Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes
NSCS Race Advance
Brickyard 400
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sunday, July 31, 2011
DODGE AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
. Bill Elliott won the 2002 Brickyard 400 driving the No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge. He led 93 laps en route to victory. In doing so, Elliott became the oldest winner at IMS – 46 years, 9 months and 27 days.
. Dodge has earned two poles at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Elliott Sadler (2005) and Reed Sorenson (2007).
. Dodge Sprint Cup Series Win at IMS: Bill Elliott, 8/02/02, 125.033 average speed
DODGE NEWS AND NOTES
. Dodge’s Robby Gordon returns to the driver’s seat in the No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T this weekend. He has two top 10s in 11 IMS starts. He also plans to have a second car in the field, the No. 77 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger, with a driver to be announced (TBA).
. Dodge’s Brad Keselowski will be making his second Cup start at IMS. He started 11th and finished 19th in last year’s race.
. Kurt Busch moved up one position to third in the Sprint Cup Series driver standings after his 10th-place finish at Loudon two weeks ago. Season high: 1st (Bristol, race 4) Season low: 9th (Charlotte, race 11).
2011 DODGE SPRINT CUP REWIND
. Race 1: Kurt Busch won the season-opening Bud Shootout and a Gatorade Duel at Daytona International Speedway.
. Races 12-15: Dodge earned four-consecutive poles.
. Race 13: Keselowski won Kansas. First Dodge win of the season
. Race 16: Busch dominated at Infineon. Earned first road course win of his career; his first win of the season.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
. Dodge’s Kurt Busch has an average starting position of 6.5 in the last seven races. During that same stretch, his average finishing position is eighth.
. Dodge’s Brad Keselowski has three top-15 finishes in his last four Sprint Cup starts.
DID YOU KNOW
. A Dodge established the current Sprint Cup track qualifying record of 186.293 mph/48.311 sec. (Casey Mears, 8/7/04).
. Dodge’s Kurt Busch has 12 combined wins at the seven race tracks leading up to the Chase – (Pocono – 2, Michigan – 2, Bristol – 5, Atlanta – 3).
. Dodge’s Brad Keselowski is 25 points out of the top 20 in the driver point standings.
. Only two of the 17 Sprint Cup races at IMS have been won from the pole.
THE DODGE BOYS
. Dodge has 209 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
. Dodge’s most recent win came at Infineon Raceway. Kurt Busch led 76 of the 110 laps en route to victory in the Save Mart 350. The victory was the second for Dodge in 2011.
. Dodge teams have posted 49 victories since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
. Dodge has posted wins each season since its return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).
. Dodge claimed two Sprint Cup victories in 2010.
FROM THE ENGINEER “The conversations about all of the prestige and history of the last 100 years of racing at Indianapolis are certainly interesting, but do little to help solve the enormous task faced by every engineer that’s ever competed at the 2.5-mile track. With two of the longest straightaways in racing, Indy demands as much horsepower as any track we race on. But both straights end in true 90-degree flat corners. If you can’t get through those corners, no matter how much speed you’ve made on the straights, your lap will be junk. Then you need another burst of horsepower for the “short chutes” before getting the car through two more flat corners. It may be because there’s nothing gradual about Indy; the driver is either on the gas and going straight or off the gas and turning hard. That makes the place the engineering challenge that it is.” Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering
ODDS AND ENDS
. Kurt Busch is the only driver in the Sprint Cup Series who has been in the top 10 in the season point standings every race. Two other drivers – Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart – have been in the top 12 all season.
. There have been 13 different Cup Series winners in the 19 races this season – matching the total for all 36 races last season.
. Two other Indiana tracks have hosted races (one each) in what is now the Sprint Cup Series. Both were dirt tracks: Winchester Speedway (1950) and Playland Park Speedway in South Bend (1952).
. The first Brickyard 400 was on Aug. 6, 1994.
2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST
. Kurt Busch Start: 1st (Kansas, Pocono & Michigan) Finish: 1st (Infineon)
. Brad Keselowski Start: 1st (Charlotte) Finish: 1st (Kansas)
. Robby Gordon Start: 30th (Daytona) Finish: 16th (Daytona)
DODGE QUOTES Brad Keselowski on racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway “You can’t go to the Brickyard without thinking about what the track means not only to NASCAR, but to auto racing in general. Being from the Midwestern section of the country myself, I always looked to the spectacle of the Indianapolis 500 and wondered what it would be like to compete there. Now we have the Brickyard 400 for stock cars and it has become one of the most prestigious races in the country as well. Hopefully we can get a good, solid run in this weekend and make a move back toward the top 20 in points. We’ve always been able to qualify up front on flat tracks. Now we just need to continue to finish up there too.”
Brad Keselowski on racing at Indianapolis for team owner Roger Penske “It definitely gives you a sense of pride when you go to Indy as a member of Penske Racing. You look at everything Mr. Penske has been able to accomplish there in open-wheel racing. It would be one of the coolest things I could ever do in a racecar if I could get him his first win in the Brickyard 400. We’re going to give it our best shot this weekend. We’ve obviously been able to improve our program over the last couple of months so I feel good about us going there and challenging for the win.”
Crew chief Paul Wolfe on his inaugural race as a crew chief at Indianapolis Motor Speedway “Going to Indy for the first time as a crew chief will be a high-water mark in my career. To do it as a member of Penske Racing, with all Mr. Penske has done at that track, just makes it even more special. I won’t let myself get caught up in all the pageantry that surrounds racing at Indy. We’re going up there focused and ready to win a race. Corner exit is very important at Indianapolis because you have to make sure you get down the long straightaways. Each turn is tight – basically 90 degrees – so you need to make sure that your car is turning well enough that the driver can get back to the power as early as possible. Mechanical grip and aerodynamic grip all play a part in making that happen.”
“We’re coming in there after our final off weekend of the season looking to keep our strong performances going. “It’s most important that we keep the big picture as the primary goal and that’s making the Chase and hopefully winning the first Cup championship for Penske Racing. We’re pretty comfortable right now where we are in the standings and with the amount of points we have over the guys at the back end of the top. The big win that we enjoyed out at Sonoma certainly adds to that comfort factor. We’re definitely hoping to be competitive at Indy and build a little more on our confidence level and pad our ‘comfort zone.'” Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T
On what it would mean to win the Brickyard 400: “It’s only natural to have in the back of your mind what it would mean if we can win the race – the really big picture of the significance of a Brickyard 400 win for Roger and Penske Racing. With Roger’s success in the open wheel ranks at Indianapolis – with an incredible 15 wins and 16 poles in the Indy 500 — the significance of putting a win there in the NASCAR record book is certainly magnified. It would be a major accomplishment to be the first Penske Racing NASCAR driver to score that victory.
“When you look at all of ‘the Captain’s’ accomplishments and the records for Penske Racing, the significant major voids in stock car racing are a win in the Brickyard 400 and a NASCAR Sprint Cup points title,” continued Busch. “I know those are major goals for Roger and I want to be the driver who delivers the goods to him. I felt like I contributed somewhat to Roger winning the 2008 Daytona 500 in that I did push (Ryan) Newman across the line to take the win. So, winning the Brickyard 400 and winning a Cup championship are huge goals of ours.
“Everyone remembers just how close that Rusty came to winning at Indy,” Busch said of Rusty Wallace. “Rusty finished second three times and nearly notched that big win in the record book. So the desire and incentive to win in NASCAR at Indy for Roger Penske is so obvious that it shouldn’t call for much explanation.
“A win there on Sunday would be as prominent and important of a feat that’s possible,” Busch added. “For me personally, it would be a thrilling experience I’d always remember and hold at the top of the list of my accomplishments.” Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T
