Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Quaker State 400 Cup Notes & Quotes (Kentucky Speedway)
Friday, June 28, 2013
Brad Keselowski, the defending race winner at Kentucky Speedway and driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion, met with media members at Kentucky Speedway prior to Thursday night’s Truck Series race. Below is a complete transcript.
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – BEFORE WE GET INTO RACING, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE INITIATIVE BETWEEN MILLER LITE AND FORD AND THE DESIGNATED DRIVER PROGRAM YOU ARE INVOLVED WITH? “Yeah, we have a lot of great things going on. Obviously on the race end we are running all three races this weekend and then we are trying to do things that branch out a little bigger than that. Last year, you brought up us winning the race here and winning the championship and we had a lot of fun. We did a lot of great things and I am kind of living by the motto of ‘work hard, play hard’. We work real hard and running all three races is a lot of work but we also play hard. I am sure you guys saw the championship celebration we had. For me, life is a lot about balance and this message is one where we are going to have a little bit of fun with the responsibility piece. I jumped at the chance earlier this year to do a commercial with Miller Lite, talking about responsibility. We added a third layer to work hard, play hard and that is to be smart when you do it. I am going to drive a brand new Ford Fusion to somebody’s door. It should be interesting. Fans can enter and all they have to do is pledge to be a responsible driver. That is a real cool initiative that I am proud to be a part of. There are a lot of great things going on and we have a lot of fun but we have to keep things in perspective and be smart as well.”
YOU ARE RUNNING ALL THREE RACES THIS WEEKEND. TALK ABOUT THE MINDSET OF ENTERING THREE RACES ON A VERY IMPORTANT WEEKEND FOR YOU AS WE BEGIN THE RACE TO THE CHASE. “This is a key time, not just for my team but really for all the teams. There are only a few that would be considered locked into the Chase. Realistically if you have two or three wins you are in a good spot. We don’t have those, but we have had solid runs where we have been close to winning and have a lot of coulda, shoulda, woulda’s. But those don’t count for anything. Now is our time to really shine and I think thankfully if you look at the tradition of my team, if you can say there is one over the last two seasons, it is that we really seem to hit our mark about this time of season. I don’t think that is a coincidence. Kentucky Speedway really fits my style and there are a couple unique characteristics about it and that is why I picked this weekend to run all three. I felt like here and Bristol are probably two of my best tracks and we need to capitalize on that. Certainly on the Cup side we need another strong run and hopefully come away with a race win which I think we have a very strong shot at. I’d love to do that in the other two series as well. This would be a great weekend to do that for a lot of reasons and it certainly was no coincidence that I picked this weekend. I am ready to get it started and hopefully end up with some similar results on the Cup side. We won last year on the Cup level and finished second last year on the Truck level and I can’t remember where we ran in the Nationwide car but we have had strong performances here in the past and I think we will get it done.”
HOW DO YOU ASSESS WHERE YOUR TEAM IS TODAY COMPARED TO A YEAR AGO AND ALSO LOOKING BACK, HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK THE NASCAR PENALTIES AFFECTED YOUR TEAM THIS SEASON? “I think assessing the season at this point we could very easily have two wins and I hate to go too much into that because I always get accused of whining about that stuff but the reality is if one or two yellows don’t come out the way they did, whether it was leading the Daytona 500 in the closing stages or the restart toward the end at Bristol – if a couple of those things fall this much differently we are sitting here with two or three wins and in the exact same spot as this time last year. I think that is why I am not as panicked as some other might be. I don’t feel that panic within our team. I think there is a burning passion and desire to execute at a much higher level than we have and certainly that can be frustrating but I know it is there. I think the run we put on last year starting this weekend shows it can be done at any time. Obviously there is a bit of different circumstances this year compared to last with the things that happened with the penalty and so forth. I haven’t spent a lot of time looking in the mirror. I have been looking forward and know we have to continue to push and develop this car and find those next pieces of speed to be that little bit more competitive and I think we have some stuff coming to do that. Hopefully we can get that implemented on our cars and get it all through tech and then we will be just as good as we have ever been, if not better.”
YOU SAID THIS TRACK HAS A COUPLE ASPECTS THAT FIT YOU WELL, WHAT ARE THOSE ASPECTS? “Well, I can’t tell you that (laughter). That is like asking for the secret ingredient. That’s like going into Wonka’s place and trying to ask him how they make the gum. It is a secret ingredient.”
ANY REASON WHY THIS PLACE FITS YOUR STYLE THOUGH? “I think one of the things I like about Kentucky is that it is one of the few tracks that I have always felt kind of heads up to the field. I guess to elaborate on that, this is my fourth full year in Sprint Cup and in some ways it feels like I have been here forever and in some ways it feels like I haven’t. When you go to tracks like Texas and Atlanta and places like that where there are a fair amount of drivers with more experience than I do, I always feel like I am that one little step behind. Here at Kentucky there is no driver that has more experience than me. We are on an even footing all the way. In fact, if anything, I feel like I might be slightly up because I have a couple more Nationwide starts and so forth. I think that leads to some of my comfort here.”
YOU HAVE PROPOSED IN THE PAST AN IDEA WHERE IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES CUP GUYS WOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO RACE FOR CUP TEAMS. ONE COUNTER ARGUMENT TO THAT IS HOW YOU WOULD REGULATE THAT WITH A TEAM THAT HAS RESOURCES OF A CUP TEAM SUCH AS JR MOTORSPORTS HAS NOW. WHAT IF TEAMS STARTED TAKING ENGINES AND CARS FROM CUP TEAMS? HOW WOULD THAT FIT INTO THE WHOLE IDEA? “Well I guess kind of fitting into the point I was trying to make takes a brief summary. You look at the state of the Nationwide and Truck series’ and a lot has been made of the Cup drivers that compete in that series. I think that is part of the tradition of those series whether some would like to admit it or not. I think it is part of what makes NASCAR unique and I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing. There are a lot of people that write me or say that they would watch more if Cup drivers didn’t interlope and simply say that is not true because if that was the case then a series like ARCA would have rating through the roof. There is a need for Cup drivers to be in there. Does it need to be the whole Cup field? No. Are there more Cup drivers in there now than ever before? No. I still remember my first Nationwide start for Jr. Motorsports and I think there were like 26 Cup drivers in that race. We don’t see that anymore. I think a lot of it is because of Kyle (Busch) and his success and that isn’t necessarily fair. On the other side of it, having been one of those guys trying to prove himself and driving as an inexperienced driver and not having all the resources that a Cup team has, you basically have zero shot at all of being successful or competitive. I think you look back at the tradition of the series when it was first started and the Cup drivers that were there, the big difference and part of the acceptance of that was that they either drove their own equipment or another car owner. I think that those are probably two important asterisks and I would like to see something like that happen again. I think it would return the competitive balance and give the drivers an opportunity to compensate for their disadvantages in experience and so forth. I know there are issues like you brought up, as far as the equipment. If it is not in a Cup facility and ran by a Cup owner then it doesn’t really matter because that is what is going to make the difference. The difference is going to come from the hands on approach of that Cup owner and the resources. I think it naturally levels itself out. I felt that way at Jr. Motorsports. Even though we had some support from a Cup owner it still wasn’t a Cup team and still wasn’t a Cup owned team in my mind. Even though we had those resources I feel like it leveled itself back out.”
HOW DOES THE MOTORSPORT INDUSTRY, SPECIFICALLY NASCAR LOOK AS A BUSINESS FROM THE DRIVERS SEAT? DO YOU SEE THE FANS AND SPONSORS COMING BACK AND SUPPORTING THE SPORT THE WAY THEY HAD BEEN? “From a business standpoint it is still not a bad time to be a driver. It is probably the healthiest position as long as you can be successful but I think that kind of goes without saying. There are areas we can certainly be better and I know there are a lot of people trying to make them better and I think we all acknowledge that we are not in as strong a position as we have been in the past but I still think there is potential to get back there. We have work to do as a sport. But from a drivers perspective, I don’t think it is a bad time to be a driver, that is for sure. I think the sport, if you look at some of the health matrix that you would look at as a driver, your own safety and ability to make a good living and be competitive and not have to buy a ride, I think at the Cup level for the most part there is still a lot of integrity to that. I would say that the most concerning aspect for a driver right now is the limited owner base, limited owner pool and the fact that the owners are aging rapidly. That is probably the most concerning thing as a driver because someone is going to have to come in and replace them for us to have someone to drive for and it is probably harder now more than ever to become an owner in the sport. There are people working on that as well. I would say there are some concerns but at the end of the day, if you are a quality race car driver who can win races and just doesn’t do something incredibly dumb then you will have a sponsor and have a team.”
RUNNING ALL THREE SERIES, HOW HARD IS IT FOR YOU TO GO FROM THE DIFFERENT CARS, HOW MUCH DOES IT HELP OR HURT FOR THE CUP SIDE? “Well, Kyle is here, you should ask him since he does it more than I do. I don’t think it is easy. Obviously you have to reset in your mind the different series and how they drive but there are still some advantages, absolutely. You have to put in a lot of work load to do it. That is not always fun but when you are winning it is quickly off-set and you have a lot of fun with it. I think that is really where it comes from, an inner passion to win for those guys that do it. I can always respect that. Trying to get the three teams to work together is like herding cats. It is damn near unrealistic, at least it has been for me. But when you are winning it is still fun.”
LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY FROM THE HISTORIC RACE AT ELDORA SPEEDWAY, AS A TEAM OWNER IN THE TRUCK SERIES, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PREPARE AND WHO WILL BE DRIVING YOUR TRUCKS THAT NIGHT? “As a team owner we have done a little testing but it has been just more fun to watch it on film than it has been productive. I am really excited about that race. I think inside the sport the drivers and teams think it will go one of two ways. It will either be by far one of the coolest and best races we’ve ever seen or the dumbest thing we have ever done in NASCAR. I don’t think it is going to be anywhere in between. I am going to make sure I am there for that race. It looks like a lot of fun. I have both Blaney’s driving. Someone told me that Dave is the winningest driver ever at Eldora. I don’t know if that is true or not but it would be great to get him a win there. Obviously Ryan is there and he will learn from Dave and I will just be in the grandstands eating a snow cone and smiling. It should be a lot of fun.
