Sunday, May 29, 2011
Dodge Motorsports PR
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Coca-Cola 600
Post-Race Quotes
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
www.media.chrysler.com
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger) Finished Fourth “It’s amazing that we can race 600 miles and it comes down to a green-white-checkered finish and fuel mileage. That’s the excitement that this sport brings and you never know when it’s going to be your time to have fuel or not. Today, we had enough and Steve (Addington) made a great call to come in and top-off for fuel. It worked out and we made the right calculations to make it to the end of the race.”
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAD ENOUGH FUEL? “We knew that we could make it to one green-white-checker flag; we didn’t think that we could make it to a second.”
CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH THE LAST RESTART? “We got lucky. People were spinning their tires and struggling to get fuel to their carburetor.”
DID YOU SEE THAT THE 4 CAR RAN OUT OF GAS ON THE RESTART? “There was chaos up above on the restart and I know my teammate got into it. It’s tough. Brad Keselowski had a good run today in that Miller Lite Dodge.”
STEVE ADDINGTON Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)
“I seen fuel mileage wins here before and I’ve finished runner-up with it. Everybody did a good job on this Shell/Pennzoil Dodge tonight. We still have a ways to go to get our cars where we need them to get competitive with those Fords. We’re headed in the right direction. Everybody stayed focused. The driver stayed focus and we got a good finish out of it.”
HOW SOON DID YOU KNOW THAT IT WAS GOING TO BE A FUEL MILEAGE GAME? “We pitted around lap 297 with the 2 car, topped-off with gas and took two tires and that was the game plan and it worked out.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 19th “It’s disappointing to run as well as we did and have that happen at the end. Disappointing. The Miller Lite Dodge was fast all night. We started on the pole. We ran in the top 10 most of the night. The crew did a great job. It was a total team effort. Unfortunately, we ended up three miles short of a top-five finish.”
PAUL WOLFE ( Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) “It was a strong run all night. We started from the pole and the encouraging part was we were able to maintain in the top 10 all night. It’s a long race, but we kept working on the car and had ourselves in position at the end for a good finish. We knew everyone was close on fuel; it got all jammed up on that last restart. I’m real proud of the team and how far we’ve come with this Miller Lite Dodge since Vegas, our first mile-and-half race this year. That race was a disaster. We’ve come a long ways, but we’ve still got a long ways to go. Definitely a strong run tonight.”
MIKE NELSON (Vice-President – Competition, Penske Racing) “It was a good day for Penske Racing. Our Dodge Chargers were good all race. We got a little off on track position, but was able to get it back with some good calls. A good solid effort. We definitely heading in the right direction after some of the tough weeks we’ve had. I feel really bad for the Miller Lite Team, for Brad, Paul and the whole crew. They had a great car. Kurt, Steve (Addington, crew chief) the 22 team had a great race tonight.”
ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 SPEED Energy / Harris Teeter / Sam’s Mart Dodge Charger) Finished 38th
“A tough night. We lost a (front) brake master cylinder that sent us to the garage early. It’s frustrating. I’m not sure what happened. We changed out a new one, made some other changes with bars and springs and went out to run some laps. It was important for us to get out there and earn some owner points in this SPEED Energy/Harris Teeter/Sam’s Mart Dodge Charger. Basically, it became a test session for us the rest of the night.”
