Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012
Watkins Glen International – NASCAR Nationwide Series – Zippo 200
Post-Race Quotes
Dodge PR
http://twitter.com/teamdodge, www.media.chrysler.com, www.drivesrt.com
Brad Keselowski (No. 22 Discount Dodge Challenger) Finished Runner-up YOU LED THE MOST LAPS TODAY. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE? “A fun race for sure, especially with a car as fast as that one was. Man, that makes it so much fun to race with a car like that. I’m proud of the day. Obviously I would have liked to get the win. A lot to be proud of.”
A SECOND-PLACE TODAY BUT I KNOW THAT YOU WANTED THE WIN. WHAT HAPPENED ON THOSE FINAL RESTARTS? “For sure. Good hard racing. Nothing wrong. The restarts are the best chance to make a pass. We definitely had one of the fastest cars out here today. I’m proud of everyone on this Discount Tire/SFK team. A lot of fun when you have fast cars. I learned a lot. A great day. I kind of feel like I gave away a little bit of a win. I’m banking on nice-guy points on that one.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW PEOPLE WERE PASSING ALL OVER THE PLACE TODAY, SOMETIMES WHERE THEY SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN? “These cars are hard to driver. It’s easy to make a mistake and then there is some speed discrepancies through the field; that adds to it which you don’t see.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE NEXT TO LAST RESTART? “Obviously he missed the last left hander. He struggled to get into that corner. I was really strong through there and pulled up to his outside door. I went into (Turn 11) and Carl was outside and he got loose, came up the track and hit me. That kind of took away all my momentum. I didn’t have a chance at it from there.”
CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR REACTION TO THE DODGE NEWS THIS WEEK? “I think that I saw it coming. It was hard not to see it coming. I think next year Penske Racing is going to be in even stronger shape. We’re going to get even more support from Ford than we’ve ever had and I think that’s that reason why we made the move. For that I’m thankful. Certainly there is the potential to have some time to turn around and (in audible). I’m confident long term that I’ll be very successful at Penske Racing.”
Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 PPG Dodge Challenger) Finished Third CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE? “It was an awesome race today. Our PPG Dodge Challenger was fast all day and to bring home a third-place finish, gain on the point’s leader and race hard at the end with Brad (Keselowski) was cool.”
CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH THAT LAST RESTART? DEFENSE ON THE 54. OFFENSE ON THE 22: “It was a difficult restart there. I felt like Carl slowed down the restart quite a bit. I was about ready to go, started to go and then had to get back out of the gas. It was one of those things where I had to make sure that I had the bottom line and try to play it as smart as I could. Racing there with Brad and Carl and Kyle feels good when we can take our PPG Dodge and be that competitive. I’m really thankful for what the guys at the Penske shop do to these cars. The engine shop today gave me a great car. I made a mistake on a shift and didn’t know if the engine was going to make it all day long. I’m thankful for Nationwide Insurance for what they do for the series. A great day for sure.”
YOU WERE RUNNING UP FRONT WITH A LOT OF GUYS WHO AREN’T RUNNING FOR POINTS. WHAT WAS YOUR MINDSET? “You have some of the best guys in the business plus the points don’t matter to them, so you have double threat with them. The restarts were the biggest thing. Just trying to get through the restarts, I felt like we probably gave up a few positions here and there just trying to be overly cautious. That’s what you have to do. I felt like today was the day that we were going to have an opportunity to gain on the championship point lead. When we have days like this and can be smart about the things that we do, it always helps to have a good handling racecar to allow you to do that. We want to win races but we know we need to get top-fives and be consistent before that happens. You don’t need to win every race to win the championship. You just have to be smart and that’s what we’ve done so far.”
