Penske Racing's Paul Wolfe and Brad Keselowski - Ronald Martinez/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (December 1, 2011)

“The winning combination of Brad Keselowski and Paul Wolfe has been terrific for Penske Racing and we are excited to announce that they will continue to work together,” said Roger Penske. “With one NASCAR championship and numerous wins in both the Nationwide Series and the Cup Series to their credit, this has proven to be a special pairing. Although Brad, Paul and the No. 2 team fell short of winning the Cup Series title this season, we know they will continue to be championship contenders for years to come.”

In their first season of working together in 2010, Keselowski and Wolfe teamed up to produce six wins and five poles on their way to winning the Nationwide Series championship for Penske Racing. That team also established a new series single-season record with 26 top-five finishes and completed all but one lap of competition throughout the 2010 season.

Wolfe was named crew chief of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team prior to the start of the 2011 Sprint Cup Series season and the success continued with Keselowski in his first season behind the wheel of the iconic “Blue Deuce.” The team recorded three victories and one pole position in 2011 as it qualified for The Chase and finished fifth in the final Cup Series standings. Over the course of the last two seasons, Keselowski and Wolfe have worked together to produce nine wins, six poles, 36 top-five finishes and one NASCAR crown combined across Nationwide and Cup Series competition.

“It’s great to know that Paul and I will continue to work together to bring wins and championships to Penske Racing and its sponsors,” said Keselowski, the native of Rochester Hills, Mich., who first joined Penske Racing for the final three races of the 2009 season. “We’ve definitely built something special here with this team and we’ll continue to get better to reach our goals. I’m already fired up about 2012 and the future with the ‘Blue Deuce.’”

A former driver who accumulated six top-20 finishes in 16 career Nationwide Series starts, Wolfe first became a crew chief in 2006 with Fitz Racing. He moved on to CJM Racing in 2009 before he joined Penske Racing as crew chief of the No. 22 Nationwide Series team in November of 2009.

“We have enjoyed tremendous success at Penske Racing and I’m really looking forward to building on the legacy of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team,” said Wolfe. “It’s been a great experience working with Brad – we just seemed to click right away – and we will continue to build on the consistency and success we’ve experienced with the team. We’re already working hard to get ready for another run at the championship next season.”

Penske Racing is one of the most successful teams in the history of professional sports. Competing in a variety of disciplines, cars owned and prepared by Penske Racing have produced 350 major race wins, 412 pole positions and 23 National Championships. For more information about Penske Racing, please visit www.penskeracing.com.

- Penske Racing, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 20th

YOU FINISHED FIFTH IN POINTS. “I don’t think anyone really expected that out of us, but I never stopped believing that we could be, you know, be a contender and have a lot of fun and do well as a team. I think we’ve got a lot to build off of. We’ll have to work on it, build off it too. I’m real proud of the effort for the whole team.”

HOW DID THE END OF THE RACE PLAY OUT FOR YOU GUYS? YOU HAD TO PIT LATE. “We were just doing what we could to try to get up to third (in the Chase standings). We were going to finish fifth in the points, so we just took a chance to try to get to third. It just didn’t pay off. If we caught a yellow, we could have been in really good position, but just wasn’t meant to be. I think we did all the right things and just didn’t catch the breaks we needed and really just didn’t quite have a fast enough car. We put ourselves in position to have good things happen to us and that’s okay.”

DOES THIS RACE ENCOMPASS YOUR ENTIRE CHASE? “We do an excellent job as a team putting ourselves in position where good things can happen to us and I think we’re rewarded accordingly. The big thing that we have to work on as a team is we’ve got to be a little faster, have faster race cars. If we can do that, we’ll rely less on strategy.”

YOU WON LAST NIGHT AND RAN STRONG TONIGHT. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOUR OFFSEASON AND AS YOU LOOK AHEAD TO 2012? “Well, you know, we’d like to have had a better finish today but, you know, like I said, I was only surprised with how we ran. I’m ready for the offseason (smiles).”

DID YOU CAR GET BETTER AFTER THE RAIN DELAY? “Yeah, when the track didn’t have rubber on it, I thought the car was really strong.”

DID YOU HAVE A BETTER CAR THAN WHERE YOU FINISHED? “We were better than 20th, but we took our chances and just didn’t catch the breaks. I’m not frustrated with that. I think that’s the right strategy. I would just like to be a little bit faster. That’s the only thing I can be frustrated about.”

WHICH IS THE BIGGER ACCOMPLISHMENT: TOP FIVE IN POINTS OR MAKING THE CHASE? “They’re pretty damn equal (smiles).”

HOW WAS YOUR RACE? “We had an up-and-down night here at Homestead. At the end, we took some chances trying to get ourselves up to third in points and it just didn’t pay off. Ended up finishing 20th and if we catch a yellow there, we’ll probably have a fifth to 10th-place day and move up to third in points. But we just didn’t catch the right breaks for that to happen, but still had a decent day and probably a better day than where the finish was. You know, we just need a little more speed in our cars to be able to do something here. You look at the 14 (Tony Stewart) and the 99 (Carl Edwards) and they just had a lot of speed. If we can get a little more speed in our cars, I feel like we can go out there and win a championship.”

DID THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT AFTER THE RAIN DELAY? “Yeah, every time it would rain or do any of that kind of stuff, my Dodge got really good. I could have used a couple more of those showers (smile).”

THOUGHTS ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE COMING DOWN TO STEWART AND EDWARDS. “Did it come down to a tie and Tony won it? Wow – that’s pretty cool. I guess I didn’t do the math. Congrats to him. He had a great year and I don’t think you can ask for much more than that.”

DID YOU EVER THINK THE CHAMPIONSHIP MIGHT COME DOWN TO LITERALLY THE LAST LAP? “Well, you know one year, it’s got to (laughs). This is the year and I don’t think we’ll ever see that again.”

PAUL WOLFE (crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)

“We just didn’t have the car that we were hoping to have tonight. It really would have been nice to finish with a win. We just didn’t have the car we needed. We worked on it and never could really put it all together. We got to the point where we were just trying strategy stuff to see if we could pull something off with this Miller Lite Dodge Charger. It just didn’t work out. I’m proud of the effort by everyone on this team. We were able to earn a top-five spot in the driver point standings and that’s a great accomplishment for this team. I’m proud of the effort. We feel like we know where we need to go during the off-season to make our cars faster and run strong for the championship. It wasn’t from a lack of effort. Everybody put the best effort they could to make this car a championship-caliber car and we did that. I’m very proud of this Miller Lite Dodge team. We’ve made big steps this year. We just have to continue to try and be better and ready once the flag drops at Daytona in a few months.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 34th

“I’ve never been so disappointed in my life. I think I missed a race once my rookie year and this almost tops that.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

DODGE AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY

· Dodge has one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Bill Elliott – 2001).
· Former Dodge driver Bill Elliott (2001) and current Dodge driver Kurt Busch (2002) are the only two Sprint Cup winner’s at HMS to start from the pole. Busch also started from the pole in 2004.
· Kurt Busch clinched the 2004 Sprint Cup championship at HMS. It was the first year of the Chase format and came before he joined Penske Racing in 2006.

CHASE FAST FACTS

· This is the eighth year of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
· Dodge’s Brad Keselowski qualified 12th and finished 18th at Phoenix. He is fourth in the Chase standings, 65 points behind the leader. His average finish in the nine Chase races is 12.111.
· Dodge’s Kurt Busch qualified 17th and finished 22nd at Phoenix. He is eighth in the Chase standings, 107 points behind the leader. His average finish in the Chase is 17.444.
· The last time two Penske Racing Dodges qualified for the Chase was 2005 (Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman).
· Dodge has not won a Sprint Cup championship since the Chase format was introduced in 2004.
· Dodge drivers have won four Sprint Cup championships: David Pearson (1966), Bobby Isaac (1970), Richard Petty (1974, 1975).

2011 CHASE for the Sprint Cup Standings

(After 35 of 36 Events)
1. Carl Edwards 2,359 7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -102
2. Tony Stewart -3 8. Kurt Busch -107
3. Kevin Harvick -51 9. Ryan Newman -107
4. Brad Keselowski -65 10. Denny Hamlin -110
5. Jimmie Johnson -68 11. Jeff Gordon -112
6. Matt Kenseth -70 12. Kyle Busch -135

FROM THE DODGE ENGINEER:

“Trying to engineer for Homestead-Miami Speedway is like trying to hit a moving target, literally. For the third year in a row, the Sprint Cup finale will have yet another different starting time. This year the green flag for the race should drop about 3:15 p.m., which means we’ll finish the race after 6:30 p.m. The race will start in the full sunshine of the South Florida afternoon and finish well after dark, two completely different racing conditions. As if engineers don’t have enough to worry about already trying to solve this fast, variable-banked track, now they’ve got to calculate the changes that will occur as the race and 2011 season finishes into the Homestead night.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Engineering

DODGE IN THE CHASE AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI

· 2004: Two Dodge drivers earned Chase berths – Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield. Newman started third and led 72 laps before finishing 30th. Mayfield started 20th and finished 35th.
· 2005: Dodge was represented by three drivers in the Chase – Ryan Newman, Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield. Newman started second and finished seventh, Mayfield 10th and Wallace 13th.
· 2006: Kasey Kahne started from the pole, led five times for 90 laps and finished fourth.
· 2007: Kurt Busch started fifth, led 34 laps and finished second.
· 2008: There were no Dodges in the 2008 Chase field.
· 2009: Kurt Busch started 12th, led five times for 43 laps and finished fourth. Kasey Kahne started 25th and finished 17th.
· 2010: Kurt Busch, the only Dodge driver in the Chase, qualified 15th and finished 18th.

THE DODGE BOYS

· Dodge has 212 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
· Dodge has five victories this season, three by Brad Keselowski and two by Kurt Busch. Dodge’s most recent win came at Dover. Busch led five times for 90 of the 400 laps.
· Dodge teams have recorded 52 victories since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.

2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST

· Kurt Busch Start: 1st (Kansas1, Pocono1 & Michigan1)
Finish: 1st (Infineon, Dover2)
· Brad Keselowski Start: 1st (Charlotte1)
Finish: 1st (Kansas1, Pocono2, Bristol2)
· Robby Gordon Start: 20th (Phoenix2)
Finish: 16th (Daytona1)

HOMESTEAD-MIAM SPEEDWAY STATS OF THE WEEK

· Kurt Busch will be making his 400th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts this weekend at HMS. His first Sprint Cup start came at the fall Dover event (9/24/00). He qualified 10th and finished 18th.
· Brad Keselowski has set NSCS personal bests this season in poles, wins, top fives, top 10s, average start, average finish and laps led.
· Kurt Busch is the youngest pole winner at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Busch earned the pole at the 2002 event at the age of 24 years, 13 months, 3 days.

DODGE QUOTES

“This has definitely been a dream season for me in my first year driving the ‘Blue Deuce.’ We were able to show progression as the year went along and that was one of the most important things for me. This was basically a new team and for us to compete for the championship in our first year together really bodes well for our future. With the success that we had this year, it changes the goal and expectations for 2012. Now we want to fire out of the box strong next season, compete for wins early, and show everyone that we are going to be a legitimate team for years to come. I’ll take a little time to myself over the off-season, but I’m already excited about going to Daytona next year.”
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger

“The intermediate tracks have been up and down for us this year, but I feel like we can go to Homestead this weekend and have a strong finish to the season. The key to running well at Homestead – and this is true of almost any track we visit – is keeping your car turning well in the middle of the corners while maintaining good drive on corner exit. It’s been a great year.”
Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger

DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Your last race out is the one that’s freshest on your mind and you certainly hope it’s memorable for all the right reasons. Closing out your season with a competitive weekend at Homestead is just that important. If you come out of there with great results, it gives all the team members, the sponsors, the media – everyone out there – a super calling card to remember you by. It works to instill optimism and grow the level of confidence through all those cold and dreary winter days.”
Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

DODGE AT PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

· Dodge is seeking its first win at Phoenix International Raceway in Sprint Cup competition.
· Dodge has four poles at PIR since returning to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 (Ryan Newman – 3, Casey Atwood).
· Kurt Busch is the only active Dodge driver with a win at PIR. The victory came in 2005 prior to joining Penske Racing and Dodge in 2006.

CHASE FAST FACTS

· Dodge’s Brad Keselowski qualified eighth and finished 24th at Texas. He is fifth in the Chase standings, 49 points behind the leader.
· Dodge’s Kurt Busch qualified 14th and finished 30th at Texas. He is ninth in the Chase standings, 87 points behind the leader.
· Brad Keselowski’s average finish in the eight Chase races is 11.375.
· Kurt Busch’s average finish in the eight Chase races is 16.875.
· The last time two Penske Racing Dodges qualified for the Chase was 2005 (Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman).
· Dodge has not won a Sprint Cup championship since the Chase format was introduced in 2004.
· Dodge drivers have won four Sprint Cup championships: David Pearson (1966), Bobby Isaac (1970), Richard Petty (1974, 1975).

THE DODGE BOYS

· Dodge has 212 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
· Dodge has five victories this season, three by Brad Keselowski and two by Kurt Busch. Dodge’s most recent win came at Dover. Busch led five times for 90 of the 400 laps.
· Dodge teams have recorded 52 victories since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.

DODGE IN THE CHASE AT PHOENIX INT’L RACEWAY

· 2004: Two Dodge drivers earned Chase berths – Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield. Newman started from the pole and finished second, Mayfield started 24th and finished 21st.
· 2005: Dodge was represented by three drivers in the Chase – Ryan Newman, Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield. Newman finished 12th, Mayfield 24th and Wallace 29th.
· 2006: Kasey Kahne started 11th and finished seventh.
· 2007: Kurt Busch started ninth and finished 12th.
· 2008: There were no Dodges in the 2008 Chase field.
· 2009: Kurt Busch started second, led 69 laps and finished sixth. Kasey Kahne started fourth and finished 15th.
· 2010: Kurt Busch, the only Dodge driver in the Chase, qualified third and finished ninth.

2011 CHASE to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings
(After 34 of 36 Events)
1. Carl Edwards 2316 7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -79
2. Tony Stewart -3 8. Jeff Gordon -81
3. Kevin Harvick -33 9. Kurt Busch -87
4. Matt Kenseth -38 10. Denny Hamlin -99
5. Brad Keselowski -49 11. Kyle Busch -100
6. Jimmie Johnson -55 12. Ryan Newman -103

FROM THE DODGE ENGINEER:

“The new Phoenix is bigger, wider and faster. It has more banking, a new smoother racing surface and could be a disaster for engineers. The newly reconfigured facility will make racing better, more exciting and more competitive – eventually. But the problem for engineers this week is the surface is so new, there’s only one racing groove that has any grip. That means passing will be extremely difficult unless they figure out a way to make the cars grab the outside line of the corners. Springs, shocks, sway bars, and track bars will be hot topics of conversation in every practice session before the race begins on Sunday.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Engineering

DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“One of the drawbacks of a new surface is that there will only be one racing groove until the track cures. The good thing is that shouldn’t take long with it being in the desert. That being said, track position will be very important this weekend and that will place a big emphasis on qualifying. Phoenix is still a mix of intermediate and short-track setups, but with the smooth surface you can get a little more aggressive to get more speed out of the car. I don’t foresee there being much falloff in the tires throughout the race, so there will be a lot of strategy that will come into play. The Miller Lite Dodge has shown speed on all types of tracks this year so we feel good about having the speed necessary to win this weekend.”
Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger

2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST

· Kurt Busch Start: 1st (Kansas1, Pocono1 & Michigan1)
Finish: 1st (Infineon, Dover2)

· Brad Keselowski Start: 1st (Charlotte1)
Finish: 1st (Kansas1, Pocono2, Bristol2)

· Robby Gordon Start: 30th (Daytona1)
Finish: 16th (Daytona1)

DODGE DRIVER QUOTES – KOBALT TOOLS 500 – PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

“The scenic location, the grandstands and the facilities may remain the same, but this is definitely not your old PIR that everyone had gotten accustomed to. It’s a case of throwing all your old notes and data out the window because it is like racing at a brand new track. All the knowledge you’ve gained and logged before there doesn’t apply at all now. It’s just a totally different track. After the testing we all did there, we’re coming back convinced there’s only going to be one groove and it won’t be very wide. Restarts will be treacherous. We’ll see how it shakes out. It will be a ‘fill the tank up with gas and ride it to the end’ situation with how the tires did not and likely will not be wearing out there this weekend.
Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T

“You have to applaud Phoenix for having the forethought to re-surface the track before it became a problem. No one can deny that the surface was aging, but it did produce some great racing. I have seen the new track and I truly believe that once it gets some age on it, it will be a fantastic place to race. Racing two-wide down the backstretch will be exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. However, it may take a couple of years for it to get to where we can do all of those cool things. I know they are taking great measures to make sure we can put on the best show possible this weekend. I’m just excited to get the Miller Lite Dodge out there and see what it’s all about.”
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

Brad Keselowski on the Chase for the Championship thus far:
“These last two weeks definitely haven’t been what we were looking for with the Miller Lite Dodge. We need to find ways to finish races in the spots we deserve because we’ve had much better cars than where we’ve finished lately. This weekend at Phoenix is wide open and anything can happen so the points could be heavily altered going into Homestead. But to look at what Tony (Stewart) is doing, it’s been amazing. He came into the Chase with guns blazing. I think we’ve had the cars, minus Dover, to compete with him and Carl, but we just haven’t had the luck. Luck, just like performance, can go in cycles. Hopefully we get it back on our side over the last two weekends and that will carry over into 2012.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 24th

“We lost the handling on the car right in the middle part of the race and adjustments were made to make it better and it just made it worse. It was unfortunate.”

DID YOU APOLOGIZE TO THE 11 FOR THE CONTACT ON PIT ROAD? “It was my fault 100 percent. I’m going to walk down there and make sure that he knows that I feel bad about that.”

WHAT HAPPENED? “It started with the 39 who didn’t even try to get into his pit box. (He) made ever attempt that he could to block us in.”

PAUL WOLFE, (crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)
“The first part of the race, we lost our track position and that really hurt us. We made some adjustments in the second and third runs and got ourselves back inside the top five. Just about then, the track started to tighten up on us and we didn’t do a good enough job staying with it. As a result, we fell back to 10th. We battled all day and then we had the incident on pit road with the 11 (Denny Hamlin) car and lost all of our track position. Brad backed up, got into the 11 and it just was downhill from there. It was a struggle. The Miller Lite guys worked hard all night. It just wasn’t our day.”

WITH THE CHASE CHAMPIONSHIP ALMOST OUT OF REACH, YOU HAVE TO BE VERY PROUD OF YOUR TEAM THIS SEASON? “Very much so. It’s been a rewarding year and I’m proud to work with everyone on this Miller Lite Dodge team. We still have races to go and I’m positive that we will approach them with the same amount of energy we have all year. We won’t lie down. We’re going to bring fast race cars to the track the next few weeks and go after some wins.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 AAA Dodge Charger) Finished 30th
“We just missed it today. We started outside the top 10 and really never had the car today to compete up front. Our AAA Dodge was tight, then loose, then tight again. We were just all over the board. We tried spring rubbers in, spring rubbers out. We even changed bump stops, but nothing seemed to work. I had a handful all night. Then with about 100 laps to go, we got hit on pit road and messed up the right front quarter panel. The guys patched it the best that they could.

“On that last caution, we pitted for right side and packed it with fuel and Steve (Addington) put me in fuel saving mode from there on out. We came up short with four laps to go, but we went for the win. We just came up short.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

DODGE AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

· Dodge has three wins at TMS (Kurt Busch – 2009, Kasey Kahne – 2006 and Ryan Newman – 2003).
· Dodge earned three consecutive poles at TMS (Ryan Newman made it a sweep in 2005 and Kasey Kahne started from the pole in the spring race in 2006).
· Dodge has the only Sprint Cup win from the pole at the 1.5-mile track (Kasey Kahne – 2006).

THE DODGE BOYS

· Dodge has 212 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
· Dodge has five victories this season, three by Brad Keselowski (Kansas, Pocono and Bristol) and two by Kurt Busch (Infineon, Dover). Dodge’s most recent win came at Dover. Busch led five times for 90 of the 400 laps.
· Dodge teams have recorded 52 victories since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.

CHASE FAST FACTS

· Dodge’s Brad Keselowski qualified third and finished 17th at Martinsville last weekend. He is fourth in the Chase standings, 27 points behind the leader.
· Dodge’s Kurt Busch qualified eighth and finished 14th at Martinsville. He remains eighth in the NSCS driver standings, 58 points behind the leader.
· Brad Keselowski’s average finish in the seven Chase races in 2011 is 9.57.
· Kurt Busch’s average finish in the seven Chase races is 15.0.
· The last time two Penske Racing Dodges qualified for the Chase was 2005 (Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman).
· Dodge has not won a championship since the Chase format was introduced in 2004. Kurt Busch won the 2004 title before moving to Penske Racing in 2006.
· Dodge drivers have won four Sprint Cup championships: David Pearson (1966), Bobby Isaac (1970), Richard Petty (1974, 1975).

TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY STATS OF THE WEEK

· Kurt Busch won the 2009 Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the largest margin of victory (25.686 seconds) since the inception of timing and scoring in 1993. He has finished inside the top five in four of his last five TMS starts.
· Brad Keselowski earned his best Texas Motor Speedway finish of 14th at the spring event in 2008. He led 32 laps in this year’s spring event and finished 18th.

2011 CHASE to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings

(After 33 of 36 Events)
1. Carl Edwards 2,273 7. Kyle Busch -57
2. Tony Stewart -8 8. Kurt Busch -58
3. Kevin Harvick -21 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -73
4. Brad Keselowski -27 10. Jeff Gordon -76
5. Matt Kenseth -36 11. Denny Hamlin -80
6. Jimmie Johnson -43 12. Ryan Newman -89

DODGE IN THE CHASE: TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

· 2004: Texas Motor Speedway was not a part of the Chase. Two Dodge drivers were in that first Chase – Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield.
· 2005: Dodge was represented by three drivers in the Chase – Ryan Newman, Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield. Newman started from the pole and finished 25th. Wallace ended up 26th and Mayfield 35th.
· 2006: Kasey Kahne was the lone Dodge driver in the Chase. He qualified fourth, led twice, but finished 33rd with engine issues.
· 2007: Kurt Busch started sixth, led twice and finished eighth in his Penske Dodge.
· 2008: There were no Dodges in the 2008 Chase field.
· 2009: Kurt Busch, started third and led 89 laps en route to victory at TMS, his first and only win at the speedway. Kasey Kahne, the second Dodge driver in the Chase, started second and finished 33rd.
· 2010: Kurt Busch, the only Dodge driver in the Chase, qualified sixth and finished 24th.

TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY STATS OF THE WEEK

· Kurt Busch won the 2009 Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the largest margin of victory (25.686 seconds) since the inception of timing and scoring in 1993. He has finished inside the top five in four of his last five TMS starts.
· Brad Keselowski earned his best Texas Motor Speedway finish of 14th at the spring event in 2008. He led 32 laps in this year’s spring event and finished 18th.

2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST

· Kurt Busch Start: 1st (Kansas1, Pocono1 & Michigan1)
Finish: 1st (Infineon, Dover2)
· Brad Keselowski Start: 1st (Charlotte1)
Finish: 1st (Kansas1, Pocono2, Bristol2)
· Robby Gordon Start: 30th (Daytona1)
Finish: 16th (Daytona1)

FROM THE DODGE ENGINEER:

“It’s seems like culture shock to go from 95 mph average laps at Martinsville one week to nearly 195 mph average laps at Texas the next week, but the series does it twice a year, every year. Engineering problems like managing brake heat at Martinsville certainly won’t be an issue at Texas where drivers are at wide-open throttle for about 22 of the 30 seconds it takes to make one lap. And even with that much wide-open throttle time in a lap at Texas, engineers still won’t be working on wide-open throttle issues. They will be focused on how they can whittle down those other eight seconds where the driver can’t go flat out. Handling in the very fast corners of Texas will trump everything else and the race will be won there.” Howard Comstock, Dodge Engineering

DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We put ourselves in position to have a great day at Martinsville on Sunday, but that wasn’t in the cards. That’s what happens late in a race on a short track. We took a hit in the points, but this team has been the underdog all year long. We’re not going to stop doing the things that put us in this position. Twenty-seven points is not insurmountable. We’re going to need a little help, but there are guys that are due to have something go wrong over these last three races. At the end of the day, we have speed in our cars and that will win out more often than not.” Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

DODGE DRIVER QUOTES

“I made the comment to my guys before Sunday’s race at Martinsville that we’re on a mission to get back up there solidly in the top-five in the points by the end of the season. We got caught up in the crash at Talladega and that cost us our shot at the championship. I feel like we are a top-five caliber team and we deserve to finish up there in the top-five. We just have to get out there and execute like we know we are capable of doing and achieve that goal.”
Kurt Busch, No. 22 AAA Dodge Charger R/T

“I don’t have to tell you how much we are looking forward to this weekend’s race. We’ll have one of Kurt’s best cars – already a race-winner – at one of Kurt’s favorite race tracks. It doesn’t get any better than that. We have three races left and I feel like we can go win all three of them. Texas is first in line and we’re coming in there with a lot of confidence that we can get it done. With us fielding the AAA Dodge in the AAA Texas 500, there’ll be a heckuva party there in Victory Lane when Kurt takes the checkered flag, that’s for sure.”
Steve Addington, crew chief No. 22 AAA Dodge Charger R/T

“Texas really is a unique racetrack and a unique layout. From above it looks like any normal 1.5-mile track, but the transitions into and off of the corners are quite a bit different than Charlotte, Las Vegas or any of the other mile-and-a-halfs. There is a lot of banking into the corners, which means you can carry a lot of speed in and to the center of the turns, but you lose that speed on exit as the track flattens out. It’s difficult because normally you can carry the same amount of grip and speed on both corner entry and corner exit. You have to adjust accordingly and sometimes that’s hard to do at 180 miles per hour. It’s easy to find yourself in trouble, especially off of Turn 2.”
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

“Texas is a place with a lot of unique characteristics. The track has bumps in Turn 2 and has aged to where grip becomes a big factor late into a run. We want to set the car up to run the bottom of the track, but yet, still have the flexibility to run various lines through the corners. This is a new car for us this weekend – a new specification that we’ve developed at Penske Racing. We’ve rolled out several new cars during the Chase and have been very happy with their performance. Brad has shown that he knows how to get around these 1.5-mile tracks and I think we’ll have a solid weekend at Texas.”
Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 14th

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 17th
“That’s racing on these short tracks. It will come back around for the Miller Lite Dodge team. We got some good racing in the middle section of the race, got the good lanes that we needed, but at the end we just didn’t catch a break. We ended up on the outside for the last few restarts and that wasn’t the place to be. That’s just this style of racing. You can’t control your own fate. The car came to us, the track came to us. The guys had a good plan. Our Miller Lite Dodge was a top-10 car. We came up a few laps short.”

PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)
“A long day for us. We started off not really where we needed to be. We were really struggling. Brad stayed calm and we kept working on our car and felt like halfway through the race we had ourselves a top-10, top-five car at worst. We were doing what we needed to do in this championship battle to gain points on the 99 (Carl Edwards). That last restart at the end, it looked like the 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) got into the 11 and just a chain reaction that spins us out.”

WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT LAST RESTART? “I guess the 88 got into the 11 and kind of a chain reaction got into us. It was definitely a tough day. We weren’t where we needed to be at the beginning. Everybody worked really hard. I was proud of the effort. We kept adjusting on the car. Brad stayed out of trouble and we put ourselves in position to do what we need to do today and that’s gain points in the 99. Frustrating day for us for sure as hard as we worked to get our car to be able to run up front. At the end of the day, the guys on this Miller Lite team will keep working hard and we’ll just do what we can do.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE PICTURE FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS, WHAT DO YOU THINK? “Well, obviously, it’s tough now. Carl has got such a lead on everybody, but you know, we might have to just roll the dice a little more. He’s kind of had everything go his way and it might just be that year, you know, everybody has those years when things seem to go their way. It’s definitely going his way right now, but the best thing we can do is try to find speed in our cars and get good finishes.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW PHYSICAL THE RACE WAS TODAY? THERE IS A LOT OF BENT UP CARS HERE IN THE GARAGE AREA. “It seems like there was quite a bit today, maybe more than most, but I don’t know that I’m necessarily surprised about it. It’s just Martinsville.”

ARE YOU GLAD TO GET MARTINSVILLE BEHIND YOU? “It was a tough day for us. We made gains on our car. We brought a new race car here and we felt like we had a car that could run top-five which is our goal here. Just things didn’t go our way. That’s a part of it. We’ll go on to Texas.”

TRAVIS GEISLER (Competition Director, Penske Racing)
“The finish is disappointing, but you have to look at the good parts. They (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team) had a great race car today and really fought hard to race their way to where they got to. Obviously, the 99 has all the luck in the world on his side right now. He got a lap down twice today and got the lucky dog and ended up with a good finish. I feel like we raced our way to a fifth-place finish, fifth to eighth easily. As long as you can do that week in and week out, it will come to you. That’s the thing this team has to hold its head high about, getting that Miller Lite Dodge to the front every week. If they do that, it will come together for them.”

- Darnell Communication for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

DODGE AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

· Dodge has 10 wins at Martinsville including three sweeps (1953, 1956 and 1975).
· Rusty Wallace posted the last Dodge win at Martinsville. It came in the 2004 spring event, one of seven victories for Wallace at the .526-mile track.
· Kurt Busch (No. 2 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge) won at Martinsville in 2002 prior to joining the Dodge family.
· Busch is the only current Dodge driver to earn a pole at Martinsville Speedway (October 2006).
· Dodge’s Brad Keselowski has one top-10 finish in three starts at Martinsville (10th – October 2010).

THE DODGE BOYS

· Dodge has 212 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
· Dodge has five victories this season, three by Brad Keselowski (Kansas, Pocono and Bristol) and two by Kurt Busch (Infineon, Dover). Dodge’s most recent win came at Dover. Busch led five times for 90 of the 400 laps.
· Dodge teams have recorded 52 victories since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.

CHASE FAST FACTS

· Dodge’s Brad Keselowski qualified 16th and finished fourth at Talladega last weekend. He is third in the Chase standings, 18 points behind the leader.
· Dodge’s Kurt Busch qualified 14th and finished 36th at Talladega. He dropped one position in the standings to eighth, 52 points behind the leader.
· The last time two Penske Racing Dodges qualified for the Chase was 2005 (Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman).
· Dodge has not won a championship since the Chase format was introduced in 2004. Kurt Busch won the 2004 title before moving to Penske Racing in 2006.
· Dodge drivers have won four Sprint Cup championships: David Pearson (1966), Bobby Isaac (1970), Richard Petty (1974, 1975).

2011 CHASE to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Standings

(After 32 of 36 Events)
1. Carl Edwards 2237 7. Jimmie Johnson -50
2. Matt Kenseth -14 8. Kurt Busch -52
3. Brad Keselowski -18 9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -74
4. Tony Stewart -19 10. Jeff Gordon -82
5. Kevin Harvick -26 11. Denny Hamlin -84
6. Kyle Busch -40 12. Ryan Newman -88

DODGE IN THE CHASE: MARTINSVILLE

· 2004: Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield represented Dodge in the Chase. Newman claimed the pole and led nine laps en route to a third-place finish. Mayfield qualified 11th and finished sixth.
· 2005: Dodge drivers making the elite 10 were Ryan Newman Jeremy Mayfield and Rusty Wallace. Newman finished 10th, Wallace 19th and Mayfield 28th.
· 2006: Kasey Kahne was the only Dodge driver to make the Chase. He started 32nd and finished seventh.
· 2007: Kurt Busch was the lone Dodge representative in the Chase. Busch started 11th and finished 31st.
· 2008: There were no Dodges in the 2008 Chase field.
· 2009: Kurt Busch, the lone Dodge entry in the Chase, started 37th and finished 17th.
· 2010: Kurt Busch was the only Dodge driver to make the Chase. He started 29th and finished 16th.

FROM THE DODGE ENGINEER:

“This week, we’re going from the biggest track in Sprint Cup competition to the smallest. If Talladega had big engineering challenges to overcome, Martinsville has bigger. Engineers, worried about 250-degree engine temperatures at Talladega last week, have to worry about 1400-degree brake temperatures at Martinsville. Some easy math will convince even the most casual observer that dealing with components that get to 1400 degrees will be an important part of any team’s success at Martinsville.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering

2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST

· Kurt Busch Start: 1st (Kansas1, Pocono1 & Michigan1)
Finish: 1st (Infineon, Dover2)

· Brad Keselowski Start: 1st (Charlotte1)
Finish: 1st (Kansas1, Pocono2, Bristol2)

· Robby Gordon Start: 30th (Daytona1)
Finish: 16th (Daytona1)

MARTINSVILLE STATS OF THE WEEK

· Brad Keselowski has one top 10 finish at Martinsville (Fall 2010). He has an average finish of 13.7 in three races at the paper clip-shaped track.
· Kurt Busch’s win at Martinsville in 2002 came from the 36th starting position, the furthest back a race winner has started.
· Dodge’s best finish at Martinsville in the spring was a 16th by Kurt Busch. Brad Keselowski finished 19th and Robby Gordon 23rd.
· There have been 125 Sprint Cup races at Martinsville; the first in 1949 was won by Red Byron.
· Just 19 races have been won from the pole.

DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Heading back to Martinsville for the second time, I don’t feel like we were that bad the first race. We had a tire failure that put us behind, so going back we feel that we have some new ideas that will make our cars a little faster. We’re bringing a new chassis to the race track this weekend. Hopefully, we can keep this roll going. We’re all excited on this Miller Lite Dodge Charger team. We’ve worked really hard all year to put ourselves in position these final few races to have a shot at the championship and it’s ‘go’ time to try and make it happen.”
Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

DODGE QUOTES

“This weekend’s race at Martinsville is one that I’ve been looking forward to for a while. There is no part or piece of equipment that can substitute for just getting a bunch of laps under your belt there. I’ve learned a lot in my three races, and I know Paul (Wolfe) has as well. This is a race where I think we can really pick up some points on Carl (Edwards) and Matt (Kenseth).

“Martinsville will always be a track that is hard on brakes. Yes, the braking systems have come a long way over the last 10 years or so. But if you give us more brakes or better brakes, we are going to use more brakes to the point that we will damage the sidewall of the tire. Overheating the brakes is something that is easy to do because you are going so hard every lap as passing is difficult at Martinsville. Managing your brakes is part of being a successful short-track racer.”
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger

“Everyone on this team feels really good about going to Martinsville this weekend, especially since we were able to take part in the Goodyear tire test there last month. The good thing about Martinsville is that
you don’t have to worry about aerodynamics. It’s the shortest track we visit and it’s all about mechanical grip. In the short time Brad has been at Martinsville, he has shown a great ability to get around the place. Hopefully we can get qualifying in – which is never a guarantee during this weekend – so that we can get a good starting spot. Then, if we can maintain forward bite off the corners, I believe we can gain more points on the Chase leaders to really make this thing interesting
heading into the final three weeks.”
Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

“We’ve run very well there through the years, but you wouldn’t know that by just looking at the statistics. The biggest thing is that it’s been seldom that we’ve been able to put together a whole race at Martinsville. We’d start out strong and not be able to get the good finishes we needed. Many times we’ve been strong enough to win a 400-lap race there, but the problem is that Martinsville races are 500-lappers, not 400.

“We’re coming back into Martinsville with a lot of confidence and a really positive attitude about racing there this weekend. I’ll be the first to admit that the Martinsville races have always been so challenging to me and that goes all the way back through my career. But ever since Steve Addington came aboard as our crew chief, things have really begun to turn for the better.

“It’s just a tough parking-lot-style of racing. You’re racing on a flat surface on the straightaways and all the way through the corners. You just stay so hard on the brakes into the corners that you don’t know when you’re gonna slide over that edge of how you need to be running. I seem to almost always heat up my front brakes too much there and they lose the grip we need towards the end of the race. Most of the time, we still have plenty of rear brake left as the race concludes and that really tends to create a loose handling situation. You’re all on top of one another for the whole race, with cars behind you and in front of you ramming and jamming and beating and banging. It’s so tough on the drivers and the teams. You can have one slow pit stop and find yourself falling from the top-five all the way back to 25th. You get mired up in the traffic and it’s so difficult to pass. You can do a complete tire run and maybe only make up half the positions that you lost earlier. Everyone has to be on top of their game just about for the entire race in order to excel there.”
Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T

“The biggest thing I’ve tried to stress to Kurt about racing at Martinsville is to keep his cool, stay focused and hang in there and keep plugging away. “It’s a 500-lap race and you have to be running at the finish to have a shot at the win or a solid finish up front. It’s a place that puts a premium on patience like no other track we race on. The way our season has gone, you just never know. One thing for sure is that there’s still a full month of racing left and we’ll be out there scratching and clawing for everything we can get.”
Steve Addington, crew chief, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

“It was just a frustrating night for our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. I thought we had the lucky dog there about halfway through the race. We were just tight in and loose off all night. And we got bit twice when the caution came out right after we pitted under green. But we got the free pass and got back on to the lead lap and we at least came away with a respectable finish. We did lose a few points, but we’ll try to get them back next week. Faster race cars will make for better decisions.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 16th

“We missed the setup just a little bit and I did a bad job in qualifying. Between the two, that put us behind. We were a 10th- to 15th-place car. On your bad days, a 10th- to 15th-place run isn’t bad. We got behind on track position and got about every bad yellow you could catch after pitting under green. You can’t make up for that when you keep catching those bad breaks. That’s just part of the deal here. Real unfortunate it happened that way, but we did a great job of taking the bad breaks and at least not getting a 20th day out of it. If we just didn’t catch the yellows the way they came, we would have had probably an eighth- or ninth-place day. We caught the strategy wrong every time, but I don’t feel bad about the effort, I don’t feel bad about the calls. We just got a lot of bad breaks. We still made up some points, at least on Jimmie (Johnson). We got rid of what could have been a really, really bad day, what looked like for a long time would be a 23rd- or 24th-place day. I feel like I know what was wrong; I wish could run this race again tomorrow and come back with a little different setup. We just didn’t catch the right breaks.

“This particular tire and track combination is so different than everywhere else we go. What it takes to be successful, we just didn’t have in our back pocket. This is a completely different mile-and-a-half than the rest of them and we didn’t have what we needed tonight.”

PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“It was a tough fight all night. We didn’t qualify where we needed to be. Our car wasn’t good enough to pass, we were just hoping to get in that sequence where could do a little different strategy to get toward the front. This never played out. We tried short-pitting to gain some track position and the cautions fell wrong. This was a frustrating night. We recovered somewhat at the end. Finishing 16th is not where we wanted. We’re on the edge, but we’re still in the hunt. We’re still within reach, but we have to put together stronger runs to have a shot.”

TRAVIS GEISLER (Director of Competition, Penske Racing)

“I guess when you look at 13th and 16th as a terrible night, I guess that’s a good sign of where the program is. Certainly, it was a struggle. Twice there, we got caught pitting and the caution came out. With that going on and still end up 13th and 16th, we can still survive and go racing from here. There’s still a lot left in this Chase and it’s still a pretty tight deal. We’re just going to have to put our game face on and need to capitalize on these next couple wild cards, looking at Talladega and Martinsville.”
WAS A LOT OF IT JUST BAD RACING LUCK OR WAS THERE ANYTHING MECHANICAL THAT YOU CAN PUT YOUR FINGER ON? “You know, you make you own luck. Yes, it was bad luck that the 21 ran out of gas and stopped on the back straightaway when people think he could have gone a little differently when all of the Roush cars hadn’t pitted, yet so it was just convenient (smiles). If you look past all that, hey, we just weren’t fast enough, that’s all. Any time you’re relying on race conditions to make a race for you, you’re not good enough and that’s just all it was. It was a matter of lacking some speed and lacking overall grip for the car. We’ve got to go to work on it and figure out what we missed here this weekend with both of our cars and go on and see what happens at Talladega.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Paul Wolfe

PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)

BOTH DODGES QUALIFIED FOR THE CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP. COMMENT ON TECHNICAL RELATIONSHIP WITH DODGE. “I think going into the season, when Dodge decided to only focus on working with Penske and being the only two (full-time) Cup cars in the series, I think a lot of people probably thought they were crazy and didn’t really understand it. But I think it’s obviously paid off. The results I think are showing that; they are able to give all the attention and focus just to these two race cars. You know, sometimes you’d like to think you’d have other teams to lean on. The cool thing about Dodge is they continue to come back to us wanting feedback, what they can do to be better, so they’re always trying to grow the program, trying to be able to give us all we want. It’s really helped. As we go farther down the road with the relationship, I think that’ll continue to get better and stronger and they’ll understand where they can help us more and vice versa and just continue to build a great race team.”

HOW DID YOU GO FROM UP AND COMING YOUNG DRIVER TO CREW CHIEF? HOW DIFFICULT WAS THAT TRANSITION? “Really, probably the reason it wasn’t as difficult is because my first start in this sport was building race cars when I moved to North Carolina in ’96. So I started out building ‘em, working on ‘em, understanding what it took to build one of these things. Then when I got the opportunity to drive, I think at that point that helped me in my driving. I worked real hard at that on and off for four or five years and was just never really able to get an opportunity where I could continue to succeed and find the success that I needed to stay driving at this level in the sport. So, at that point, it was going back to what I knew and knew I could do well and that was building race cars, working on ‘em and making ‘em go fast. When the opportunities to drive kind of dried up, it was kind of easy for me to transform back to doing something like that.”

IN THE LAST THREE YEARS YOU HAVE GONE FROM BRAUN RACING TO WINNING A NATIONWIDE TITLE AT PENSKE RACING TO BEING IN CONTENTION FOR THE CUP CHAMPIONSHIP. “Just looking at this year in itself, I haven’t really taken a lot of time to reflect on what we’ve been able to accomplish. Leading up to why I’m in this role I’m in now, it’s probably has to do with all my years in the Nationwide Series. It was 2006 when I started (as a crew chief) in the Nationwide Series and it was with a bunch of different teams. When I had the opportunity to come to Penske last year and work with Brad (Keselowski), I felt like the reason I got the phone call and had that opportunity was all the hard work and time I had put in prior to that. So, to be able to have that opportunity last year was like, well, finally it’s paid off and I’ve got the right situation where we had great funding, a great driver, great team and I was able to maybe show a little more of what I was capable of. Being able to win all the races we did and win the championship was a great accomplishment and the hard work finally had paid off. That opened up the door to have the opportunity to move up to the Cup series, not that I didn’t like winning all those races last year and winning the championship. I could have gone back and done that again this year and continue to build on that, but I felt like I had accomplished a lot of what I wanted to accomplish in the Nationwide Series. To move to the Cup series, I felt like it had to be the right situation. I felt like the relationship that Brad and I built over the 2010 season and all the relationships here at Penske and their belief in what I could do; I thought it was a good fit and a great opportunity to do move into the role. I’ve always felt like I’ve worked with teams that maybe hadn’t had a lot of success, so it gave me the opportunity to go in there and build something and show what I was capable of doing. Obviously, this wasn’t the 2 team, but the 12 team which transformed to the 2. (Last year’s No. 2 team moved over to the 22 team with Kurt Busch while the No. 12 team of Sam Hornish Jr. from the previous year became the No. 2 team). It was a chance for me to bring in some new guys, some guys from the Nationwide Series and try to get Brad up to the level of competition where we all felt like he could run. Definitely a slow start to the season, but as we moved to the middle part of the season we started to show that we were capable and that we felt like we belonged in the series.”

THERE IS A LOT OF TRUST BETWEEN YOU AND BRAD WITH THE DECISIONS YOU MAKE DURING A RACE. HOW DO YOU BUILD THAT LEVEL OF TRUST? “Well, obviously, we’ve only worked together for two years now. Leading up to us getting together and working together last year, I think we looked at what one another was able to accomplish, what we’ve done to get to this point and there was some sort of level of respect and trust just going into it. And then, as we got into the season last year and started having success, I think that you just kind of start to build even more (respect). It’s just like anything else, like momentum, you start to really trust and believe and know that each of us are doing the right things. That’s why we’re successful. So when you have that, I think it makes it easier to get through the times when you struggle. As competitive as this sport is, especially at the Cup level, there’s going to be days when you struggle, when you’re off and weeks and months as it was for us at the beginning of the season. At the beginning of the season, we knew it was going to take time and it was definitely a big transition for me. But I think all that trust and belief in one another and our hard work got us through that part of the season, kept us focused and not pointing fingers at one another, putting the blame on anybody. We knew as a team we could do it and we continued to work hard and Brad never gave up. We continued to work and get him race cars where we could be competitive. Now, it’s at the point where I feel like we both are confident we’re capable of doing it. We’ve showed it and if we’re having a bad race, we’re off or just making the calls, we believe in one another. At the end of the day, there’s some sort of risk when you make calls on Sunday. Sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don’t. I feel like we’re smart and have done a good job that we’re probably up here of the calls that went good and the ones that went bad are down here. I think as a team we do a great job. We try to communicate. That’s something that Brad’s really good at is being involved in what’s going on and understanding how the race is playing out. We make decisions; we talk about ‘em. Some of it might have been prior to the start of the race, so when we’re making calls, we’ve already discussed a lot of this and we know what each of us is thinking even though we might not say it on the radio. A lot of that stuff is probably behind the scenes that the people listening in don’t know what we’ve already discussed. It just helps having that communication and making the good decisions.”

COMMENT ON THE UPCOMING RACES AT MARTINSVILLE, TALLADEGA AND PHOENIX. DO YOU CLASSIFY ALL OF THEM AS “WILD CARD” RACES? “Well I think its (Phoenix) going to be a tough race just because it’s new to everybody. I don’t know if I look at it as a wild card. I guess you could label it as a wild card. To me, Talladega and Martinsville are races where so many things out of your control can happen. But as I look at Phoenix, I guess it’s a wild card from the standpoint it is new to everyone; everyone has to figure it out. But still at the end of the day the successful teams, the teams that do their homework, are still going to be the team that runs well, in my opinion. It was an interesting test. It wasn’t the greatest test from our standpoint. We know we’ve got a lot of work to do. The track surface was definitely a one-groove track at the test. It will be interesting to see how that aspect of it changes because the way it tested, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a great race. Unfortunately, it was something that needed to be done. As teams and as NASCAR, we always seem to work through and are able to put on a good race.”

IT SEEMS LIKE IN MOST RACES THERE COMES A POINT WHERE A CREW CHIEF HAS TO DO SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT TO KEEP TRACK POSITION AND STAY IN CONTENTION. HOW DO YOU SORT THROUGH ALL THE DATA AND INFORMATION TO MAKE THAT DECISION? “It’s definitely tough, from a lot of aspects. With it being new to me, I guess I didn’t really have any expectations or any habits of how to call a race. Obviously, you always hear Chad (Knaus, crew chief for Jimmie Johnson) say he doesn’t know how to call a race anymore with all the success that they’ve had with the 48 car. But I think it’s definitely changed a lot this year. Being on the outside in the past watching the races and how they played out, some of that has to do with the tires. Some of the tracks we’ve gone to, we’re just not seeing a lot of speed fall off in some of the tires. Obviously, those types of races change how you call along with all the fuel mileage stuff; that was a big part of our first win at Kansas. My approach to racing has never been real conservative. So to me, I probably make more risky calls than maybe some other guys might. But that’s just my style. Some people look at some calls and might think they’re pretty risky. At the same time, there’s definitely some sort of data or facts behind the decisions we make. I think you see, the majority of the time they pay off for us. If we were making risky calls and it was going 50-50, then you could call it just a shot in the dark. My engineers do a great job of giving me information from the fuel mileage stuff to just tracking weather. There have been some races where we’ve used some weather in our strategy. It’s definitely a team effort up on top of the box with the information. That’s the part of the race weekend. I really enjoy calling the race and all the strategy stuff. I feel like that’s an area where, as a team, we continue to get our race cars better each week. We probably haven’t had a lot of dominate race cars yet. I feel like we’re still building and trying to continue to advance our setups and get to where we can have weekends like the 48 did this weekend, where he was kind of the class of the field. We haven’t had that a lot, but the part of the equation that we have done well at was making those pit calls or strategy. There are so many aspects of winning these Cup races and winning the championship other than all-out speed. Now, at the end of the day, when you have race cars that are really fast, it makes calling the race easier for sure. You don’t have to have fast race cars every week to be successful. That’s the one thing that I’ve seen this season and it pays the same amount of points whether you had a dominate car or not. When you win the race, it doesn’t really matter how you got there. We’ll continue to build our team and build better race cars and then, I think the rest of it will even be easier for us.”

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE AS A CREW CHIEF IN THE CUP SERIES? “For me personally, it’s probably been learning to rely on a lot of resources and people around me. It’s so competitive, there are so many aspects of it at this level. In the past, I’ve always been hands-on with every part of the race car, race team and pit crew. As you get to this level, it’s so competitive you have to learn to build trust in the guys around you and believe that they’ve giving you the right information, the things you need to make decisions. You just physically can’t do everything. There are not enough hours in the day and you just drain yourself if you try to do all aspects of what it takes to be successful. So just making that transition and building trust in the guys around me and continuing to try to find good guys, A+ guys to put on to this team to be able to compete with the 48 car has been a challenge.”

WITH YOUR BACKGROUND AS A HANDS-ON GUY, IS IT STRANGE TO NOT BE CRAWLING UNDER A CAR ALL THE TIME? “Absolutely, and that’s part of what I say of having to have trust in the people around you. I enjoy working on the race cars. Don’t get me wrong, I still do. I’m not turning the wrenches every day, but I like to spend time with the guys whether they’re on the pull-down rig or out here on the set-up plate. I still know what’s going on, know the nuts and bolts of my race car. I think that’s what’s helped me be successful, even this year, just knowing my race cars and knowing what’s on ‘em.”

FROM THIS POINT OF THE SEASON MOVING FORWARD, WHAT IS A SUCCESSFUL CHASE? “You know coming into the season, I’ve never been super-big on setting goals from the standpoint of I want to have this many top fives or top 10s and win this many races. The way I’ve approached it is ‘I told some reporters in January that I felt like realistically we could be in the Chase’. I felt like that was realistic. The thing for us was to go to Daytona and from Daytona on continue to see improvement in our race team, from the speed in our cars to how well the guys worked together to our pit crew, see Brad improve, myself and the decisions I make in calling races and decisions over the weekend. And if we can continue to do that each and every week, I would consider that being successful. I didn’t really set any numbers. Have I surprised myself and probably some others around the company with what we actually have accomplished, I’d be lying if I said no because honestly, I didn’t picture us winning three races this year and being this far into the Chase and having a shot at it. Probably wasn’t looking that far into the future. It was more of what do we have to do today to be better day-by-day. As we’ve taken that approach, we’ve seen the results and are seeing that we have a shot to win the championship.”

THE NASCAR SEASON IS INCREDIBLY LONG. HOW HAVE YOU FOUND WAYS AS THE LEADER OF THE TEAM TO FIND A BALANCE, NOT BURN GUYS OUT AND KEEP THEM FRESH ALL SEASON? “There’s one thing most people that know me and as people get to know me, is that I’m a pretty quiet guy. I don’t say a whole lot. I’m not a big cheerleader or one of those types of guys, but I try to surround myself with people that don’t need that. I try to get guys that are racers, that have the same passion that I do. There’s always guys with different personalities that need a pat on the back every now and them and that’s fine, that’s understandable. I feel like the group of guys we have are really strong. They’re all racers. They’ve all worked hard to get to this point and they’re pretty strong in that they don’t need someone telling ‘em what they need to do or when they need to take a break. Now, obviously, we try to give everybody the time they deserve and try not to get ‘em burned out. From that side of it, it goes back to everybody back here at the shop. They do a great job preparing our race cars and getting them in shape where the road guys don’t have to be here every day. They get their time to relax and be fresh for the weekend. I think, knock on wood, we’ve done a great job with great, reliable cars all year. And that’s part of being in the Chase as well as not having too many DNFs or any issues. Everybody is just kind of taking it race by race and just really, to be honest with you, just haven’t seem to have felt a lot of pressure. I try to go in there each weekend and approach it like we have to get to this point and continue to try to push forward with trying to make our race cars better. We’re bringing a brand new race car this weekend (to Charlotte). Some may think that’s crazy; why would you roll out a new car that you haven’t worked with this year when you’re in the Chase. That’s always been my approach, probably take more risks than some, but it always seems to work for me. I’m just not very conservative from that aspect. If I feel like there’s something better out there, I’m not afraid to put it on my race car.”

IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE HAVING FUN. “Absolutely, it’s definitely been a lot of fun. It seems like, in a lot of ways, we struggled bad at the beginning of the year trying to figure it all out. Now, I feel like we can breathe each week and be smarter about what we’re doing. That just continues to snowball and we’re finding ourselves with even more success.”

- Darnell Communication for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished Third

“Another solid day for us. It just makes you kick yourself for last week at Dover for having the trouble that we did. We’ve had top-five cars each and every week. We’re executing very well as a group and as a team. The things that we can control, we’re doing very well. I’m proud of everything and our efforts. We were about a third- to fifth-place car today. We brought home a third, so I’m proud of that effort. Kasey (Kahne) looked really good there at the end. I told Roger Penske to check the No. 22 hauler (Nationwide) from yesterday because I’m pretty sure that Jimmie (Johnson) stole the car and put new decals on it because he was gone. He was fast. I’m proud of the effort and proud that we were able to get a solid run out of it again. I just wish I could have beat Jimmie; he just had a little more in the tank than we did. We gave it our best effort.”

YOU WON IN JUNE, WON IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES YESTERDAY, THIRD TODAY. ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED THAT KANSAS IS REPAVING THE TRACK? “Yeah, I think that everybody is gonna be. I talked to some of the guys from the track last night; sometimes they have to tear them up because of the weather. All these tracks in the Midwest, whether it’s Michigan, Kentucky or Kansas, they go through all that frost cycle with the winters and the springs where they frost, de-thaw, frost, de-thaw, and it just kills this track. There are big potholes that I guess they’re having trouble keeping down. Nobody wants us to have another incident like we did at Daytona. It’s tough. It’s unfortunate when tracks have to do that. I hope that technology has developed or exists that can hold up a little bit longer so we can use these tracks further and further and further because I think that we see better racing as the tracks get older. I think this track in particular has become very racy. I think there is as much side-by-side racing as you’re going to see in this style of racecar here at Kansas. I think that it’s bittersweet for everyone and the sport.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE THAT YOU LIKE? “You know, I think it’s like anywhere else. You go to tracks, and some tracks you just pick them up real quick and you get a feel for them, and some tracks you get a good car and you learn and define what you need to run well there. I’ve been very fortunate over the last few years to have very good cars here and picked up on this place.”

WHAT IS THE REASON THAT YOU’VE BEEN ABLE TO DO SO WELL AT THE END OF RACES? “You know, there are a lot of different reasons, and I think it all comes back to just having a good team. Good teams have good cars; they’re best at their end and fastest at their end. They use good pit strategy and stay strong through adversity. I feel like I just have a really good team. I guess it’s hard to define what makes a good team and a bad team does those things.

“You know, last year we weren’t a good team. We were always our worst at the end, and that’s not what it takes. I don’t know why that was, but that’s just the way it kind of works out sometimes. This year, it seems like as a group, we’re just clicking. It really hurts after last week because I felt like this is the only week we’ve had that was a bad finish, and something happened that was outside of their control.

“Sometimes that’s the way it goes, and we’re doing a good job of maximizing our day, taking care of everything that’s in our control and I’m really proud of our team for doing that. “

DOES THIS WIN FOR JIMMIE REAFFIRM THAT HE’S GOING TO BE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP HUNT ALL CHASE? “Yeah, certainly he’s going to be tough. The real question is we’ve got two big wild card races with Phoenix and Talladega, and I don’t think you can rule anyone in or out until those two races are over and we get to Homestead.”

KESELOWSKI RADIO/TV INTERVIEW ON PIT ROAD

“Everybody was a little close; we were just closer, but the Miller Lite Dodge was good. Proud of the effort. Kind of an up-and-down day. We got up to be a second- or third-place car mid part of the race, then kind of fell off a little bit, but came back. Third-place day, that’s good, that’s what you’ve got to do. Really, we want to win races like Jimmie (Johnson), but we’re making the best we can out of it. If he stumbles, we’ll be there.”

YOU MOVE UP TWO SPOTS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP, JUST 11 POINTS OUT OF THE LEAD. NO-TIRE STOPS, SHORT PITTING TODAY, YOU GUYS DID IT ALL IT SEEMS LIKE. “We did. Paul Wolfe, my crew chief, used great strategy. We did the best we could. I think Jimmie went in the garage and stole my 22 Nationwide car from yesterday today because there was nobody gonna run with him all day. His car was just way better. Kudos to them and a great effort by my Miller Lite team. To get a third-place out of this, if it wasn’t for that power steering last week, we’d probably have the points lead. Those failures, those troubles, they’re going to come the 48’s way and when it does, we’ll be there.”

PAUL WOLFE (crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE GREAT RUN THE NO. 2 CAR HAD TODAY? “Yeah, it was a great run. It was a battle all day for sure. The car wasn’t close to where it needed to be at the start of the race. We just kept our head in the game, adjusting on the Miller Lite Dodge all day. As we went on the long green runs is where I think we were pretty strong. The way that things cycled out, we got inside the top five and once we got there, our car really reacted. I thought we were in a little bit of trouble when we stayed out and didn’t pit and everyone behind us had 16 lap fresher tires. I think being able to hold on like we did shows how strong of a car that we had. Great job by everyone on this Miller Lite Dodge team. These are the type of runs that we’re going to need to stay in this championship battle.”

WAS IT A DIFFICULT DECISION TO PIT OR NOT PIT? WAS IT ALL ABOUT TRACK POSITION? “It’s tough. I told Brad that let’s just see what the leaders do and everyone pitted, so we thought that we’d stay. You hope that more guys would stay out after you, but nobody did. Typically, in situations like that, you have four or five guys stay out and maybe you have a better shot. At the end of the day, we had another caution and we were able to hang on and get a third-place finish.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 13th

“Track position is so important at this place and we fought tooth-and-nail all day to get it. We got behind in qualifying and had to start 17th. We ran from 15th to 20th most of the day and caught a break; we got the lucky dog to get back on the lead lap. We gambled after the fourth caution and didn’t pit with Steve (Addington, crew chief) coaching me to save fuel. We were a lap shy on the fuel calculation and hit pit road when most of the other guys pitted with less than 25 to go. That guaranteed us to be good on fuel. We got up to seventh when the 24 blew an engine to set up the green-white-checkered. We stayed out because we just had never been that great on new tires. It was like everybody behind us did pit, so that might have been our best move. We were still a top-10 car when the green-white checker came out, but just couldn’t hold on to a top 10. The fresher tires got us.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

DODGE IN THE CHASE

· Kurt Busch clinched his sixth appearance in the Chase for the Sprint Cup with a fourth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch is the 2004 NSCS champion.
· Brad Keselowski clinched a wild card spot in the Chase with a sixth-place finish at Atlanta, his 10th top-10 this season. Keselowski will be making his first career Chase appearance.
· The last time two Penske Racing Dodges qualified for the Chase to the Sprint Cup was in 2005 with Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman.

DODGE AT RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

· Dodge has 17 Sprint Cup wins at Richmond including three since the manufacturer returned to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001.
· Lee Petty drove a Dodge to victory in the first NASCAR race at Richmond in 1953.
· Dodge winners in addition to Petty include Buck Baker, David Pearson, Cotton Owens, Bobby Allison, Richard Petty, Dave Marcis, Neil Bonnett, Ryan Newman, Jeremy Mayfield and Kasey Kahne.
· Kurt Busch won the fall event at RIR in 2005 before joining Penske Racing.

DODGE STAT OF THE WEEK

· Dodge’s Brad Keselowski No. 2 Dodge has an average finish of 3.25 in the last five Sprint Cup Series races. Keselowski has tallied six consecutive top-10 finishes.

2011 DODGE SPRINT CUP REWIND

· Race 1: Kurt Busch won the Bud Shootout and a Gatorade Duel during Speedweeks.
· Races 12-15: Dodge earned four consecutive poles.
· Race 13: Brad Keselowski won at Kansas; first Dodge win of the season.
· Race 16: Busch dominated at Infineon for first win of the season and first road-course victory of his career.
· Race 21: Keselowski, racing with a broken left ankle, earned his second win of the season at Pocono Raceway.
· Race 23: Keselowski moved up to 12th in Cup driver standings.
· Race 24: Keselowski won his third race of the season. Moved up to 11th in points. Current No. 1 wild card driver.
· Race 25: Busch and Keselowski clinched spots in the Chase.

DID YOU KNOW?

· Dodge has qualified at least one driver for the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the third consecutive season.
· Penske Racing is the only NASCAR Sprint Cup team to lock all their drivers into the Chase.
· Dodge’s Kurt Busch is the only Chase driver that has remained inside the top 10 in the driver standings all season. The lowest he’s been in the top 10 in the first 25 races was ninth following Dover.

THE DODGE BOYS

· Dodge has 211 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
· Dodge’s most recent win came at Bristol Motor Speedway. Brad Keselowski led 89 of the 500 laps en route to victory. The victory was the fourth for Dodge in 2011.
· Dodge teams have posted 51 victories 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 its return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).

2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST

· Kurt Busch Start: 1st (Kansas, Pocono & Michigan)
Finish: 1st (Infineon)
· Brad Keselowski Start: 1st (Charlotte)
Finish: 1st (Kansas, Pocono, Bristol)
· Robby Gordon Start: 30th (Daytona)
Finish: 16th (Daytona)

DODGE MOTORSPORTS QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I’ve lived my whole life wanting to have a shot at a Cup championship and here I am. I’ve got a legitimate shot at it.”
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

FROM THE ENGINEER

“As we approach the last race before the Chase to the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins, and both Penske Dodges are already locked into the playoffs, you would think teams might be able to take a breather. Not so. There’s still plenty of opportunity at Richmond and everyone will be trying hard to get the last bit of advantage they can. A race win pays bonus points and so that would be job one, but if there are some setup ideas that the teams have been reluctant to try during their fight just to get in the Chase, now might be the time to roll them out. The team may not be able to engineer a win this week, but could still benefit greatly in the Chase from some nuggets they could dig up at Richmond.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering

DODGE QUOTES

“The thing about racing at Richmond is that it seems like the best cars always come out on top. You have to come in there thinking that the yellow flag will prevail like it normally does and we’ll have some restarts at the end of the race. We usually have a period of long green-flag racing in the middle portion of the race, too. With that in mind, we hope to have our Shell-Pennzoil Dodge capable of running solid during that stretch and still be adjustable enough to be able to really get after it in a short sprint to the finish if it comes down to that and it usually does.

“Because we’re locked in, many might look at it as a ‘throwaway race’ because of the buffer we’ve built. We’re looking at it as an additional opportunity to try some things that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise. It’ll be nice to go into Saturday night’s race without having to be really conservative and worried about keeping up with where this driver is running or where that driver is running.”
Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T

“Richmond is such a great track to have as the cutoff for the Chase. What I mean by that is the short track atmosphere, the ability to run two-wide there. You always have a little pit strategy sprinkled in with what to do, when to pit for your final time or even two tires throughout the race. So, it keeps you on your toes. And any track that does that is a track that can bring in somebody that has that string of luck that evening to get them into the Chase.”
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

“Richmond is a fast short track that has a lot of challenges. It almost drives like a speedway because the corner speed is very high. It takes the right balance of having the car turn in the center without giving up forward drive off the corner. Fuel mileage and pit strategy come in to play at times so you need to make sure you stay on top of that throughout the race. Richmond is a track where a driver can make a big difference and I feel that plays into our hands with Brad behind the wheel.”
Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 1st

TALK ABOUT YOUR MONTH OF AUGUST; HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? “A team that just starts to click and believes in each other. I believed in Paul (Wolfe) since we started this year and we’ve just made good adjustments to our cars over the last few months. We made good adjustments to our car today and we find ourselves in victory lane. I can’t believe it, I really can’t.

“The first few pit stops of the day, we struggled a little bit, but that last stop my guys came through and got me out in front of the 24. We were able to pass Martin Truex and the next thing I know, we’re in victory lane spraying Miller Lite. This is really cool.”

PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)
“I’m so proud of everyone on this team. To have three wins now in this season from where we started the year just shows all the hard work that everybody has been doing back at the shop. All these guys on the pit crew, we had the pit stop that counted tonight. They did their deal. Everybody is doing their part. We’re building fast Miller Lite Dodge Chargers and I’m just really proud of everyone on this team.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 17th
“It was just a difficult night for us all the way around. We were playing catch-up all race due to the two pit-road penalties (speeding). We finally made it up to 10th in the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge with less than 100 to go, but had our worst pit stop of the night under the last caution and lost six spots back to 16th. We went with an adjustment (wedge) that made it just too tight to advance. It wasn’t the night we expect to have at Bristol.”

(MEDIA CENTER INTERVIEW)

BRAD KESELOWSKI
TALK ABOUT WINNING TONIGHT AT BRISTOL? “What an honor to win at Bristol. We had a great car all night long. We were strong. During that first run, I knew that we had something for them. We kind of fell off a little bit after that first restart when Matt (Kenseth) and I got together. I was really concerned from there on because I thought that I did something to my car. We did some more adjustments on it and got it right. By the end of the race, we got up to the lead and the sky was the limit. I’m proud of the effort. Everybody just kept digging all night long. The last pit stop was good. The adjustments were good. I was driving my butt off and the next thing you know, I find myself in victory lane at Bristol.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET TO 10TH IN POINTS? “Who’s 10th? Tony (Stewart)? Tony’s pretty good at Atlanta and Richmond. Richmond, we really struggled there in the spring, so I’m really not sure what to expect going back. Twenty-one points is still a lot of points. You have to beat the guy by over 10 positions over the course of two races. Beating Tony Stewart by an average of 10 positions over two races, that’s gonna be pretty tough to be honest. I’m just happy with what we’ve done here tonight. I hate to look too far ahead, but yes, having those points for three wins would be huge in the Chase. But I don’t think that we’ve seen a Chase yet where that’s mattered. Maybe this one will be different. Maybe we’ll be kicking ourselves if we don’t get into the top 10 and it comes down to Homestead and we lose by whatever points those are. There’s no point of sitting and pouting about it. We’re going to continue to do the best that we can.”

SINCE YOU BROKE YOUR ANKLE, YOUR AVERAGE FINISHING POSITION IS 1.75. WITH THREE WINS AND ONE POSITIONS OUT, DO YOU GO FOR CONSISTENCY OR WINS NOW? “Hell, why don’t we go for both? I like to consistently win. That’s what this sport is all about. It’s been good. This sport in its simplest form is just about winning. Why make it any more complicated than that? If you have cars that can win, go out there and win. If you don’t, get the best finish that you can. I think if you look at Jimmie (Johnson) and the years that he’s had success and won the championships, he wins races in the Chase. You’ve got to be able to do that. I’m sure that we can look at this a whole lot of different ways and coast into it, or however you want to look at it, or just take all those stupid risks to win a race. You just do the best that you can on any given week and your try to be smart about it, try not to over-think it and you’ll have good weeks. As long as you have a good team, and we have a good team, I don’t think that we need to over-think it.”

PAUL WOLFE
TALK ABOUT YOUR STRATEGY FOR PIT STALL SELECTION? “Every week, everybody chooses their pit stalls based off of qualifying. You try to pick out stalls that you think can work out for you. It’s all part of the race. I feel like we’ve been doing a good job putting together a whole weekend. It’s not always about having fast race cars. It’s about the guys having good stops. They had a fast stop there at the end when it counted. It got us to the front row and then we had a shot at it.”

YOU GUYS ARE ARGUABLY THE HOTTEST TEAM IN NASCAR? “We kind of have things going for us right now. It’s weird because it’s not really doing anything different. It’s been a lot of small things over the last couple of months, just starting to add up. We’ve got fast race cars. The driver is doing his part. The pit crew is doing its part and we’re making good calls on pit road and adjustments. The biggest thing for me, being in the Cup Series, is that these races are a lot longer than the Nationwide races that I’m use to. You have to be able to adjust on your car as the track changes because as the race goes on, everyone gets better. I feel like as a team we’ve done a good job adjusting on our cars and making them have adjustability in them. We continue to bring good race cars to the race track every week, something that Brad can race out there and do his part.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 3rd

“It was a good run for the Miller Lite Dodge. The guys did a great job working on the car today. We executed well all day. Paul made some great call on the pit box and we were able to bring home a third-place finish. It’s a great run for us here in Michigan, a solid day. I’m proud of my team. We gained some points and had another solid run.”

“HAS THE MILLER LITE DODGE TEAM PEAKED AT THE RIGHT TIME? “I think so. Right before the Chase is always the right time to peak, you just hope you can carry that momentum in the Chase. I feel pretty good about the next three; we’ll just have to see what we get there. It’s been a good ride the last three weeks.”

(IN THE MEDIA CENTER)

TALK ABOUT YOUR THIRD-PLACE FINISH TODAY. “We were decent today. Probably not as good as we needed to be to run with the 48, the 24, 18, those guys but probably a fifth to 10th-place car. Just executed really well. Had some good restarts. Had some good moves in traffic. Good pit stops, good strategy. Found our way up into the top five there with 75 to go. Just a really solid effort. We need just a little bit more speed. Seem to be executing fairly well with our team. I’m proud of that.

“Wish I had something more for the 48 and 18 there at the end, but it was just really kind of watching and hoping someone would make a mistake. I couldn’t do anything on my own merit. Still a fun race, proud of the effort. The last few weeks are more than I could ever ask for.”

IS THIS A CONFIDENCE BOOST THAT YOU’RE GETTING FROM RUNNING WEEK IN AND WEEK OUT AT THE FRONT OR ARE THE BREAKS FINALLY GOING YOUR WAY AFTER A BAD START? “I don’t know, but I wish I could bottle it up and save a little bit of it (smiling). I don’t see where I’m doing anything a lot differently, I really don’t. I don’t see where my team is doing anything a lot differently. I think we have good speed. I think Jimmie or anyone else in the garage would tell you that speed is the foundation of a good team. I think that good speed is what you need.

“If we’d have had great speed, maybe we could have won today. We’ve had good speed over the last few weeks. From there, you have to execute as a team. We’ve done that. As to why now and not before, I couldn’t tell you. I look at some of the races where I felt we were really, really good at. The 600, where I felt like we ran top five, top 10 all day, at the very end we’re in position to run second or third, someone runs out of gas in front of you. Kind of weird things have happened to us the first third of the year. Sometimes people forget about you when you have those things happen.

“For our team, probably the biggest thing I could say is there’s certainly some confidence and snowballing going on. One good run breeds another good run. I’m not sure how to quantify that, how or why. I think I’m probably a little too close to the fire to truly understand it. But it’s been amazing. It’s been more than I could ever ask for and exactly what we were looking for out of our team here at Penske Racing and everyone that supports us.”

WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE LAST TWO MONTHS THAT NOW WE’RE TALKING THREE TOP THREES IN A ROW? “Well, I mean, obviously there’s been some growth within the company at Penske Racing. I kind of walk a line there with how I say that because we’ve made a step forward, which is great to do and has created the results we’ve seen over the last few weeks. But I think we need to make another step forward. That’s a big, big goal, a lofty goal.

“To be a championship contender, we need to make that next step. We’ve made a step forward, kind of the specifics of which I’d probably rather not go into details of. I think that you can see it with our team, obviously. You can see that Penske Racing has what I feel is two equally competitive teams. I’m not sure exactly what happened to Kurt today. I know he ran real strong the early, middle section of the race. It has gone down to a matter of getting everything to click. Hate to get into any specifics of the other reasons. (Jimmy Johnson offers “please do”) I’d have to kick my dog, and I like my dogs (smiling). I’m not going to go into those parts. But pretty happy with the growth.”

HOW IS THE ANKLE? WAS THERE A LOT OF FAMILY IN THE CROWD WATCHING YOU RACE? “Yeah, it was a great showing, by far the best run I’ve ever had here, which is something that I’m going to personally reflect on tonight over a beer or two. It’s been a lot of fun. I feel good. Not as good as I’d like to feel, but good enough to not sit here and whine about it. It’s been a great day for our team. It’s been a good weekend. I wish the truck race would have gone better, otherwise, it would be an awesome weekend. Pretty happy all-in-all with the efforts.

“It’s always good to run well in front of your home family, your hometown. I’m sure Jimmie could elaborate on that, what it’s like to win at California for him. It’s been great. This is gonna be a weekend I’ll never forget, that’s for sure. But now you just got to come back and run better again and win. Sounds really easy, but just really happy with the performance in general, though.”

HOW IS THE BACK? WAS IT GIVING YOU MORE TROUBLE PERHAPS THAN THE ANKLE? “Year, it was. I made pretty good progress this week with some different rehab stuff that we did. Been feeling pretty good. I’m not going to get back to a hundred percent probably ‘till Daytona of next year. Good progress so far. We’ll just take it one step at a time. But, you know, I definitely felt the best I have. As far as during the week, I ran the whole race without a brace. Maybe regret that just a little bit. Making progress, and that’s good. I need to. We’ll just have to see how it goes week by week. Pretty happy. Didn’t feel like it affected me in the car today.”

ABOUT A MONTH AGO, PEOPLE WERE WONDERING IF YOU WERE GOING TO MAKE THE TOP 20. YOU’RE 12TH IN POINTS. A MONTH AGO, DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A SHOT AT THE TOP 10? “Well, I think after Loudon I was really, really nervous. We popped the tire there at Loudon, knocked the wall down, and just had a miserable day, fell back to like 23rd in points. We were definitely a top 15 car. Certainly weren’t as competitive as we wanted to be. Seemed like we kept taking one step forward, one step back, a good run, a bad run, a good run, a bad run. You can’t do that with this new points system. After Loudon it was a big step backwards. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was nervous after that race. Like I say, we’re clicking now. That’s all that really matters. Just glad to see it.”

IF YOU GET TWO WINS, YOU MAKE THE TOP 10? “The seeding obviously is a huge advantage. Those points are great. But I don’t think we’ve seen a year yet where those points have made the difference over who wins or who doesn’t. It seems like we all talk about it at this point in the year. But when the Chase comes, who’s going to win it is going to win it whether they have the extra points or not. Who knows, maybe one year it won’t turn out that way, and this could be the year. That would be about my luck, wouldn’t it (smiling)?

“I would like to make the top 10 on our own merits if for no other reason than to push away all the naysayers of the wild card system, not to have to hear that. It’s going to be good either way. I’m a big fan of the wild card. It’s going to be something that’s going to reward me. I think it’s a great way of showing a commitment to our fans to rewarding those who can win races. It serves the sport well accordingly. I’d be proud either way to be in the Chase. It would mean even more to get in through the top 10 system.”

THIS IS THE LAST RACE BEFORE THE REPAVE. WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES FOR THE REPAVE – APPREHENSIVE OR OPTIMISTIC? “It’s going to be awesome (laughter). I think it’s going to be cool. I know I’ve spent some time talking with Roger Curtis, the track president, about it. There are a lot of drivers that discouraged the repave. He assured us it has to be done in order to make sure we don’t have a Daytona situation. We can’t have that. Our sport, it’s important we get it right when we get here and have fans in the stands. I respect his commitment to doing that.”

IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP, HOW DO YOU BEAT JIMMIE JOHNSON? HOW DO YOU KEEP HIM FROM JUST INTIMIDATING PEOPLE WHEN HE GETS THERE? HE HAS ALREADY STARTED ON YOU ABOUT HEARING VOICES. “I don’t think I’ll be hearing any voices. The voices that I heard early in my career were, ‘You’re never going to make it.’ Everything from here on out, you know, is peaches. It’s good.

“I think with Jimmie, the biggest thing I can say about Jimmie is that, you know, I’m sure a lot of people in the garage would say his last championship was the most impressive. I think the key, again, goes down to speed is the foundation of our sport. Up until maybe last year, I think a lot of people would tell you that Jimmie had the fastest car. I don’t think that was the case last year and he was still able to get it done. When you look at it in that way or that manner, it’s usually a good indicator if you have the fastest car through the Chase that you have the highest odds, the best opportunity to win the championship.

“I mean, I think that’s probably the baseline right there, you need to work with your team and have speed. From there, you know, you just got to execute. You can’t make any dumb moves. I was going to say something there I probably shouldn’t say. You got to make things happen without compromising your situations and so forth.

“To beat Jimmie, I mean, the foundation starts within your own team. I think that’s what’s so encouraging to me about the progress we’ve made with the 2 car here over the last few weeks and this season. We’ll just have to see how it plays out, whether or not we can start the Chase with cars that have good speed. That will be key for us to have an opportunity, as far as I’m concerned. Then from there, it’s going to come down to pit crew and myself executing it.

“I think the foundation has been speed. I hate to wear that out on y’all, but that’s the truth. From there, you have to execute it. You can’t run into walls, get penalties, anything of those things. To beat Jimmie, you’re going to have a fast race car and out execute him. I think he’s proven just having a fast racecar isn’t going to beat him, but if you’re going to win the Chase, you are going to have to have cars like what Kyle had through the race.”

PAUL WOLFE (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)
“We battled with it (the car) today. We made a lot of changes to try to be smart about what we were doing, trying to understand what was working and what wasn’t. At the last stop, we were having issues with the car being tight in, loose off. We weren’t able to fix both of them, so we decided to focus on what would make us the best. We tried to help the exit a little bit. We thought that would be where we could make some gains. So, we did. It was a great effort. Brad did an awesome job. I think we’ll continue to get better and better each week.

“I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job these past three weeks. I’m proud of all the effort. We’ve been working hard and the guys have made a lot of changes to our race cars back at the shop. We continue to make changes and we’ve got more to come. That’s the encouraging part. We’re definitely not at full capacity yet. We’ve just got to keep working hard.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 34th
“We blew a right front tire with three to go running just outside the top 10. It ruptured the radiator, so that was it for us.

“It’s just so typical of how a lot of our races on this type of track have gone lately. We’re good for about the first 15 laps in a run and then the handling goes away. We started really tight,
adjusted on it and it went too loose, so loose that I got into the wall about a third of the way into the race. We were luck not to cut down a right-front tire before it happened.

“We thought if we went with rights only on one stop that it would give us track position and tighten up the car. We got up to third before the handling started going away. There were just way too many mood swings with our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge out there today.”

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release

Dodge Motorsports

DODGE AT MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

· Dodge has won nine races at Michigan International Speedway: Charlie Glotzbach, Richard Petty (2), Sterling Marlin, Ryan Newman (2), Jeremy Mayfield, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch. Busch earned Dodge its last win at MIS at the August event last year. He started 15th and led 36 laps en route to victory. He has two wins and eight top-10 finishes in 20 starts at the two-mile track.
· Dodge holds the MIS qualifying record of 37.069 seconds, 194.232 mph (Ryan Newman, June 2005).
· Dodge has six wins at MIS since its return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001.

DODGE NEWS AND NOTES

· Kurt Busch is the only Sprint Cup Series driver who has been in the top-10 in the driver point standings all 22 races this season.
· Brad Keselowski is one of only five Sprint Cup drivers with multiple wins this season.
· Robby Gordon’s No. 7 Dodge is not in the top 35 in owner points and must earn a berth in the 43-car starting field on speed during qualifying.

THE DODGE BOYS

· Dodge has 210 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
· Dodge’s most recent win came at Pocono Raceway on August 8. Brad Keselowski led 19 of the 200 laps en route to victory. The victory was the third for Dodge in 2011.
· Dodge teams have posted 50 victories 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 its return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).
· Dodge claimed two Sprint Cup victories in 2010.

2011 DODGE SPRINT CUP REWIND

· Race 1: Kurt Busch wins the Bud Shootout and a Gatorade Duel during Speedweeks.
· Races 12-15: Dodge earns four consecutive poles.
· Race 13: Keselowski wins Kansas; first Dodge win of the season.
· Race 16: Busch dominates at Infineon for first win of season and first road-course victory of his career.
· Race 21: Keselowski, racing with a broken left ankle, earns his second win of the season at Pocono Raceway.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

· Of the 84 Cup Series races held at Michigan International Speedway, 16 have been won from the pole.
· Kurt Busch led the Dodge Boys at the June race at MIS. Busch started from the pole and led twice before finishing ninth. Teammate Brad Keselowski was 25th and Robby Gordon finished 37th.

ODDS AND ENDS

· With his win at Infineon, Kurt Busch has now posted a win in Sprint Cup competition 10 consecutive seasons.
· While subbing for injured Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski at Watkins Glen, Kurt Busch was tabbed “Kurt Buschlowski” after donning Keselowski’s fire suit and driving the No. 22 Dodge Challenger to victory in the Nationwide Series event on Saturday.
· The Dodge Challengers from Penske Racing will be driven by Jacques Villeneuve (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge) and Alex Tagliani (No. 12 Hot Wheels Dodge) this weekend at Montreal.
· Robby Gordon will pull double-duty this weekend. He is entered in the Nationwide event in Montreal on Saturday and the Sprint Cup event at MIS on Sunday.
· Three Sprint Cup races at MIS have been caution free.

STAT OF THE WEEK

· Only two of the last 12 Cup Series races at Michigan have been won from a starting position outside of the top 15.

2011 SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON BEST

· Kurt Busch Start: 1st (Kansas, Pocono & Michigan)
Finish: 1st (Infineon)
· Brad Keselowski Start: 1st (Charlotte)
Finish: 1st (Kansas & Pocono)
· Robby Gordon Start: 30th (Daytona)
Finish: 16th (Daytona)

FROM THE ENGINEER

“It had been quite a while since we heard drivers complain about the cars being ‘aero tight’, a condition that makes the cars want to not turn if you’re behind someone that’s taking the air off the front of your car. But when we raced at Michigan in June, the condition seemed to be a real problem for many. We saw nearly anybody that was at the front of the field in clean air able to just rocket away from everybody else, while those mired in traffic struggled to make their cars turn. Engineers this week will have to come up with solutions to the dreaded ‘aero tight’ condition that won’t make the rear of the car so loose that drivers have to deal with that issue.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering

DODGE QUOTES

“We’ll be doing everything we possibly can to put our Dodge Charger into the winner’s circle this weekend at M.I.S. and party down with all our great friends at Dodge. All the manufacturers are located fairly close to the speedway and they all really want to win the races there. We have such a great relationship with all the folks at Dodge and they are super supporters of Penske Racing. We’ve been so proud to take Dodge to Victory Lane in the Sonoma (Infineon Raceway) points race and in the big Bud Shootout and qualifying race wins we had down in Daytona. A win at Michigan on Sunday would be great for Dodge and super for Shell, Pennzoil and all our sponsors.”

“Michigan is one track where you always come in there planning on it to have fuel mileage involved in the equation. It’s always been a track where there aren’t many cautions and that works to push the fuel mileage aspect to the top of the list as far as strategy goes.”
Kurt Busch, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T

“I always have a lot of fun when it’s time to head to Michigan. It’s one of those tracks that mean so much to me and my family. I remember going there watching my dad race back when I was a little kid and can remember coming through that tunnel amazed at how big this place was to me. It’s cool to go back home to race in front of family and friends. It’s in Dodge’s backyard and we certainly know how important of a race it is for them. I really want to win a Cup race at Michigan and I think we can do it this weekend.”
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

“I can sum up into two words why I came to Penske Racing two years ago – Brad Keselowski. After a few years of trying to outrun him in the Nationwide Series, I knew how good he could be. These past few weeks have proven that to everyone. He’s as mentally tough as they come.”
Paul Wolfe, crew chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T

- Darnell Communications for Dodge Motorsports, Press Release