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[/media-credit]Sunday, March 25, 2012
Auto Club Speedway
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Post-Race Quotes
Dodge PR
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 18th “We were really strong on the first run for sure. We started to lose the handle on the car after that. It’s difficult to say how fast we were going to be because we just didn’t dial the car in to where I knew how much speed we had in the car yet. I know that we were capable of running faster than 18th and I certainly didn’t help it with the pit road speeding violation.
WAS IT A SITUATION WHERE THE CAR WAS JUST ON A RAZOR’S EDGE ALL DAY? “Yeah. These cars are like that and you just have to adjust to what the track is giving you to be fast. We just need to find a little bit more speed.”
DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE GAINING ON THE CAR? “We had a good car to start the race, but it just kept getting looser as we ran. The track kept getting slicker and I lost time on entry and exit because of it. We were in position for a decent finish and I sped down pit road. That put us a lap down and the rain kept us from racing for the Lucky Dog. I think our Miller Lite Dodge was better than an 18th-place car.”
A.J. Allmendinger (No. 22 AAA Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 15th “We started off way too tight and that hurt us. I didn’t expect us to be that tight to start the race. I got up to 18th or so and the car just stayed tight. That cost us some time. On our second run the car was too free, completely opposite of where we were the first green-flag run. I felt like the car was a little bit quicker, more competitive. Then on our next green-flag stop, that’s when we developed an issue with the right-rear tire going down. It really screwed the car up. That put us a run behind on setup. The tire had to go down as soon as we left pit road because I got this nasty vibration in the car and I knew something was wrong. By the end of the run, the car was really tight and we had to pit early because we were losing too much time. It ending up working out for us and we made up a ton of time. We were about seven to 10 laps on older tires and I felt like that I could get the top rolling for the first time all day. We were actually decent and it stinks that it started to rain because I wanted to keep running. Starting as tight as we were put us behind and with that long green-flag run to start the race, there really isn’t anything that you can do to help your car.”
