know, keeping me posted about what was going on.”
WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS GOING INTO HOMESTEAD? “It’s definitely not bad. It’s good but it’s not over.”
