THE RACE
AAA 400 – Dover International Speedway (one-mile oval, Dover, Del.)
No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion driven by Brad Keselowski | No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion driven by Joey Logano
Sunday, September 28, 2:00 pm ET
THE NEWS AND NOTES
· WURTH LEADING THE CHASE: Heading into the third race of the Challenger Round of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, the No. 2 Team Penske Ford will once again fly the Wurth colors as its primary sponsor this weekend. Through the opening two rounds of the Chase, Keselowski and the No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion have held the top spot in the standings. As it prepares for a run at the championship, the team has won two of the last three races – earning a spot in the second round of the Chase. It also has accrued 11 top-three, 12 top-five and 15 top-10 finishes thru 28 races this season.
· THE DEUCE AT DOVER: During the spring event at Dover, Keselowski won his second pole position of the season and went on to finish second on race day. The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion has nine starts at the Monster Mile. He won in 2012 and owns three top-five and three top-10 finishes at Dover.
· TOP QUALIFIER CONTINUED: Keselowski has adapted to the elimination-style qualifying format in dominant fashion. The driver of the No. 2 Wurth Ford has scored a career-best five pole positions this season. He and the team also have earned a series-leading 12 front row starts this season.
· CHANGING LANES AT DOVER: This Thursday evening, Keselowski will shift gears, going from the fast lane to the bowling alley as he visits Mid County Lanes located at 875 N Broad St. in Middletown, Del. for Miller Lite. The activities begin at 8:30 pm ET.
· BACK FOR MORE BARTENDER BRAD: As if leading the Chase point standings and being the winningest driver of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season wasn’t enough, Keselowski is continuing his role of Bartender Brad for Miller Lite. In the popular online video feature, Keselowski is available to counsel and advise fans on twitter using the hashtag #bartenderbrad.
· STUDYING FOR THE INTERMEDIATE FUTURE: Keselowski and the No. 2 team were at Texas Motor Speedway on Monday and Tuesday of this week testing. This test is of critical importance as four of the remaining eight races of the Chase will be run on 1.5-mile tracks.
· ONTO THE NEXT ROUND: Joey Logano punched his ticket to the Contender Round of the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, winning his fourth race of the 2014 season and his second at the track. Logano led for 73 laps to earn his seventh career Sprint Cup Series win and fifth since joining Team Penske in 2013.
· TIME FOR TESTING: Heading into this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) event, Dover International Speedway will be the third different track that Logano will have seen in the last six days behind the wheel of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion. Logano took the victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last Sunday, then spent two days testing with his Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski at Texas Motor Speedway on Monday and Tuesday and will be back behind the wheel this weekend at the “Monster Mile.”
· SECOND IN POINTS: After the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway, Logano found himself a career-best third in the NSCS point standings. Now, following his win at New Hampshire, Logano sits second in the point standings, just one point behind Keselowski.
· DOUBLE DUTY ONCE AGAIN: Logano will again be pulling double duty this weekend at Dover, racing in both the NSCS event on Sunday and in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event on Saturday behind the wheel of the No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang. He has earned four career wins at the one-mile track in the Nationwide Series.
· FIVE STRAIGHT DOVER TOP 10s: Despite the fact that he hasn’t won at the “Monster Mile” in the NSCS, Logano is on a bit of a hot streak when it comes to finishes at the track. Logano has earned five straight top-10 finishes at Dover and has finished in the top 10 in seven of his 11 career races at the track. Despite the seven top 10s, Logano has only led one lap at Dover over the course of his NSCS career.
· PENSKE HOT STREAK: With Logano’s win at New Hampshire, Team Penske has now won three straight Sprint Cup Series events and four of the last five, dating back to Logano’s win at Bristol Motor Speedway at the end of August. The organization has produced nine total wins this season between Logano and Keselowski.
THE Q&A
BRAD KESELOWSKI, NO. 2 WURTH FORD
YOU ARE LEADING THE CHASE HEADING TO DOVER, WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET FOR THE WEEKEND?
“We are in a good place right now. The team is in championship form and our Wurth Ford has good speed. During the race here earlier this year we qualified up front and then came up just a little short of the goal with a second-place finish. We’ve won here before and I feel as though we are more than capable of winning again. This race is an important one for our competitors and that will make for an interesting race. I am looking forward to it, and it should be a great show for the fans.”
THE TEAM HAS BEEN QUITE DOMINANT EARLY IN THE CHASE. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN THE REST OF THE WAY?
“We’re so early in this thing and with the resets that there are the success of one day really means nothing come the last race at Homestead. With each reset it looks like an NCAA bracket. In that sense to compare it, it would be like if a great NCAA team beat a lower-seeded team it doesn’t really matter when you get to the next round. It’s great. It’s positive momentum and everything you want to do and think you should do, but when it resets it resets and nothing that you’ve done in the past really matters as long as you’re eligible for the bracket. We’re a long, long ways from using the word ‘favorite’ or feeling overly confident.”
JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD
WHY WOULD YOU CALL DOVER ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE RACE TRACKS ON THE SCHEDULE?
“It’s just one of those places that has always fit my driving style. And it’s just a blast to run. It’s a fun racetrack to go you. You drive so hard into the corners, and you feel like you are on a roller coaster. You drop down into the corner and then come up out of them at the exit. And you just feel the speed at Dover, especially in qualifying. You pretty much always get out of the car there catching your breath after qualifying. And I feel like I’ve always run pretty well there, either in the Cup Series or the Nationwide Series. It’s one of the places I’d really like to win. I’ve got a bunch of little Monster trophies from Nationwide races, but I want a big monster trophy and I want to see it holding my car.”
YOU AND YOUR TEAM ARE TESTING THIS WEEK. HOW IMPORTANT ARE THESE TESTS LEADING INTO THE CHASE RACES?
“We were fortunate as a team to be able to be locked into the Chase pretty early and save all of our test dates for Chase tracks. There were a few teams out there that had to do a test or two at tracks leading up to the cut off. We’ve now tested at Charlotte and Texas getting ready for the Chase. It’s important to run good there and put yourself in a position to possibly win the race and lock yourself into the next round. You are really getting back to the days of a kind of points racing if you aren’t going to win the race. If you don’t feel like you are good enough to win the race, you need to get a top three or top five at least out of it. You can’t just go for it. And that is where all this testing helps.”
