Catchfence

Dodge Motorsports 2010

• Dodge has 207 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
• Dodge’s most recent win came at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch led 252 laps en route to his second victory of the season.
• Dodge claimed four Sprint Cup Series victories in 2009.
• Dodge teams have posted 47 wins since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
• Dodge has posted wins each season since it’s return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).

DODGE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

• Dodge has 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins at Daytona International Speedway.
• Dodge has five wins in the July race (A.J. Foyt, Sam McQuagg, Bobby Isaac and Richard Petty-2) at Daytona.
• Kurt Busch has scored four consecutive top-five finishes in the July race at Daytona since joining Penske Racing and the Dodge ranks in 2006.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Daytona International Speedway: Ryan Newman, 02/17/2008, Daytona 500, 152.672 mph avg. speed.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Kurt Busch, 05/30/2010, Coca-Cola 600, 144.966 mph avg. speed.

KURT BUSCH – INSIDE THE CHASE NUMBERS

• Busch is currently sixth in the Sprint Cup driver standings, 201 points out of first and 271 ahead of 13th.
• Entering the 18th race at Daytona last year, Busch was fourth in the point standings, 270 out of first and 206 ahead of 13th.
• Through the first 17 races this year, Busch has two wins, seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
• After 17 races last year, Busch had one win along with five top-five and nine top-10 finishes.
• Busch has 15 combined wins at the 10 race tracks leading up to the Chase – (New Hampshire – 3, Pocono -2, Michigan – 2, Bristol – 5, Atlanta – 3).
• Four drivers in the 2009 Chase for the Championship are not currently in the top 12: Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers.
• Four drivers not in the Chase for the Championship last year currently in the top 12 are Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Kurt Busch’s avg. starting position of eighth is best among 2010 NSCS drivers. He has led 793 laps this year, most in the Sprint Cup Series.
• Sam Hornish’s best starting position this season is 2nd at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Brad Keselowski won a restrictor-plate race in only his second start on a superspeedway (Talladega, 2009). He finished 18th in his only July start at Daytona last season.

DODGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK: On the repaving of Daytona International Speedway

“I don’t like the idea of it, but I know you can only run so long on a surface before you end of having pieces of the track come up. It’s not good for anyone to have a break in the middle of the race like we had in February. They’re definitely doing the right thing with the repaving, but one of the really fun things about going to Daytona has always been that you had to still have your car handling well because the track really did eat up tires. You could really run the tires off the car and that added a lot of character to the racing in Daytona.”
Sam Hornish Jr., No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger

ENGINEERING TALK;

“Equipped with the biggest restrictor plate since they were introduced into NASCAR, the teams will be looking for a lot of speed at Daytona this week. This is the first restrictor plate race since the change from the wing back to the deck spoiler in the Sprint Cup Series and with the added aerodynamic drag that it puts on the cars, NASCAR felt it would have a huge effect on top speeds. So their solution has been to give the cars less carburetor restriction resulting in more horsepower and creating an offset to the added aerodynamic drag. It’s a tricky equation and we’ll all be anxious to see if the results are correct.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering

“Returning to Daytona for the July race marks the start of the second half of the season for us. It is a challenging race because it is always hot and it will be the first time at Daytona with the rear spoiler package. I feel like we have had very good cars at Daytona recently, but we have struggled to get good results.”
Travis Geisler, No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger

DODGE DRIVER QUOTES

“When you look at the performance and record of our Miller Lite Dodge team so far this season, you can make the case that maybe the moon and stars are sitting right for us to finally win one of these plate races. We’ve never been able to put together a whole race and finish strong at Charlotte and we won back-to-back weekends there. We finished a strong third at Darlington. So, maybe this can be our time to come home a winner at Daytona.”
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger

“I really like restrictor-plate racing, but it seems like if we could be in the wrong place at the wrong time, we’ve been there especially at Daytona. We’ve had a rough go of it at restrictor-plate tracks for a while now. The good thing is that we run fast at the superspeedways. We just need to make sure that we don’t have any of the small issues and get a little luck on our side.”
Sam Hornish Jr., No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger

“The Daytona 500 weekend almost made me sick to my stomach. It was a hard one to swallow. We had such an awesome car during Speedweeks. To blow a tire out on lap eight stung, quite frankly. Coming back to Daytona is going to be different now that we have the spoiler instead of the wing, but we are still carrying a lot of confidence and I’m ready to get there.

“Our speedway program is very good, very strong. I’m very happy with where we are with our cars. We led laps in our Duel race at Daytona, and at Talladega, but we don’t have the finishes to show for how well we have run in those races. I just need to continue to make the right moves in the race and catch the right breaks. So far we’ve run up front, but we’ve had terrible luck with the restrictor-plate races. If we can get a little bit of luck on our side, I really think we can be a threat at any of the speedway races.”
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Penske Dodge Charger

DODGE BOYS NSCS 2010 BEST

• Kurt Busch – Start – Pole – Las Vegas, Michigan
Finish – Win – Atlanta, Charlotte 1

• Brad Keselowski – Start – 6th – Richmond
Finish – 12th – Martinsville, Darlington

• Sam Hornish Jr. – Start – 2nd – Texas
Finish – 11th – Pocono

• Laps Led (Race) – Kurt Busch (278) – Bristol

• Laps Led (Total) – Kurt Busch – 793 *leads NSCS

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release