SRT Motorsports – Dodge Sprint Cup Series Race Advance
Coke Zero 400
Daytona International Speedway
Saturday, July 7, 2012
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DODGE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
· Dodge has 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup wins at Daytona International Speedway.
· A Dodge has started from the pole nine times at the 2.5-mile track.
· Dodge swept the pole for both races (Bill Elliott – Daytona 500 and Sterling Marlin – Firecracker 400) in 2001, the year the manufacturer returned to NASCAR’s premier series.
· A.J. Allmendinger scored his best DIS finish (third) in the 2009 Daytona 500 in the No. 44 Dodge.
· Brad Keselowski career-best finish at DIS came in last year’s Coke Zero 400. He finished 15th in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge.
DODGE NEWS AND NOTES
· Dodge recorded its third Sprint Cup win of the season at Kentucky as Brad Keselowski led 68 of 267 laps en route to victory. The wins have come on a short track (.533-mile Bristol), (2.66-mile Talladega) and intermediate track (1.5-mile Kentucky). Keselowski is the only Sprint Cup driver with three wins this season.
2012 SEASON REWIND
· Brad Keselowski has an average start of 16.5 and average finish of 13.5 in the 17 races. He has only one finish outside the top 15 in the last 10 races and led laps (322) in nine of the 17 events this year.
DODGE HISTORICAL DATA
· First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Lee Petty, 2/1/53, West Palm Beach, Fla., 100 miles, .5-mile track.
· Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Brad Keselowski, 06/30/2012, Quaker State 400, Kentucky Speedway, 145.607 mph avg. speed.
· First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Daytona: Junior Johnson and Bobby Isaac won the two 100-mile qualifiers for the 1964 Daytona 500 (Richard Petty won the 500 in a Plymouth); A.J. Foyt, 7/4/64, Firecracker 400, 151.451 mph avg. speed.
· Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Daytona: Ryan Newman, 2/17/08, Daytona 500, 152.672 mph avg. speed.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
· 2 – A.J. Allmendinger has scored top 10-finishes in the last two Sprint Cup Series races.
· 6 – Brad Keselowski has scored six Sprint Cup Series wins in the last 18 months, second only to Tony Stewart (7).
· 19 – Brad Keselowski has scored 19 bonus points this season, second only to Jimmie Johnson who has 20.
FROM SRT ENGINEERING “As we approach the Coke Zero 400, engineers have several elements to consider that are unusual for Daytona. It’s the first summer race on the new track surface. It’s the first summer race with the new restricted cooling inlets. It’s the first summer race with fuel injection. And, there’s one more very important element that may trump all of those – it’s not the first night race at Daytona this year. If you remember, the Daytona 500 in February had to be postponed until Monday night because of rain. That has provided engineers a very important preview of how this race may run. Air temperatures will be higher this week than in February but all-important track temperatures may be closer to the conditions we saw in the Daytona 500. That’s a very important element.” Howard Comstock, SRT Engineering, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
DODGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK “The three wins are nice, and it means that we are pretty safe in regards to making the Chase, but we are focused on staying in the top 10 so that we can use the bonus points. That’s the way I look at the points right now. To me, we are leading the points because we are in the top 10 with the most wins. I want to be the guy with the most wins and inside the top 10 and I want to look forward to making sure that we stay inside the top 10. Hopefully we can climb up a few more spots to be safe. But wins and being in the top 10, that’s all that matters.” Brad Keselowski, driver, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T
DODGE QUOTES: “We’ve had some incredibly fast race cars in the plate races this season, but we just don’t have the good finishes to match the strength we’ve shown. If we can just get through the whole race without the problems, there’s no reason we can’t come out of there with a great finish and have a legitimate shot at the win.” A.J. Allmendinger, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T
“We’re going for wins. That’s our focus from now until the checkered flag at Richmond. The three-win ‘parachute’ is nice, but we don’t want to have to use it. It’s easy for us to sit here and dwell on the fact that we lost a lot of points at the start of the year, with our reliability issues, but that accomplishes nothing. We’ve fixed those issues and we still have fast race cars, cars that are capable of winning at any time. This, obviously, is the biggest wild-card race left before the Chase starts. We have a nice lead over the 99 car for 10th, but if we aren’t careful we could take a big hit there at Daytona because anything can happen.” Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T
