Quaker State 400 – Kentucky Speedway
Saturday, July 9, 2016
BRAD KESELOWSKI PRESS CONFERENCE – Walt Czarnecki and Paul Wolfe
WALT CZARNECKI, Executive Vice President, Team Penske – “It’s extremely significant. Obviously, coming on the heels of our 100th Cup win last week at Daytona, which was huge, and then today our Indy Car team recorded our 500th pole – Simon Pagenaud at Iowa – so it’s been a big day for Team Penske. Looking back at the last six weeks the job that Paul and Brad and Joey and Todd and Travis and Mike and all the people who are charged with running this program, they really brought the program together. We felt early on that our cars were good. Brad won a race at Las Vegas. I think we all realized that maybe the team wasn’t executing as best as it possibly could, and clearly over the last six weeks that situation has changed. I think we’ve established ourselves as a contender, but clearly there’s a long way to go. I’m pretty comfortable and will say this, I think there are a few more wins left in this team prior to getting to Chicago.”
PAUL WOLFE, Crew Chief – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – TAKE US THROUGH THOSE LAST FEW LAPS. “It’s definitely an emotional rollercoaster for sure the last few laps of that race. When we pitted, I guess it was with about 70 to go, we knew that everyone was a little bit short. I feel like we’ve been on the good side of the fuel mileage this year. All the guys at Roush Yates have worked hard to give us power and mileage, and that showed up again tonight. With that being said, we were kind of expecting to maybe see some cautions as we did early in the race, so it wasn’t really a big concern. But with 20 to go it was time to start making decisions. As you saw, some of the guys running fifth or sixth peeled off with maybe 15-16 to go and then it was kind of decision time on what do we do. We knew we couldn’t make it. We knew we were short, but as we got out there and got the lead in that final run Brad started saving and he’s one of the best in the business at saving fuel, so as we got down to 10 to go he was like, ‘Make the call on what you want me to do.’ I kind of know what our strengths are and that’s definitely saving fuel, and I went with that strategy and told him to a 10 on the scale of save mode. Everyone else – I think the 20 ran out – and that gave us a big cushion back to the 19. I think it was 10 or 12 seconds, so that really allowed us to start saving, but when it comes down to it we were out. We were totally out at the start-finish line, so it couldn’t have timed out any better.”
WALT CZARNECKI – “I’d like to interject. I was sitting up there with Paul for that last segment and this man to my right never lost his composure. He stayed totally focused and never wavered one bit when he made that decision and it was really wonderful to watch.”
PAUL WOLFE – WHAT IMPACT DID THE LOWER DOWNFORCE PACKAGE HAVE ON THE RACE? “It had a big impact. There were a lot of factors this week with this being a repaved track, the first race on the track, it’s always a challenge for Goodyear and NASCAR to figure out what tire combination to bring. These repaved tracks tend to build a lot of heat in the tires, so you’ve got to build something with some durability. It’s always a challenge to get that balance. Sometimes that leads to the cars not driving as good as maybe some may like, but ultimately we’ve got the best drivers in the business in this garage and I think we saw some guys lose it tonight, but I think the cars are tough to drive and a challenge. I think that’s what separates the guys that can rise to the occasion and the ones that can’t.”
CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH THE LAST LAP AND WHEN YOU COULD EXHALE? “I felt good about it until the 19 closed up to us. When he first said he felt like it stumbled that was about with two to go. Typically, we feel like you usually can get a lap-and-a-half when you feel it first stumble as much as he was saving, so I still felt pretty good about it until I think with one to go he said, ‘I’m out. I’m out again,’ and the 19 had closed up within two car lengths. We got into turn one and he said it picked up fuel again. He was able to go and I think he said it shut off a little bit down the back as he got into the corner again it picked up and then once we were coming off four I saw he was still under power and I felt like we had it at that point.”
WALT CZARNECKI – YOUR TEAM HAS WON ALL OF THE LOWER DOWNFORCE PACKAGE RACES. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE WORK DONE AT THE SHOP? “I hadn’t really thought about that, but again I think it’s a testimony to that adaptability and the talent of the people that work on these cars at Mooresville. They’re prepared. One of the things that I think the hallmark of our team has been for many years, not just this year, we want to come to the race track prepared with the best possible equipment. I was at the shop on Wednesday and I was watching the work that was going on for example on the cars that we’re going to be taking to New Hampshire next week, so there’s total focus, total concentration. My hat’s off to the people back there. Roy McCauley and the whole team that put these cars together.”
IS JOEY OK? DID YOU TALK TO HIM? “I haven’t had a chance to talk to him. I didn’t see him afterwards, so I really can’t answer your question. Sorry. I hope he’s OK.”
PAUL WOLFE – CARL SAID HE THOUGHT BRAD WAS OUT OF FUEL AND HE WASN’T. CAN YOU COMMENT ON THAT? “Brad did a great job saving. I don’t know that there was any plan to just finish whatever it was, a car length in front of Carl, but when he said he was out he was out. Like I said, typically the car will still pick up fuel for a lap-and-a-half there. Honestly, when Carl closed up to us going down the back I thought he was gonna go around us. I haven’t heard for sure, but I’m assuming he was probably in the same situation as us, where he was starting to stumble a little bit. But, like I said, when I made the call to go into full fuel save, it was really just the confidence I had in Brad through that whole 70-lap run that he does such a good job of saving fuel when we need to that I had confidence enough that, you know what, I think we can pull it off this way, our chances are pretty good and kind of rolled with it. I knew it was gonna be close, but that’s what ultimately made it so exciting at the end.”
IS IT A TRADE SECRET ON HOW BRAD SAVES FUEL SO WELL? “I’m not really sure if it’s any secrets. I think everyone knows he’s good at it now, but I don’t know. The key to it is being able to keep speed and save fuel at the same time, and he’s able to balance that out really well of not losing much lap time while saving fuel – just the techniques and how he uses the brake and the gas and he’s just really been good at it. It kind of showed up more, I think, when we still had the carburetors and all that. It’s harder to save as much with EFI now as what we could back when we first started, but it still works. He’s still able to do it, so it could just be his driving style in general that works really well when you need to save fuel. When it comes to thinking in the car, Brad is really good. He’s really intelligent and thinks a lot about what’s going on and is able to react and stay calm. I think that’s key in situations like that is being able to stay calm and stay focused and that’s definitely one of Brad’s strengths.”
