Catchfence

Dodge Motorsports

Ford 300

NASCAR Nationwide Series

Final Post-Race Quotes

(POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES)

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T)

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOU WIN TONIGHT?

“Yeah. It’s been up-and-down year on all sides, whether the Cup or Nationwide side. We finished this year strong with a win and sitting on the pole today. We had a very fast Dodge today in qualifying. There were a couple moments that we struggled in the race. We worked on it and didn’t spend a lot of time whining about it. Carl (Edwards) definitely put up a good fight. It was going to come down to the last restart. I really thought that once I had him cleared that I could drive away with the clean air, but I got to pushing really bad and (he) was able catch up. From there, it was going to be a dogfight. He fought hard and I fought hard. We were able to come out on top.”

HOW COOL WAS IT THAT YOU’RE LAST YEAR’S NNS CHAMPION RACING AGAINST THIS YEAR’S NNS CHAMPION RICKY STENHOUSE?

“It was really unique. My spotter was telling me during the race with Carl being a past Nationwide champion and myself being last year’s, racing with Ricky is kind of cool. It’s nice to see this sport and the progression. It’s a good moment to reflect on where this sport is and is heading.”

WHERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT RACING AGAINST CARL LATE IN THE RACE?

“I only put a move on him once. One move is cool, two moves is not. You get one move and I used my one move. That’s how I feel about it. I guess every driver has his own ‘code’. I used up my one move. He never made a second one.”

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR NATIONWIDE PLANS ARE FOR NEXT YEAR?

“Well, you know, the thing about the Nationwide car to me, there’s a lot of things about it, but the Nationwide program was a great opportunity for me to come into Penske Racing and be a part of creating something special in multiple ways, from being able to win a first championship for Roger (Penske) to creating depth in the company that would service for years to come. And for me to have a shot at just being successful and feeling like that if the Cup side didn’t go so well, which I think, to be honest, I had some suspicions it wouldn’t, that I wouldn’t lose my own confidence and those around me wouldn’t.

“To make that all happen, it took commitments from people. And those people work on the team, those people work in the shop and those people sponsor the race car. And so in order for me to live up to my end of that, and I’ve certainly been rewarded with it and we’re starting to see success from that on the Cup side. You know, I can’t just run away from that. I’ve got to live up to that and the commitments that those people have made to me. I’ve got to make the commitment back to them. You know, I plan on continuing that commitment to them and slowly scaling that down as the time passes by. I think we looked at this year and I ran somewhere around 28 races approximately (29) and, you know, I would suspect that over the next few years that you will continue to see that roll back. We lost six or seven races this year and I would assume that I would probably shed a few more next year and then the year after. You know, those things are always changing so it’s hard to give a definitive answer, but that would be my own expectations.”

DO SOME OF THESE WINS MEAN MORE TO YOU THAN OTHERS?

“You’re only as good as your last one. To me, I always feel like not only are you only as good as your last win, but you never know when you’re last win is going to be. So, you better savor it. And I’ve been through the up and down patches in my life as a race car driver. I can remember being a crew member and going through a patch of four or five years not winning a race and damn, it sure made me appreciate the ones that I was able to win before that. I sure as hell don’t take it for granted. This could be the last win of my career as far as I’m concerned. You know, I feel like every time I get in the race car I have something to prove. When you are able to prove it like we’re able to do today as a team, it feels pretty damn good to me.”

DO YOU THINK SOME OF THE STUFF THAT WE SAW ON THE RESTARTS TODAY WILL BE TRIED TOMORROW? THE GUY RESTARTING SECOND WAS ABLE TO GET A GOOD RUN.

“Sure, well you know that’s just the way the Nationwide cars are. It’s quite a bit different than the Cup cars as far as restarts are concerned. With the low power situation, it’s almost like a tag-team on a restart. Whoever has the best tag-team comes out front. It can be a little awkward at times, but I think on almost every restart whoever restarted second took the lead or at least more than not. It’d be an interesting stat, but you know that’s kind of par for the course on the Nationwide side. That’s got more to do with power situation and the side drafting than I think anything else. Cup cars seem to be quite a bit more immune to that.”

YOU WON THE NATIONWIDE TITLE LAST YEAR. YOU’VE SPENT A LOT OF TIME THE LAST TWO SEASONS ON THE TRACK WITH RICKY. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHY YOU THINK HE MADE SUCH A GREAT IMPROVEMENT FROM LAST SEASON TO BECOMING A CHAMPION THIS YEAR?

“Well I think with Ricky, I think his cars were pretty far off last year and I think the same thing for Carl and really all that team. And by the end of the season, they found something and they got their cars better. They got that new engine over there which is a huge gain for them in both power and weight savings. So, I think that was a huge gain for them. I think once his cars got more competitive, he was able to be more competitive without pushing as hard and I think that’s a big learning curve. When you find yourself running 90 percent and you’re able to run fifth to tenth, you know, you’re okay with running 90 percent for a little while.

You can kind of settle in. When you find yourself running 90 percent and you’re running 15th-20th or whatever that might be, you find yourself driving at a hundred percent and you find yourself taking chances or kind of going all-in on some bad hands, so to speak. And so it makes life a lot easier on you when your cars are more competitive. I think his cars are more competitive and that has allowed him, or has opened a box in his own mind, that allows him to understand better how hard he needs to push. He’s done a great job picking that up this year.

That’s what every driver needs to learn. That’s why teams are so important because the first brick, the foundation of any race team, is the speed that you have in the car and from there, you know, you put up the sides of the house with the pit crew and you worry about the roof, the roof being the race car driver. But you’ve got to have that good foundation and that’s speed in the car. Everything else is built off of that. You know, I think that camp over there did a good job of making their program better, making their cars better, and Ricky was able to make something out of that, so he deserves some credit too.”

TODD GORDON (crew chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T)

“We made a couple of adjustments after practice. Not having that second practice. we thought that we would get a little bit more aggressive with travels and that really over-traveled the car and got on the splitter really hard the first half of the race. We struggled with trying to get off of (that) all day. We just kept plugging away at it. Brad never gave up. (We made) several rounds at the car trying to get the car off the splitter. It just comes down to Brad’s talent on restarts. He pulled it out today. We probably didn’t give him the best piece to work with today.”

FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, WHAT DOES WINNING THIS FINAL RACE OF THE SEASON MEAN, ESPECIALLY COMING OFF THE CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON LAST YEAR? WHAT DOES BRAD REDUCING HIS SCHEDULE MEAN TO YOU AND THE TEAM?

“To reflect on the year, we kind of made that my pre-race comment, but we kind of lost some continuity from what the 22 team was from last year. We had a lot of new faces, myself being one of ‘em. Car chief came over from a different place, the engineer; we’ve had a couple different that weren’t here last year. We built a lot of chemistry this year and I think the last half of the season shows a lot for that. A couple of things that are unique about this year, Brad has won five races in the 22 car this year, none of which were at race tracks he won at last year. We’ve got 11 wins over the last two seasons at 11 different race tracks.

And Kurt (Busch) won at Watkins Glen which was the 12th race track. We’ve had some success at some different places and I think winning this sends the team in the off-season with an extra little hitch in their step. It gives us something to build off of for the off-season and look forward to for next year. However it works out, I think we went through the summer months when Brad had his injuries and we shuffled four different race car drivers and I think we were competitive with all four. That’s one of the things we’ve got here at Penske, we’ve got talent. Roger does a good job of supplying us with that. I don’t want to give Brad up, but I understand where the program is at. We’ll be here together for the majority of the races next year and we’ll work in the offseason pretty hard to make sure that whatever we’re going to do to fill the little voids will be ready in step for 2012.”

(QUOTES PRIOR TO POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE)

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) Race Winner

“You couldn’t ask for a better way to end the season. Not being able to win the championship, it’s good to be able to finish on a high note, winning the pole and the race today at Homestead. It’s a great exclamation point to the season for the whole Discount Tire Dodge team.”

WE HAVE A LOT OF FUN WATCHING THE RACING OUT THERE TONIGHT. IS IT THAT MUCH FUN BEHIND THE WHEEL? “Hell yeah, I mean, it is when you win. It was tough, it was frustrating, it was hot here in Miami and that’s what makes it worth it.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT YOU CAN APPLY TO THE CUP RACE TOMORROW? “Man, I can’t tell you that (smiles). Just driving the hell out of it; I’m going to drive hard I guess. And thanks to all the fans for coming out.”

SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger R/T) Finished Seventh

“It was a pretty solid night for the Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger. We just didn’t have the short run that we needed late in the race to crack into the top five. We had our ups and downs all night. We felt that we had really good long-run speed in the car to compete all night. We just got down to the end of the race and it became a short-run race with all the cautions. We made a small change and it wasn’t enough to get us where we needed to be. We got stuck on the inside on that last restart; it slowed us down a bit. We were good. We just needed more short-run speed.”

HAS THE LAST FOUR RACES GIVEN YOU GUYS A GOOD BUILDING BLOCK HEADING INTO THE 2012 SEASON?

“I think so. It’s not easy when you’re not running a full-time season, but we certainly didn’t waste any of the opportunities that we had all year. We raced to some top 10s, won at Phoenix and had another top 10 tonight. We need to continue to work on our short run speed. I think everyone on this team gained a lot of valuable experience and that can only be a positive thing heading into next year. Our race changes have been improving. Our team has become stronger in the pits. Everything that we’ve done the last four races has helped make us a team to contend with next season.”

TRAVIS GEISLER (Director of Competition, Penske Racing)

“A great night. The last couple of weeks have been really good. To get Sam (Hornish) in victory lane with his Alliance Truck Parts Dodge last weekend at Phoenix and Brad (Keselowski) tonight in his Discount Tire Dodge is awesome. This is pretty sweet. It’s always great to go out on a high note. Our Nationwide program did a great job all year with six wins and six poles. To come here and beat Carl Edwards is a real testament to everyone that touches these Dodge Challengers. This is why we go racing, to be able to share in great moments like this. It certainly makes the off-season a lot shorter.”

- Dodge Motorsports / Darnell Communications Press Release