KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) 7th Fastest
Dodge Motorsports 2010
“A really good run for our Miller Lite Dodge. We weren’t sure how fast the car was and didn’t know if the car was going to bottom out based on the speed that we gained. The cool part about is we gained the speed that we were looking for out of the car. We have great horsepower, Steve Addington’s addition, all of us working hard to get those thousandths of a second that we’re looking for. That’s the type of result that we’re looking to see right now.”
DID THE WINDY CONDITIONS UPSET THE HANDLING OF THE CAR MUCH? “Yeah, the wind is really pushing you into Turn 3, so you have to be ready in (Turns) 3 and 4 if the car is going to bottom out and try not to shoot up the race track to far and scrub speed.”
WHAT’S YOUR EARLY IMPRESSION OF THE AERO AND RESTRICOR PLATE CHANGES MADE TO THE CARS FOR DAYTONA? “It’s just bad fast right now and the closing rate is more extreme than the drivers have noticed before. I’m leaning back on some of my truck series days when I raced here at Daytona, based on the closure rate. There’s going to be a lot of guys running on top of each other by accident. It’s going to make for some really interesting racing.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger) 15th Fastest
“A good start for our Penske Dodge. It was nice to get out there and get qualifying under our belt. The lap felt pretty good, not great. I think we brought a good package to Daytona and now we have to get ready for the 150. The Penske cars didn’t qualify well here last year. We seem to have made strong gains in that department. Hopefully, that will carry over to the race. The strategy now changes from speed, which you still have to have, to handling. It’s more of a balancing act. Right now there’s no balance, it’s just raw speed. It’s hard to tell about the balance until we get back on the track Wednesday. The strategy for Thursday…make sure we don’t tear our car up. This is our best car and we want to make sure we have it for the 500.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) 12th Fastest
“YOU’RE CAR LOOKED LIKE IT WAS STUCK RIGHT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE RACE TRACK: “Yeah, it felt really smooth. This is just a credit to Penske Racing. The guys have worked really hard in the engine shop and chassis shop trying to make sure that we come down here with the best equipment that we can possibly have. The last two years that we came down here, we qualified as a team down around the 30′s, so it’s a big jump to have Kurt (Busch) and Brad (Keselowski) qualify so strong. I’m real proud of what the guys are doing back at the shop. This is exactly what we needed.”
SPEEDS SEEM TO BE WAY UP; CAN YOU TELL A DIFFERENCE IN THE CAR? “Definitely. You get into the corners a lot quicker and the car wants to move around a bit in (Turn) 3. The car really wants to dart the front end once you get into Turn 1. Just the way that the wind is hitting the car and the aero changes made to the car has made a difference. Just to go out there and run as well as we did is a great feeling.”
IT HAS TO GIVE YOUR TEAM A BOOST OF CONFIDENCE KNOWING THAT YOU BROUGHT SUCH GOOD EQUIPMENT TO DAYTONA? “It really does. Hopefully it will mean a lot to our team as the year goes because the teams has worked really hard to give us great equipment and to try and move forward with our program. This is one of the things that we struggled with the most…coming to tracks like Daytona and trying to qualify. A good start of Penske Racing and Dodge.”
Qualifying Notes: Daytona 500 Qualifying Day
• The two fastest qualifiers are “locked into” the front row for the Daytona 500. Those are the race’s only guaranteed positions coming out of qualifying day.
• The Gatorade Duel at Daytona, two 150-mile qualifying races, determine starting positions for the Daytona 500 beyond the front row. In the event of cancellation, the field will be set according to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rule Book.
- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release