Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes - NNS Race Final - Chicagoland Speedway 

September 16, 2011 , JOLIET, Ill. -  Denny Darnell
Scott Sebastian
Jimmy White
Chicagoland Speedway
Dodge Motorsports PR
Dollar General 300
NASCAR Nationwide Series
Final Race Results
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BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) Race Winner
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR WIN TODAY? “We had a pretty good car; we knew that yesterday in practice. I thought that it was going to come down to Carl and us. I’m not quite sure what happened to Carl. He was certainly one of the cars to beat. We were able to just execute on pit road and have good stops with a fast racecar. It truly is a team sport. Today was a team victory. Good strategy. Good execution. Fast car. We didn’t make any mistakes and a lot of times that’s what this sport is about. It was a really strong showing here today. I’m glad to get the win. Obviously, when you can get extra track time before the Cup race it can be advantageous. I think today was one of those situations. Hopefully it will payoff for tomorrow. We’ll just have to see.”

PEOPLE HAVE SPECUALTED THAT NOT RUNNING THE NATIONWIDE SERIES AFTER YOU HURT YOUR ANKLE HELPED YOU IN THE CUP SERIES. DOES THAT CROSS YOUR MIND?
“Of course it crosses my mind because everybody asks me about it. I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think that it’s fair to a lot of people. The reality of it is that we have become more successful as a team as we’ve been able to execute the weekend on the Cup side. Part of the reason we’re executing on the Cup side better is plain luck. We had some terrible luck in the middle part of the year. From cautions coming out at the wrong time, races where we just had flat tires. That didn’t have anything to do with me driving the Nationwide car the day before. I guess I look at it that way and just don’t connect the two. And I know that it’s easy to pull up and just stop and say, ‘Brad, stop running the Nationwide car. His average finish went down.’ Sometimes you have look at it in a bigger picture that that. I feel like I’ve been able to do that. I don’t see where the two are connected. I see the bigger picture, which is why I came into the Nationwide Series with Penske to begin with - the bigger picture of training people and giving opportunities to superstars in our sport – that doesn’t mean drivers – that means the next tire changer, the next great mechanic or crew chief, whatever position that might be, I want to be a part of that training process. Maybe I can help that person get there. Maybe not. Maybe it’s as simple as putting a part on the Nationwide car that we’ve been running on the Cup car and it breaks and we take it off before the Chase starts. There is just so may ways where it helps. I want to be a part of it. I was a part of bringing the sponsor in here, Discount Tire, to run the Nationwide program. Without them, this program wouldn’t be possible and the last thing that I was going to do is stab them in the back and leave the Nationwide car just because of a stat that I didn’t believe to begin with. Without them, quite honestly, I don’t think that I would be where I am. I wasn’t going to leave them and stab them in the back.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT ALL THE SLOW TRAFFIC ON THE TRACK TODAY? “I don’t really have anything nice to say so I shouldn’t say anything, right? The last few weeks have been frustrating. It’s tough because it’s the story of the have and the have-nots. That’s OK. When I came into this series, I was a have-not. I will always respect those out there who are have-nots. I guess my wish is that would be reciprocal where you don’t run those guys over knowing they drover the team van 1000 miles to get here and they don’t even have time to fix it if it does get tore up. I know. I’ve been there. I know that deal and I respect each and everyone one of those guys accordingly. So you ask back of them, racing exceptionally clean and give them extra room and they do the same for you. When they don’t, my experience of being a have-not comes out and I say, ‘Look, I know it’s possible. I know it’s possible to not tear your stuff up and not put the leaders in position to wreck other or you and you still choose to do so.’ It’s that experience, combined with the fact that it’s really hosed my over a couple times in races of late that very much frustrates.”

TODD GORDON (crew chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR TEAM’S PERFORMANCE? “Fortunately today the race kind of fell out where it made sense. You look at the race and you try and plan the strategy and see what happens. The race unfolded pretty close today. The pit crew did a good job. Fuel becomes a strategy with the long green-flag runs. I kind of played the balance between track position and fuel. A couple of times we weren’t full, but you have to maintain clean air because these new splitter cars are all about clean air. Brad did an awesome job. Once he got clean air he just went out there and made great lap times.”

IN YOUR PLANNING FOR THE RACE DID YOU IMAGINE THAT THE RACE WOULD END ON A 131-LAP GREEN FLAG RUN? “No. We talked about this in our team meeting this morning, the propensity for long green-flag runs. You look at it, we had a long green flag run at Bristol in the spring, that separation happens. You get a 1.5-mile race track here that’s great when you have those older race tracks. There are multiple grooves; the bumps have gotten it there. People aren’t racing on each other. I think that spreads the field out and you have room to race and room to make mistakes without making a penalty. Green-flag runs are common, much more common than in years past. Usually there is something that bundles us back up. Whether it is an accident or debris of something else. It’s amazing that we run that far. I know with about 30 to go I was hoping there wasn’t.”

WERE YOU CONSCIOUS OF HOW MUCH GROUND YOU WERE GAINING ON CARL WHEN HE WAS IN THE LEAD? “That’s something we look at every week. A lot of times when you short pit somebody by 10 laps, you can pull them with you because they see the same thing – they’re out there running 31.60 (seconds) laps and we’re 32.20. We’re giving up half-a-second a lap. Then they’ll roll down there with you. It’s risk and reward. Lap 70 is not the time to run a fuel run. The risk of running out versus of running two more laps for me doesn’t pay for me.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT BRAD HAS BROUGHT TO THE NATIONWIDE PROGRAM? “An incredible amount of talent. It’s somebody who can go out there and help us develop better racecars and challenge us to build better pieces. Yesterday, we sat in the garage, first on lap average in both practices. Brad’s in there and we’re sitting down saying, ‘We need to make our racecars better here.’ To Brad’s point, the engineer that we started with at the beginning of the year is in the Cup Series right now with the 22 team. That’s building the bullpen for people that can do other things. I think that it’s played off this year and will continue to play off.”

HOW MUCH DID HAVING OTHER DRIVERS IN THE 22 CAR HELP YOUR TEAM? “I would say that the transition of drivers after Brad’s injury was seamless. The first weekend we had Sam Hornish Jr. who’s part of the Penske stable and did a fabulous job in the 12 car today. We just continue to build our program. I think the biggest thing that it did for our race team; it made us realize that we can do this. When Brad hops in the seat it’s bonus time, the talent level. We put Sam in and we led Iowa in a dominating situation before we cut a tire down. Kurt, his stats are phenomenal to start with – another Penske driver. Then Jacques (Villeneuve) in Montreal, that’s his home race track. We just continue to build racecars like we have all along.”

SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger R/T) Finished Fifth
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR FIFTH-PLACE FINISH TODAY? “I’m really happy for Penske Racing. I knew it was going to be hard to catch Brad (Keselowski) as far out front as he was. Our Alliance Truck Parts Dodge wasn’t great to start, but we were able to make it better all race. We ran into the one hiccup early in the race when we had a pit road penalty for the tire violation and that set us back. But after that we got faster and faster all day.

“As far out front as Brad was, I could see him, but it was about half-a-straightaway. We had the second issue in the pits on that last stop, but our car was strong enough to drive up through traffic and get a top-five finish. All and all, the Alliance Truck Parts Dodge was good once we got it figured out. We were really fast there from about lap 120 on. We just didn’t have enough there at the end.”

IT SEEMED LIKE YOU PASSED MORE CARS THAN EVERYBODY TODAY? “I happened to go to the back (for the pit road violation). It’s not any fun when you’re doing it, but it makes you feel like you have a good racecar while it’s going on. We didn’t make an adjustment on that last run, that kept us from catching the 88. We tightened up more than I thought we were going to. It’s was just one of those days. We just had some problems in the pits. The guys are working really hard giving me good racecars. We just have to make sure we get the whole package put together.”

I GUESS THAT’S SOMETHING THAT YOU FACE WHEN YOU ONLY RACE PART-TIME? “Yeah. It for sure is. It’s been two months almost since I’ve last ran …middle of July. It’s tough when you think about it being that long. These guys don’t pit together that often. We have four more races coming up towards the end of this year, hopefully we’ll get into our flow to get up there and lead some more laps and fight for some wins.”


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