Dodge Motorsports NSCS Race Advance
Pepsi MAX 400
Auto Club Speedway
Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010
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DODGE AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
• Dodge has one Sprint Cup win at Auto Club Speedway (Kasey Kahne – 2006).
• Dodge has started from the pole four times at Auto Club Speedway. The most
recent came at the fall event in 2007.
• Dodge’s Kurt Busch has earned three of his 12 career poles at Auto Club
Speedway, more than at any other Sprint Cup Series track on the schedule.
THE DODGE BOYS
• Dodge has 207 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
• Dodge’s most recent win came at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. Kurt Busch
led 252 of 400 laps en route to victory in the Coca-Cola 600. It was his
second win of the 2010 season.
• Dodge has claimed two Sprint Cup victories in 2010.
• Dodge teams have posted 47 wins since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s
premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Auto Club Speedway: Kasey Kahne,
05/04/2004, Sony HD 500, 137.268 mph avg. speed.
DODGE IN THE CHASE: AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
• 2004: Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield represented Dodge in the Chase. Auto
Club Speedway was not one of the 10 races that made up the Chase in 2004.
• 2005: Three Dodge’s including Newman, Mayfield and Rusty Wallace qualified
for the Chase. Auto Club Speedway was not part of the 10-race Chase.
• 2006: Kasey Kahne was the only Dodge driver to make the Chase. He started
from the pole and dominated at Auto Club Speedway, the 25th race on the Sprint
Cup schedule, leading 130 laps en route to the win.
• 2007: Kurt Busch, the lone Dodge driver in the Chase. In the 25th race on
the Cup schedule, he finished ninth at Auto Club Speedway.
• 2008: There were no Dodges in the 2008 Chase field.
• 2009: Kurt Busch was the lone Dodge driver in the Chase. He started 24th
at Auto Club Speedway, the fourth race in the 10-race Chase, and finished
eighth. He led twice in the 500-mile event.
DID YOU KNOW?
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Operation Home Front/Miller Lite Dodge Charger swept the
pole for both Sprint Cup races at Auto Club Speedway in 2006. Busch’s third
pole at the two-mile track came during the fall event in 2007.
KURT BUSCH – INSIDE THE CHASE NUMBERS
• Busch is competing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the fifth time: 2004
– Champion, 2005 – 10th, 2007 – Seventh and 2009 – fourth.
• Currently sixth in Chase standings, 70 points behind the leader. He was
ranked fifth, 91 points behind the leader, after three races in the 2009
Chase.
• Finished 10th in the regular-season point standings after 26 races; ranked
fifth after the reset for the 2010 Chase.
• Lost two positions in the standings after his 13th-place finish at Kansas
last weekend, but just 11 points to the leader.
• Through the first three Chase races this year, Busch’s average finishing
position is 10th.
• In 29 races this season, Busch has two wins along with nine top-five and 16
top-10 finishes.
• Has competed in 62 Chase races since 2004 (43 have been in a Dodge) with 16
top-five and 33 top-10 finishes.
• His best Auto Club Speedway finish came in 2003 when he won the spring event
after starting 16th.
• In 16 Cup starts at Auto Club, Busch has led 230 laps with one win along
with four top-five and eight top-10 finishes.
DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Fuel mileage races are fun for crew chiefs and the driver. You’re working
together in a fashion where you both help each other when it comes to fuel
mileage. The crew chief is counting on the driver to save fuel and the driver
is counting on the crew chief and the team engineer running the fuel mileage
to have a little bit extra so that you don’t run out. Because when you run
out like Tony Stewart did at Loudon, it will cost you big.”
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Operation Home Front/Miller Lite Dodge Charger
ENGINEERING TALK
“When can you consider a race at Auto Club Speedway a sprint race? When
you’ve run nothing but 500-mile races at the track since the NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series first visited the track in 1997 and this week, we have our first
400-mile event ever. Yes, we’ve run plenty of 400-mile races at other tracks
for years, but all of the engineering notes we’ve gathered at Auto Club
Speedway are to support a 500-mile event. Fuel economy will be completely
different from what we’re used to, tire management, pit stops, pit box
choices, qualifying considerations, you name it, and we’ll have to rethink it
for this week’s shortened event.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering
DODGE DRIVER QUOTES
“It’s consistency — that’s the key to winning the championship — and we
need more of it. That’s always been the most critical factor and it
certainly will be the decision-maker this season, too. From here on out,
it’ll be all about having the best average finish, getting all the bonus
points you can and not having the problems that create bad finishes. You
have to be bringing your ‘A game’ to the track each and every week. You have
to be leading laps to get the bonus points and put the numbers on the board
at the end of the day. If we can make it through Talladega with something
near a 7.0 average with three races left, I feel confident that we can be
within striking distance of the leader. We finished 13th at Loudon, fourth
at Dover and 13th again last Sunday at Kansas and that figures out to be a
10.0 average after three races. That probably won’t cut it.”
‘
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge
“The one thing about California, we tend to run well there every spring race
but we seem to have some problems in the fall race. We’re trying to figure
out what the difference has been; I think it has a lot to do with how
temperatures affect the track with it being hotter in the fall. Hopefully
we’ll get it figured out a little better this year.”
Sam Hornish Jr. No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge
“Our cars are driving better on the intermediate tracks, not just for me, but
for Kurt (Busch) and Sam (Hornish Jr.) as well. We have some new cars coming
out as we close out the season. We’re trying to do everything we can to help
Kurt win the championship. So I’ll think we continue to see improvement in
our cars as we close out 2010 and start preparing for 2011. We have new cars
coming out that we think will make us more competitive and I’m looking forward
to seeing what they can do.”
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Penske Dodge
