Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
NSCS GEICO 500
Friday Oct. 17, 2014
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Redd’s Wicked Apple Ale Ford Fusion, spoke to members of the media prior to the opening practice Friday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway. Keselowski addressed his incident with Matt Kenseth last weekend in Charlotte and spoke about the pressure on he and the No. 2 team to win and advance.
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Redds Wicked Ale Ford Fusion – DID YOU SEE WHAT MATT KENSETH JUST SAID ABOUT THE INCIDENT AT CHARLOTTE? “I did actually, yeah.”
YOUR REACTION TO HIS COMMENTS? “Do I have to have one? I am just ready to go race here.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND MATT AT RICHMOND? “We had a little contact at Richmond.”
ANY REACTION TO THE FINE? DO YOU FEEL IT WAS FAIR? “It is what it is. I didn’t have a big reaction. Maybe I should have had a bigger one, I don’t know. I thought Richard Buck was really classy and I thought that was really nice of him. It isn’t something that I didn’t understand.”
MATT SAID THAT YOU WERE GREATLY EXAGGERATING THE STORY ABOUT HIM SWERVING AT YOU AND DAMAGING YOUR CAR. “He is always entitled to his opinion as I am to mine. We are both entitled to your opinions. Obviously we have a difference of them or what happened Saturday wouldn’t have happened.”
DO YOU FEEL ANYTHING ONE WAY OR ANOTHER ABOUT TONY STEWART GETTING DRAGGED INTO THIS? “It is not something that anyone was happy to see but it happened and it is unfortunate.”
DO YOU REGRET ANYTHING YOU DID? “I am not really ready to get into that side of it. I haven’t put a lot of thought into it to be honest. I have been busy testing Martinsville and getting ready for this weekend. It is a huge weekend for me and our team where we have to really pull out a clutch moment and I don’t want to lose sight of that by spending a whole bunch of time on all that other garbage. I am not going to say I haven’t spent any time on it but I didn’t spend enough to really have all my thoughts and feelings put together enough to share it with you guys.”
HOW DOES THIS WEEKEND COMPARE TO ANY OTHER WEEKEND? “It is more important to win than it has been on other weekends. That is a challenge, a huge challenge, and Talladega isn’t a place you want to go to knowing you have to win but we have confidence knowing we have won here twice before. We had a great car in the spring and got caught up in an accident early and another accident. We had great cars at Daytona as well and very similar fates. You know if you have great cars and you continue to put yourself in the right position at these tracks you will eventually be rewarded and I think we are due here at Talladega.”
YOU ARE A THINKER, CAN YOU OVER THINK THINGS HERE? “Yeah, Talladega is very easy to over think. I would rather over think it than under think it.”
ARE YOU CONCERNED BY YOUR RESPECT LEVEL? “That is always important within the garage but I think you have to temper that with the knowledge that when you are successful you are a target. That isn’t just me, that is everyone. That is just part of the ebbs and flows we talk about all the time.”
YOU AND MATT HAVE HAD THREE INCIDENTS, RICHMOND, TALLADEGA EARLIER AND NOW CHARLOTTE. ANYTHING TO THAT? “I don’t know. I have’nt really broken that down enough to think about it that way. I guess possibly but who knows.”
WAS IT GOOD TO TEST AND BE WITH THE TEAM FOR TWO DAYS AND JUST SORT OF RESET? “Absolutely. I thought my team handled everything this week and over the weekend extremely well and I think that is one of the moments that really bonds you together as a team or tears you apart and for us it bonded us together. That is as good a sign as any to come out of it.”
WHAT IS YOUR EXPECTATION OF YOUR TEAMMATES THIS WEEKEND? “I don’t have a lot of expectations for them. We have had that conversation. Talladega, once they got rid of the rules package that afforded the tandem drafting has kind of turned into a one man band race where you really control your own destiny and fate by yourself. It seems like if you get locked into racing or counting on someone else to work with you that you don’t make the moves you need to make to win. I don’t feel that strongly about it. It is great to have teammates and I want to work with them as much as I can but it isn’t as significant as it was with the tandem package.”
IS IT DIFFERENT WITH THIS NEW CHASE FORMAT THE WAY YOU RACED OR DO RACE MORE AGGRESSIVELY? “You definitely race more aggressively when you have as much on the line as you do now. There is no doubt about that. You are less worried about friends and enemies and focused on that night and that night is all that matters.”
CAN YOU TOUCH ON THIS QUALIFYING FORMAT? “I am sorry, I don’t know the rules. I literally am going to get in the car and do what they tell me and that is it.”
IS IT TOUGH THAT YOU AND JIMMIE AND DALE ARE ALL IN THIS MUST WIN SITUATION? “It is tough. I don’t know if it is tough for anyone but us but it isn’t what any of us had hoped for. This bracket was the heartbreak bracket for a reason because you don’t control your own destiny for two of the three races. We did last week but didn’t do a good job with it. I didn’t do a good job with it. We didn’t at Kansas and most likely we won’t here. We just have to get around it.”
WILL YOUR HEART BE BROKEN IF YOU DON’T ADVANCE? “Absolutely. That will be tough but it happens. I am not preparing to fail but I am proud of what we have done this year and if we don’t win the championship because of this round I am not going to go home and cry in my milk. We have a lot to be proud of, led a lot of laps, won races and won poles. It is almost a career year. There is a lot to take away from it but I am not giving up on it either. I am okay. I am in a good spot.”
I ASSUME YOU HAVE LOOKED AT THE VIDEO. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF PAUL WOLFE’S BAR BOUNCING SKILLS? “I saw parts of it. Again, I was surprised and impressed at the same time by the reaction of my team. That is not just one member, that is all of them.”
THE FACT THAT YOU WERE FINED AND MATT KENSETH WAS NOT, DOES THAT BOTHER YOU? “I haven’t really thought about it to be honest. I guess in some ways you could and some ways you couldn’t. It is what it is. I haven’t put that much thought into it.”
HAMLIN SAYING HOW YOU WERE GOING TO WRECK HALF THE FIELD HERE TO ADVANCE, WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THAT? “It is just a bunch of talk to give you guys something to talk about. It worked. It might work with you but it doesn’t work with me.”
HOW AGGRESSIVE AND HOW DOES THAT AGGRESSION SHOW UP IN THIS RACE BECAUSE IT A ROLLING PARKING GRID? “I don’t know. Talladega last fall was probably the least aggressive Talladega race I’ve every seen. I would never have predicted that. Talladega is a weird duck. To try and tell you it will be highly aggressive, I have a feeling it won’t. I have a feeling it will be a very conservative race but I don’t know. I feel like if you come in here protecting a points leads or a lead on the cut-off that you are just going to race conservative and try to ensure you are around at the end but I can’t speak for everyone else’s style or ideals.”
IS YOUR STRATEGY TO RUN UP FRONT AND BE AHEAD OF EVERYTHING? “I am not looking to tell other people what I am thinking. Sorry.”
WHEN DO YOU THINK YOU AND MATT WILL TALK? “I have no idea. No clue. That is hard to say. It is just not something I have thought about.”
