Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Food City 500 Advance – Bristol Motor Speedway
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion, was part of an announcement today in which Fitzgerald Glider Kits will become involved as a sponsor for Team Penske in all three of NASCAR’s top touring series. Keselowski spoke about the partnership and challenging track conditions being faced this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE SOMEONE LIKE FITZGERALD COME ON BOARD? “It’s good for the sport and, like I said, American companies are hard to find nowadays and it’s just about as American as it gets. It’s a good thing and it relates to our sport, obviously being in the automotive sector and a product that we actually use to haul our own trailers, so that’s good. It’s kind of connected all the way around and all the ways you want to see things connect. It’s good to have a multi-faceted partnership for sure.”
IT’S A BENEFIT FOR EVERYONE. “Yeah, I think Roger and those guys can speak better to it. I’m not privy to all the financial workings on how that goes, but I think no matter what, these are what I think of as ideal race car sponsors.”
WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF THE BRISTOL TRACK SO FAR? “It’s changing. The surface was real slick and then it was really grippy and then it started to slicken back up. It’s gonna be an evolving surface race, so that just means it’s gonna be tough. We’re supposed to be the best, so we’ll have to figure it out.”
ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW SLICK IT IS UP THERE WITH THE MARBLES? “I’m not really sure. It’s changing faster than I can keep up with it. Nothing ever surprises me, but the tire plays a lot into it. It’s got a lot of marbles. It’s kind of the opposite of Martinsville. At Martinsville, the second groove kind of came in because there were no marbles and at Bristol the last few years there haven’t been a lot of marbles and now we have marbles. It’s just part of the game. That’s part of the challenge of being a race car driver that I try to explain to people that are maybe not familiar with the sport on a day-to-day basis. Even though we make left-hand turns for 34 of the 36 races, it’s entirely different every week – small little variables like the track configuration and the tire combination require drastic differences in driving style and techniques. The ability to be good at all of them is what makes you great and what makes this sport so challenging. This is a new evolution. It’s a new challenge for all of us, but that’s part of what makes this sport special and unique for us as drivers is to have different challenges every week and different adversities to overcome. This will be a weekend full of things we’ve never seen before, which usually means the field is privy to making a lot of mistakes, a lot of action, a lot of wrecks and that’s not always a bad thing.”
WHEN A TRACK MAKES A CHANGE LIKE THIS SHOULD THE GOAL BE MAKING BOTH LANES EVEN OR SHOULD THERE STILL BE A LANE THAT HAS A NATURAL ADVANTAGE? “I don’t know. I think when we went to double-file restarts I think we said, ‘To be damned with parity and fairness.’ Those days are gone and now it’s just about when you don’t have the preferred lane, you’ve got to make the most of it and you’ve got to try to get through it with the smallest penalty possible. When you do have the preferred lane, you’ve got to eat. That’s just become part of this sport. It’s not really about being fair.”
IF THE EFFORT CAN BE MADE TO ENHANCE THE TRACK IN ONE WAY, SHOULD IT BALANCE THINGS OUT? “It’s not meant to be a fair sport, just a sport.”
ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT RICHMOND NEXT WEEK? “I haven’t thought about it. It’s a pretty good track for us. We’ve won there in the past and have had a lot of really strong runs the last few years. I would expect the same. We’re on quite a roll right now and want to keep it going.”
