Catchfence

HISTORICAL DATA
• Total Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Wins: 201
• 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: Kurt Busch, 6/29/08, Loudon, NH, 317.4-miles, 1.058-mile track, 2008 Lenox Industrial Tools 301.
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: Sterling Marlin, 03/03/2002, UAW-Daimler 400, 136.754 mph avg. speed.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: Sterling Marlin, 03/03/2002, UAW-Daimler 400, 136.754 mph avg. speed.

DODGE AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
• Dodge has earned one win in 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sterling Marlin took the win in a Dodge in 2002.
• Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) has started in the top-10 in all eight of his previous outings at LVMS. He started on the outside pole in 2004. He leads all drivers (with more than one start) with a 6.1 starting average.
• Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) set the track qualifying record at LVMS with a lap of 184.856 mph (29.212 sec.) in 2007.
• Dodge has earned two poles at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – both by Kasey Kahne (2004 & 2007).
• Driving the No. 41 Dodge, Sterling Marlin became the oldest driver (44 years, 8 months, 3 days) to win a Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (March 3, 2002).

THE DODGE BOYS
• Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) recorded his second consecutive top-10 finish of the season last weekend at Auto Club Speedway, finishing fifth. Busch opened the season with a 10th-place finish at the Daytona 500.
• Kasey Kahne recorded the 200th win by Dodge in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with his victory in the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway last season.
• Kurt Bush gave Dodge its last Sprint Cup victory when he won the LENOX Industrial 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in June, 2008. It was Dodge’s 201st Cup win.
• The seven Dodge teams running the full 36-race Sprint Cup schedule are inside the top-35 in owner points.
• Penske Racing continues to integrate the new Dodge R6P8 Cup engine at non-restrictor plate tracks. Kurt Busch’s fifth-place finish last weekend at Fontana marks the engine’s highest finish to date.
• Reed Sorenson is the seventh driver to pilot the No. 43 Dodge since Richard Petty retired at the end of the ’92 season.

DODGE DRIVER NOTES & ANCEDOTES
• Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) is one of just three drivers (Matt Kenseth & Tony Stewart) to score top-10 finishes in the first two races of the season.
• Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge) is tied with Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte for the most poles at LVMS – two each.
• AJ Allmendinger’s (No. 44 Harrah’s Dodge Charger) will be making his first-career Cup start at the 1.5-mile oval.
• Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger) has one top-10 finish in 10 starts at LVMS. He finished 14th in last year’s race.
• Reed Sorenson (No. 43 McDonald’s Dodge Charger) will be making his fourth start at the 1.5-mile oval.

DID YOU KNOW?
• No driver has won at Las Vegas from the pole. Only four of the 11 races have been won from a top-10 starting position.
• The most cautions for a Sprint Cup event at LVMS came last year – 11. The most caution laps – 46 – came in 2005.
• A total of 111 different drivers have competed in Sprint Cup events at LVMS since 1998.
• Elliott Sadler will be making his 360th career Sprint Cup start on Sunday.

DODGE DRIVER QUOTES
“Las Vegas is a great track and a lot of fun to race on. I think this will be one of the best races at Las Vegas yet. The track has had a chance to mature and develop the extra groves since the progressive banking was added. With the multiple grooves you can really search for the best line that will make your car work.”
Kasey Kahne – No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger

ON THE START OF THE SEASON: “Well, to be honest, I wish we were a little bit further up in the standings. It’s nice to be in the top-12 after two races, but it would be a lot nicer to be first, second or third. We had a good night at Daytona, but we kind of let one slip away there that we should have been able to capture. California was a little more difficult — we attempted some things that we thought we learned at Rockingham that might give us a slight advantage, but it kind of backfired on us. Now we know that some of that stuff doesn’t work as well as we were hoping and we have to go back to what we know.”
Elliott Sadler – No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger

ON ALLMENDINGER’S FAMOUS LABRADOR RETRIEVER ‘MISTY’: “I’m a race car driver, Lynne is a licensed chiropractor but I think we’re going to be known simply as Misty’s parents.”
AJ Allmendinger – No. 44 Harrah’s Dodge Charger

ON THE PROGRESS OF THE DODGE R6P8 CUP ENGINE: “We’ve been extremely pleased with the engine. We continue to see gains all the way around with it. There’s additional horsepower there and more to be found, we hope. The great thing for our Penske Team is that we helped introduce it during the final part of the season last year. We were able to address a few minor glitches here and there and it’s been smooth sailing since then. Every week that passes, we get more and more comfortable about the engine’s strength and durability.”
Pat Tryson – Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger

“Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a really cool track. They have done a great job integrating the fans into the action. As for the track itself, you have to really get your car to work on the bottom of the track. These new cars are really aero sensitive so you need have a stable car through the corners. All the guys at Penske Racing have been working really hard on our mile-and-a-half program and so far it has paid off. I am looking for another strong run out of our No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger this weekend!”
David Stremme, No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger

“Las Vegas Motor Speedway is where I got my first podium in the IndyCar Series. In that sense the track is very special to me. Hopefully, we will be able to run a whole lot more laps in Vegas this year than we did last year and capture a strong finish. Last season, our intermediate track program emerged as on of our strongest efforts. With a full season behind me in a stock car and at all the tracks where we race, I feel that we will make great strides as a team this season especially at intermediate tracks. Looking forward into the 2009 season, I really think that we should be able to consistently run inside the top 20.”
Sam Hornish Jr., No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger

Darnell Communications For Dodge Motorsports, Press Release