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HISTORICAL DATA

• Total Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Wins: 202
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Lee Petty, 2/1/53, West Palm, Fla., 100 miles, .5-mile track.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Kurt Busch, 03/08/2009, 2009 Kobalt Tools 500, 127.573 mph avg. speed. (1 race ago)
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Bristol Motor Speedway: David Pearson, 03/19/1967, 1967 Southeastern 500, 75.937 mph avg. speed.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Bristol Motor Speedway: Kurt Busch, 03/26/2006, Food City 500, 79.427 mph avg. speed.
• Total Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Wins at Bristol Motor Speedway: 6

DODGE AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

• Kurt Busch posted his first career victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Bristol. It came in the 2002 spring race, his sophomore season. Busch also has the most recent Dodge win at BMS. He won the 2006 spring event. He has five wins at the .533-mile track.
• Richard Petty provided Dodge with its only sweep at the .533-mile track as he claimed the win in both events during the 1975 season. He didn’t start on the pole for either race, but did have a top-five starting spot.
• Kurt Busch swept both races in 2003, but that was before he joined the Dodge ranks and Penske Racing.
• Dodge drivers with wins at Bristol include Petty, Busch, David Pearson and Bobby Allison.
• In August 2007, Kasey Kahne started from the pole and led 305 of the 500-lap event en route to a second-place finish, a career best at BMS.

THE DODGE BOYS

• Dodge recorded the most recent win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Kurt Busch at the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was the 202nd win for Dodge in NASCAR’s premier series.
• Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) and Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) are currently in the top 12 in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. Busch is third, 46 points behind the leader, while Kahne is ninth, 150 points out.
• All seven Dodge teams running the full 36-race Sprint Cup schedule are inside the top-35 in 2009 owner points: Kurt Busch (third), Kasey Kahne (ninth), Elliott Sadler (17th), AJ Allmendinger (20th), David Stremme (26th), Reed Sorenson (27th) and Sam Hornish Jr. (31st).
• 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.
• Reed Sorenson is the seventh driver to pilot the No. 43 Dodge since Richard Petty retired at the end of the 1992 season.

DODGE DRIVER NOTES & ANECDOTES

• Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) leads all active drivers with five wins at Bristol Motor Speedway.
• Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) jumped four spots in the Sprint Cup standings after a seventh-place finish in Atlanta. He has three consecutive finishes of 12th or better.
• Elliott Sadler (No. 19 Best Buy Dodge Charger) earned his first career Sprint Cup victory at BMS in 2001. Sadler will be putting his video game skills to the test on Friday night in the BMS hospitality village when he goes toe-to-toe with Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne and AJ Allmendinger in a Wii boxing tournament.
• AJ Allmendinger (No. 44 Charter Dodge Charger) must qualify for Sunday’s race.
• David Stremme (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) will be making his fifth career start at BMS.

DID YOU KNOW?

• When BMS opened in 1961, it was basically a flat track.
• Starting next week at Martinsville, the top 35 will be determined by this year’s owner points. The top 35 for the first five races this season was determined by 2007 owner points.
• The lowest starting position of a race winner at Bristol is 38th – Elliott Sadler in 2001.
• Richard Petty leads all drivers with 60 starts at BMS.
• Six former NASCAR champions have driven for Petty Enterprises: Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Joe Weatherly, Richard Petty, Terry Labonte and Bobby Labonte.
• Six of the last seven races at Bristol have been won from a top-10 starting position.

DODGE DRIVER QUOTES

“If you’re going to be in motorsports, you want to be associated with people that can deliver the results on the track and people that can command the respect when they’re going out and talking to other sponsors and partners. It’s just not about what happens at the track as to why we’re in NASCAR; we’re in NASCAR to develop relationships with other companies that will in turn buy our vehicles for their fleets.
Mike Accavitti, Director – Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep Brand Marketing and Dodge Motorsports

“As far as the strategy behind my success, I learned from the very first race that you have to be around at the finish to do well at Bristol. It really is a situation of surviving the first 400 laps – keeping the fenders on the thing and staying out of the wall. Then, if you’re in good shape after four-fifths of the race, it’s time to really get down to business during the final 100 laps.”
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger

“Man, I love Bristol. That’s where I got my first victory in Sprint Cup racing. Every time I walk into the place, I think of that day in 2001. I think Bristol might be NASCAR’s best track. I know it is for me. It’s old-school racing. If I were building race tracks, I would build a few more Bristol’s and put them all over so the whole world can see the kind of a show NASCAR puts on at a track like that.”
Elliott Sadler, No. 19 Best Buy Dodge Charger

“Bristol is the best. There’s no place like it. The driver’s love it; the fans love it. You just go out and race. I don’t know how good I am there yet, but it’s a lot of fun. We’re focused on qualifying on Friday. Hopefully, once we get through Bristol we’ll be in the top-35 and won’t have to sweat these Friday qualifying sessions ever again. That’ll let us focus more on racing and I think we’ll start showing even better results on Sundays.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 44 Charter Dodge Charger

“It’s a pretty cool place. I think I have run pretty well there over the last few years, but we don’t have a lot to show for it.. It’s one of those tracks where you can have a great run going, but if you get caught up in somebody’s mess then your day goes bad pretty quick. I finished third there in the first Nationwide Series race I entered at Bristol so I’m confident that if we can avoid bad luck, I can get the job done and we’ll be OK.”
Reed Sorenson, No. 43 PVA.org Dodge Charger

Darnell Communications For Dodge Motorsports, Press Release