Saturday, June 11, 2011 Pocono Raceway Dodge Motorsports PR 5-Hour Energy 500 Post-Qualifying Quotes NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified First “There are plenty of emotions how things work. Yesterday, with the wreck in practice, we had to go to the backup. If it was raining right now, we would have to start the race last. So, it’s nice that we got the opportunity to go out today, the weather held off for us and our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge was money. I’m not going to give up on my guys; they didn’t give up on me. It was a great lap. If I had slipped up and brushed up against the fence, there would be a big body-work nightmare tonight for the crew.”
IN THE MEDIA CENTER: “Quite a bit of emotions today, especially after having to burst out the backup car after yesterday’s mishap. To go out there today, if it was raining, we would be starting last. And now, luckily the weather held out and we’re on the pole. An amazing swing of events. An honest thank you to my guys, especially the ones back at the shop preparing the cars. To pull a backup out that’s a pole-winning car, that’s something you really wouldn’t hear about back in the day. It would be all-right, we’re going to have to struggle through the weekend; it’s not the best piece (car). It’s great that we have that quality control in our system. We haven’t changed a lot of things since Richmond. It’s just been some procedures, some processes and maybe just looking at the data a little bit differently. It’s great to come back out and be on the pole again. As a race car driver, I was really, really, really worried with the number 13, I thought I was going to get stuck on the 13th pole for a long while, but number 14 already, we’re moving on.”
IS THERE A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR QUALIFYING WITH YOUR TEAM? “It’s a matter of knowing where the edge is, but not stepping over it. Yesterday, honestly, I missed my shift point and it got me into trouble. I was trying different things, changing the rear gear, changing the transmission, and just being in a different zone of elements of changes. Normally, the last three years, we haven’t messed with gears at all. It was cool to do that and mess with it and it bit me. Today, we went right back after it and I was aggressive and I used the same procedure as I did yesterday at practice where I wrecked to get the pole today.”
OUTSIDE OF CREW MEMBER CHANGES, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE THE LAST FEW WEEKS IN YOUR CARS? “Again, I think that it gets back to looking at our data differently and doing it in a sense of I took the apple tree and just shook it as hard as I could at Richmond. We saw which apples fell and which ones were still there. There’s some processes, procedures, a couple of different personnel changes. Quite honestly, it was, ‘Hey, do we want to make this Chase? We got to make some changes’. We’ll look at how we can re-evaluate what we’re doing because heading into the direction that we were, we were just scrapping those top 10s or maybe running 15th and that’s not going to get it done when you want to win a championship.”
STEVE ADDINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) “This 22 crew, the 2 car guys, everybody back at the shop, the fab guys here, what an effort. When we unloaded the backup car, we had made so many changes during practice with the primary car we didn’t get a lot of track time with the backup. I want to thank everybody on this Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. The work they did to get this car ready was awesome. To lay down a lap like that is pretty impressive. And that guy that sits behind the steering wheel isn’t too damn bad either.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 20th “There was something wrong with the throttle linkage. It was definitely stuck. I don’t know if there was a rock in it or what, I don’t know. It was pretty hairy entering Turn One here. Then you add down shifting, it’s even hairier. And then you add the throttle sticking and it’s really, really hairy. We’re just lucky to not bring one back on the hook. It’s a shame. I think this car was fast enough to put down a really good lap, certainly a top-five or top-10 lap. All in all, it was a good effort. I don’t think anyone did anything wrong. I think it just got a piece of rubber, a rock in it that caused it to stick”
