Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012
NASCAR Champions Press Conference
Brad Keselowski Quotes
Dodge PR
http://twitter.com/teamdodge, www.media.chrysler.com, www.drivesrt.com
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) CAN YOU SPEAK TO HOW FAR YOU THINK YOU HAVE COME SINCE YOU STARTED WHEN DALE (EARNHARDT) JR. FOUND YOU? CAN YOU EXPAND ON HOW YOU THINK YOUR DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN? “It’s been a long road from where I started to where I’m at right now. And I look at that and say if you evaluate drivers when they first come into the sport and say Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson are here. Look at a Ryan Blaney, let’s say, that’s a great example. He started out right here which is really good. He’s not at Jimmie’s and those guys level but he started out really high. I did not start out right there. I started out way down here and my success story is attributed to a constant desire to improve. That’s how I’ve got to where I’m at and that’s how I feel like I’ll continue to be successful, with a commitment to improvement every day. And I want to be better tomorrow than I was today and better in the future than I was tomorrow you know beyond that. So I think it’s that commitment that’s took me from that level to get up to here and I don’t know, maybe here is where I’ll top out or maybe I’ll fall down but I certainly didn’t start out as high as I would have liked to. And when I look at guys like Ryan Blaney and that’s what impresses me so much is that they’re starting out right here. If they can improve at the same level I’ve been able to improve, they’ll be way up here which is so impressive. For me, it’s been a long road.”
GIVEN HOW HARD YOU’VE HAD TO WORK TO GET TO THIS POINT, IF YOU DO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP ON SUNDAY, WHAT WILL IT MEAN TO YOU? “It’s a question that’s a lot easier to answer specifically what it means to me after it’s been done and that’s to the benefit of hindsight. You know, I can speculate what it’s going to mean to me now but I really don’t know.”
YOU PROMISED ROGER (PENSKE) THAT YOU’D WIN HIM A CHAMPIONSHIP IF HE’D HIRE YOU. “Well, I won him one (laughs). I felt very confident that if Roger and I worked together that it was just a matter of time before we’d be successful, if we truly worked together, not just, you know, hire me, throw me in the seat and let’s go but truly work together with a common goal that I just talked about in the previous question. And I feel like that’s how we’ve been able to be successful.”
FROM THE INDYCAR SIDE, HOW MUCH CONTACT HAVE YOU HAD WITH SOME OF THOSE GUYS? “I haven’t spoken that much with the Indy guys. I saw Will (Power) a couple weeks ago but that’s about it. I mean they’ve got their own lives and things going on. They know how significant this is to RP, absolutely. I mean, they’ve got to (smiles).”
HOW DO YOU STAY AWAY FROM GUYS THAT YOU KNOW HAVE A GRUDGE? “How do you stay away from it? It’s not really easy. You just try not to give ‘em a reason to be mad (laughs) and you hope they can be adults about it and realize that’s it’s a different decade. But there are no guarantees of that.”
DO YOU RACE MORE CONSERVATIVELY? “Yeah, I mean, you’ve got to be careful about that. You’ve got to try to race everybody the same or bad things will happen to you in general. So, that’s kind of my rule of thumb.”
WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF THE RAY LEWIS VIDEO? “What I like about Ray Lewis, I know he’s got a lot of people that don’t like him so I’m just going to preface it by saying I acknowledge that, but what I like about Ray Lewis is that he brings a level of passion that is really unparalleled in his sport and he’s successful because of it. It’s kind of this mix of old-school mental prep that just fascinates me. So I’ve read a lot about him and just constantly impressed by it. I want to bring that same level of passion and same level of intensity to NASCAR that’s he’s brought to his respective team in the NFL.”
BEFORE A RACE, WHEN WOULD YOU WATCH THE VIDEO? “Probably the night before. I don’t usually watch that kind of stuff on a race day. There’s too much going on.”
WHEN YOU WERE DOWN AT THAT LEVEL, WAS THERE A MOMENT WHEN YOU WERE DOWN AND REALLY THINKING THIS ISN’T GOING TO WORK OUT? “Oh, absolutely! Absolutely. There were plenty of moments where I thought I wasn’t going to make it. But Lord willing, I caught the opportunities and was able to capitalize on ‘em and progressed.”
YOU WERE ALMOST APOLOGIZING ON TWITTER FOR THE POST-RACE RANT THEN YOU HAD THIS WHOLE PHONE THING. HAVE THOSE BEEN GOOD DISTRACTIONS FOR YOU OR HAS IT BEEN ANNOYING? “I don’t really think they were either, to be honest. They’re just kind of neutral to me, other than the money, I’d really like to have that back (smiles). From that perspective, I didn’t really apologize, per se, for the remarks. I apologized for the vulgarity but the remarks I stand behind. And I believe, with a passion, that our sport needs a level in intensity that we saw at Phoenix. It needs that on the track in a battle for the win and a battle for position, not in a battle in the garage.”
HOW YOU GOTTEN ANY REACTION FROM OTHER DRIVERS? “Other than Dale Jr., I really haven’t seen anyone.”
DO YOU AGREE THAT A PHONE CAN BE USED TO DOWNLOAD INFORMATION? DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THE REASONING IS BEHIND THAT RULE? “I see all sides for sure. It’s a tough situation because technology in this sport is obviously limited to allow the drivers to really showcase their talents. It’s a bit ironic the way this sport has developed over time. I think the sport doesn’t get the credit it deserves for the amount of technology that exits in it. People look at the car and think of that as a product of technology or think of that as the technology where the teams and the way the sport is set up, the car is a product of technology but not necessarily itself.
“Think of it this way. It’d be like holding up an iPhone versus looking at a skyscraper. The skyscraper doesn’t look that complex but if there’s a bunch of 3-D models and years of surveys and all sorts of technology involved in building the skyscraper, it actually may have more technology put into it. And so I guess that’s the analogy I’m trying to make is that in the sport the car itself is not really all that technological but the process of building it and so forth, there’s a ton of technology in the sport. So from that standpoint, it’s a bit ironic, you know, what you’re saying about the phone and I guess that’s how I look at it.”
YOU WEREN’T DOWNLOADING EFI DATA ON YOUR PHONE? “You have to understand how that system works to know that that’s not a possibility. With the technology that we have with the current system, it’s not possible. With technology in general, it is possible but not with the system that NASCAR utilizes.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU THAT YOUR SUCCESS HAS BROUGHT KATHY PENSKE TO THE TRACK AND ON THE PIT BOX? “Kathy Penske being at the race track is really phenomenal because I think she knows how important this is to Roger and she doesn’t come to a lot of races but when she does come to a race we know (smiles). So it’s a showing of the whole family’s commitment that he has, shows how strong a base he has to be successful because he too has a family and a support system that’s very strong.”
CLEARLY JIMMIE WANTS YOU TO START THINKING ABOUT THINGS OTHER THAN WHAT YOU NEED TO BE THINKING ABOUT AS FAR AS THE CHAMPIONSHIP. HOW DO YOU BRUSH THAT OFF AND BASICALLY STICK TO THE BUSINESS AT HAND? “I mean, I think it’s pretty self-explanatory of what you just said that he has a motivation behind his comments that you know discredits them from creditability and that’s pretty easy to brush off.”
KEVIN HARVICK SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT THE DEATH WISH COMMENTS THEY WERE ALL TRYING TO GET TO YOU BECAUSE THEY KNOW YOU’RE A FORMITABLE OPPONENT FOR THEM NOW. “I don’t disagree with that. That’s probably part of my motivation to win.”
WOULD IT BE EASIER TO FOCUS IF JIMMIE WAS JUST TWO POINTS BEHIND? “Ask me how I felt when he blew a tire out at Phoenix and I think they’re expecting me to, you know, rah-rah about it. No, it’s quite the opposite of that. I was really disappointed because I want the pressure. I wanted the pressure. I don’t have a choice in the matter. I wanted the pressure of coming down here and having to win the race to win the championship because that’s the type of person I am. I want the ball. I want to be on the field on the last play with the ball thrown to me. And that’s what that moment is. So I guess that shows you that there’s definitely some pressure but I like it. I thrive in it, that’s what I want. Go look at the career opportunities I’ve had that I’ve succeeded in. They haven’t been any easier, you know.
“I can remember the first time I drove for Dale Jr. and some of the stuff he told me: don’t wreck the car or you’re out (smiles). I remember the first race I ran for Dale Jr. was in Chicago in 2007 and to this day, that race has the record for the most Cup drivers in it. And I had never run Chicago in my life. I had no idea what to expect and here I am in this car: don’t wreck it, make the show, run well, the most amount of Cup drivers ever (smiles). It was like, wow, now that was pressure. Moments like that make this not seem so bad. They also build up a level of confidence that I feel like this is quite a bit easier than those moments.”
HAVE YOU HAD A CONVERSATION WITH DALE JR. LATELY? “I had a beer with him the other night, one morning, however you want to do that, and that was great.”
WHAT DID YOU GUYS TALK ABOUT? “The wreck (laughs).”
HE’S BEEN VOCAL WHEN HE THOUGHT YOU GOT OUT OF HAND. “He says stuff that’s true himself and that’s why I think we respect each other because he knows I do the same.”
IT SEEMS THAT YOU HAVE HAD TO WRESTLE RESPECT FOR YOURSELF AWAY FROM SOME OF THESE DRIVERS. IS RESPECT EARNED OR IS RESPECT TAKEN? “Well, you know, I look at that situation and it’s a bit of a difficult question to answer because, to your credit, I would say at the Cup level I’ve been here not necessarily a short time but not a long time by any means when you compare to drivers I’m surrounded which is a product of the low turnover rate from the driver’s perspective. Naturally, I’m at the bottom of the pecking order. To be a championship driver, you can’t be at the bottom of the pecking order. You have to fight your way to the top and these guys just aren’t going to throw away their seat and allow you to get to the top of the pecking order. So certainly, to some extent, you have to take it. And the best way to take it is to have success over a period of time and then that comes with it. It’s in the nature of any competitive sport and I’m thankful and I’m happy for this, for the competitors to not like that because I want to beat you. I want to be the best and that’s what makes it so tough but that’s what also makes it so great and such an accomplishment. When you do have success is the fact that you know those guys don’t want to see you be successful. So you know, it’s with a grain of salt that I take those things because I know to some extent, it’s a validation of everything you’re doing and why participate in a sport.”
