Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, MI
* When:
June 13, 2010 1:16 pm EDT ON TNT
* Laps: 200
* Track Length: 2. miles
* Race Length: 400 miles
Records
Date Series Driver Speed
6/13/99 Sprint Cup Race Dale Jarrett 174.00
6/19/05 Sprint Cup Qualifying Ryan Newman 194.232
8/18/07 Nationwide Race Denny Hamlin 156.00
8/18/07 Nationwide Qualifying Greg Biffle 186.548
7/26/03 Camping World Truck Race Brendan Gaughan 154.00
6/18/05 Camping World Truck Qualifying Kyle Busch 181.612
Sprint Cup Series
Upcoming Race Jun 13
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400
Track Facts
Michigan International Speedway
Location: Brooklyn, MI
Banking/Turns: Oval
Distance: 2.00 miles
Shape: Oval
Most Cup Wins (since 1975)
* Bill Elliott 7
Sprint Cup Nationwide Camping World Truck
Date Race Name Pole Winner Race Winner Make Purse
6/14/09 LifeLock 400 Brian Vickers Mark Martin Chevrolet $5,282,675
8/16/09 Carfax 400 Brian Vickers Brian Vickers Toyota $5,279,259
6/15/08 LifeLock 400 Kyle Busch Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet $5,243,196
8/17/08 3M Performance 400 Brian Vickers Carl Edwards Ford $5,239,780
6/17/07 Citizens Bank 400 J.J. Yeley Carl Edwards Ford $5,137,383
8/21/07 3M Performance 400 Jeff Gordon Kurt Busch Dodge $5,138,579
6/18/06 3M Performance 400 Kasey Kahne Kasey Kahne Dodge $5,037,040
8/20/06 GFS Marketplace 400 Jeff Burton Matt Kenseth Ford $5,028,926
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
June 8, 2010 @ 1:35 pm In Press Releases, Sprint Cup Series
Dodge Motorsports 2010
DODGE AT MICHIGAN INT’L 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 won the rain-shortened race at MIS in August 2007 after starting 15th.
• Dodge set the MIS qualifying record of 194.232 mph (37.069 sec) on June 18, 2005 (Newman).
• Dodge has earned the pole five of the last 15 events at MIS. (Newman -2, Mayfield, Kahne and Busch).
• Busch leads all active Dodge drivers at Michigan with two wins, two top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 18 starts.
THE DODGE BOYS
• Dodge has 207 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
• Dodge’s most recent point win came at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch led 252 laps en route to his second victory of the season.
• Dodge claimed four Sprint Cup Series victories in 2009.
• Dodge teams have posted 47 wins since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
• Dodge has posted wins each season since it’s return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at MIS: Charlie Glotzbach, 08/16/1970, 1970 Yankee 400, 147.571 mph avg. speed.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at MIS: Kurt Busch, 08/21/2007, 3M Performance 400, 117.044 avg. speed.
MICHIGAN INT’L SPEEDWAY FAST FACTS
• When it opened in 1968, Michigan International Speedway consisted of a 12,000-seat center. The speedway now can seat 119,500.
• Dodge’s Kurt Busch is the youngest MIS winner (24 years, 10 months, 11 days) 6/15/2003.
• Three races at MIS have been caution free.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Penske Racing has six NASCAR Sprint Cup wins at Michigan International Speedway.
• Sixteen of 81 NSCS races at MIS have been won from the pole, two by Dodge. Charlie Glotzbach won from the pole in his Dodge at the 1970 Yankee 400 and Kasey Kahne at the 3M Performance 400 in 2006.
• Sam Hornish Jr. earned a season best finish of 11th last weekend in Pocono. Hornish led 16 laps late in the race at the 2.5-mile track.
• Kurt Busch jumped one position in the NSCS driver standing to fifth after his sixth-place finish in Pocono.
• Dodge’s Brad Keselowski is one of eight race winners from Michigan in NASCAR’s three national series. Brad joins his father Bob who won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Michigan in 1997.
RACING AT MICHIGAN INT’L SPEEDWAY
“Now we’ll see if all of the engine dynamometer durability testing pays off. What I mean is if you want to know if an engine is durable, you put it on the dyno and program in the toughest test it’ll see all year. That test is a trace of the RPM cycles the engine will see in the 400 miles at Michigan. High speed means high RPM and with very wide and fast corners, the engine never gets a break.”
Howard Comstock, Dodge Motorsports Engineering
Average RPM: 8,700 High RPM: 9,700
Pole Record: 194.232 mph – set by Dodge in June 2005
Race Record: 173.997 mph – June 1999
Top Speed: 207.7 mph, based on a loaded tire roll-out of 84.8″
*Information from August 2009 NSCS race at MIS
DODGE BOYS NSCS 2010 BEST
• Kurt Busch – Start – Pole – Las Vegas
Finish – Win – Atlanta, Charlotte 1
• Sam Hornish Jr. – Start – 2nd – Texas,
Finish – 11th – Pocono
• Laps Led (Race) – Kurt Busch (278) – Bristol
• Laps Led (Total) – Kurt Busch – 726
DODGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I’ve seen more races from the stands at Michigan than I’ll ever have the opportunity to participate in for sure. The track is only about 45 minutes from my hometown in Ohio. It’s pretty cool to compete at Michigan when I’ve seen so many IndyCar and NASCAR races there with my family.”
Sam Hornish Jr. – No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
DODGE DRIVER QUOTES
“When we get out there on Sunday for the race, it’s like all the manufacturers have moved their temporary headquarters to Brooklyn, Mich., for the day. We’ll be doing everything we possibly can to put our Dodge Charger into the winner’s circle and party down with all our great friends at Dodge.
“We’ve been so proud to take Dodge to Victory Lane in the Atlanta and Charlotte points races and in the big Sprint All-Star Race win. But, winning this weekend at Michigan – at their home track right there in their backyard – would be extra cool and extremely gratifying.”
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
“It’s going to be hard to tell what the race will be like in Michigan this weekend. Last year, both of the races were fuel mileage races, so we’ll have to make sure we play that out the right way. California and Michigan are a lot alike and we ran well at California earlier this year, so I’ve been looking forward to this weekend. It’s my home race and we get to go home and see family and friends. I always look forward to it for a lot of reasons other than the fact that I like the race track.”
Sam Hornish Jr., No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
“I had so much fun at Michigan last year. 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 will be fun to be back home and race in front of your family and friends. It’s in Dodge’s backyard and we certainly know how important of a race it is for them. They’ve been a tremendous help to our program this year and to get them in victory lane would be awesome.”
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Dodge Charger
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
Roger Penske and Chrysler exec happy with Dodge's sole NASCAR team
Dodge has just one official team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and a pretty good one at that.
Penske Racing is the pride of Auburn Hills and team owner Roger Penske is a racing icon throughout Michigan and the world.
Today, Penske and Ralph V. Gilles, the president and CEO of Dodge Car Brand, Chrysler Group, and senior vice president of product design, Chrysler, spent time at the Tech Center’s wind tunnel in Auburn Hills. They were planning their attack on the NASCAR season and Sunday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 Cup race.
Gilles, a keen go-kart racer and F1 fan, handles all motorsports and SRT (Street and Racing Technology) vehicles for the company. He’s a design-and-product guru who joined the former Chrysler Corporation in 1992 after graduating with a fine-arts degree in industrial design from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit.
“I’m excited about this year and Kurt (Busch),” Gilles said. “We’re getting a lot better.”
Busch, who is Penske’s No. 1 driver, is fifth in the Cup standings and has three Cup victories in 2010, if you count his non-points All-Star win at Charlotte.
Gilles thinks Busch makes a “good elder statesman” at Penske.
“He’s even limited his language to PG-13 on the car radio this season,” Gilles joked.
Like a designer, Gilles is looking for perfection. He knows that with just a single Dodge race team, that’s tough.
“If we had larger teams, we’d do better -- sister teams are a help,” admits Gilles.
But he’s also trying to do his best with a tight racing budget, and “squeeze everything we can out of the stone.”
Gilles wants a Dodge driver in the Chase this year, and Busch is making a strong showing. “Kurt is looking good,” he said.
He also wants a closer relationship with NASCAR and definitely is willing to put forth ideas on how to grow the sport and Dodge’s involvement in it.
Gilles said that his multiyear agreement with Penske Racing will take Dodge in the right direction.
He also likes Penske’s other two Cup drivers: Brad Keselowski of Rochester Hills and 2006 Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr.
Keselowski is tearing it up in the Nationwide Series, having won three races this season and leading in points.
“Brad has done some amazing things,” Gilles said of the driver who soon will pilot Dodge’s new Nationwide car, the Challenger. The car will debut at Daytona on July 2.
“Sam is just plain fearless,” added Gilles.
Penske is enjoying the partnership with Dodge, and why not? He gets first-class treatment.
“We’ve made big steps this year,” Penske said. “Kurt has delivered the goods. Dodge has been a terrific help. They put all their resources with us. We have a multiyear contract with them, and that’s all good.”
Penske knows return on investment will decide whether Dodge continues its backing of the team. He believes he’ll deliver for them.
On Sunday, Busch will start as one of the race favorites at MIS. He has two victories at the track, in 2003 and 2007.
“Fifteen guys could win the race this weekend,” Penske said. “But Kurt is among them.”
2010 NSCS Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 Q & A with Dodge Motorsports Driver, Kurt Busch
June 11, 2010 @ 4:50 pm In Press Releases, Sprint Cup Series
2010 NSCS Kurt Busch - Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR
HOW WAS YOUR CAR IN THE FIRST PRACTICE? “I feel like things went good for us in practice. We managed our time right up against the window of when the rain came to maximize our race potential. We got one qualifying run in to make sure we were prepared. We ran most of our laps in race trim. The car felt comfortable. The track’s just not rubbered-in. It’s just not quite up to the point that it will be for Sunday’s race with more and more laps that need to be run on it. With the weather in question, we’ll see how it all plays out.”
CAN YOU COMMENT ON BENEFITS OF BEING THE ONLY TEAM WITH ONE MANUFACTURER? “It’s great. The technology that crosses over between the race teams and production cars, it’s really neat to be part of that program. To walk through (Chrysler Tech Center) that facility, now being with Dodge for my sixth year, I almost know my way around that campus. It is special to be a program where we have all of our eggs in one basket. We are their factory team and they’re pulling for us like we’re part of the family.”
YOU GUYS GET THE ADVANTAGE OF BEING THE SOLE TEAM GETTING ALL THE TECHNOOLOGY? “We have to work harder to make sure that we have the correct data that we need streaming both ways. With their wind tunnel and what they discover, we need to double-check it with ours. It’s cool because they have engineering-minded people there building production cars and assisting our race-car team. Then you have the engineering support of our race team supporting their needs and concerns. It’s unique to have the two worlds come together to push each other harder to build better products on the car and at the race track.”
HOW HAVE YOU LEARNED TO DEAL WITH RUN-INS WITH OTHER DRIVERS ON THE TRACK? “Being a new guy, you don’t necessarily know how to handle all the situations. When you’re a new guy, you don’t get the benefit of the doubt. That’s where I’m at a mix with this whole scenario. I raced Jimmy Spencer early on in my career and I wasn’t supposed to be lipping off and sticking my neck out. Now it seems OK for somebody to do that. It’s amazing what 10 years in this sport can do. Not just on my side of it, but on how everything gets viewed. I don’t think that (Kevin) Harvick did anything terribly wrong. He was a veteran teaching a young kid a little bit of the ways of the world. That’s what a veteran did to me early on in my career and it helped to elevate my game pretty quick.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE CAR IS BETTER THIS YEAR ON RESTARTS? “I feel like we have adequate power under the hood. What you need to compliment that power is what we call short-run speed. Your car has to be good on sticker tires and if you don’t have that, especially in this day in age with double-file restarts and green-white-checkers, if your car isn’t good on stickers you’re going to get run over and guys are going to pass you and (you will) find yourself in compromising situations. There’s always room to improve. One area that we feel like we’ve improved on is short-run speed, especially at Charlotte where we were able to win the All-Star race and have a good 20- to 30-lap car in the Coca-Cola 600. That ended up paying dividends for us by winning both of those races.”
IS THERE ANY SENSE OF VINDICATION THAT PENSKE HAS STAYED WITH DODGE AND HAVING SUCCESS? “It’s special to be able to be the only group out there and have so much success. With the odds stacked up against you, you always feel like you’re running an uphill battle. With us and Dodge, Dodge and Penske, it’s a genuine respect for each other in knowing where we both stand. Whether it’s the competition side, contract side or engineering side, we’re working on it together. Anytime we come up to Detroit and race here in Michigan, we’re always pushing harder. It’s a nice balance knowing that those guys are working just as hard as we are. To come into this new (MIS) media center and see the different images on the wall, the Model-T line, I feel special that my Miller Lite Dodge is on the wall. Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Cale Yarborough on the wall, there’s a lot of heritage for all the manufacturers here in the Detroit area, especially at Michigan Speedway. We’re pushing hard. The Dodge group is our group. We’re pushing hard to win for them and sell on Monday.”
FROM A COMPETITIVE STANDPOINT, WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE MORE DODGE’S IN CUP? “It’s hard for me to speak on the big, global plans for Dodge and all the brands. I do know that Ralph Gilles (Dodge, president and CEO) is very committed to our racing program. He’s a great guy. He’s real down to earth. He’s got some quick witted lines about him that you wouldn’t expect from a CEO. That’s the kind of guy that I look up too (smiles). The way that he runs the program, he’s very grounded and he knows that with the tough economic times that all the auto manufacturers are going through, we have to take one step at a time. Once we get through these next few quarters, I see more products being released. I see more excitement around the Dodge brand. When that happens and we see the sales, hopefully there’s going to be more opportunities to see more Dodge teams out there.”
WHEN YOU WIN A ROAD COURSE EVENT, WILL YOU RUN A VICTORY LAP REVERSE? “We thought about it (laughs). If the race goes with a lot of green flag runs and there’s enough TV time left, I’ve thought about it. There’s a lot of blind corners going forward, I’m not sure what we’re going to do going backwards.”
DO YOU FEEL PRETTY GOOD AS A ROAD COURSE RACER? “I still think that I can improve on the road course. Right now, the way that the game has changed, everybody is really competitive on road courses. It use to be where guys like Kenny Schroeder and Jimmy Spencer, they’d all joke around and say we’re not even going to show up on Sunday. We don’t need to run fast. Know a guy like Kasey Kahne can go to a road course that’s from an open-wheel, midget background and win at a road course. Tony Stewart’s dominated at Watkins Glen over the years. You have to be on your game. You have to show up and make sure that you don’t lose a lot of points. I had a good run for a while. We sat on some poles at Sonoma and Watkins Glen. We’ve had some top-five runs. It just seem like the fuel mileage is a big, big issue when you get to the road courses. You race the races from backwards to front on when you have to pit for the final time. You stretch your fuel for as long as you can go and that’s what we have to work on this time around.”
DOES DIPLOMACY WORK WHEN DRIVERS HANDLE ON-TRACK ISSUES OUTSIDE OF THE CAR? “It can both ways. This is a sport about racing. It’s also a sport that’s been build off of rivalries and excitement that we see outside the car. In my mind, the racing needs to be done on the racetrack and that’s what needs to be covered. That’s the exciting part for me is to read who dominated the race or who passed who when or who gained the most spots the last few laps. And then there’s the drama, the People Magazine stuff that’s covered in our sport as well. You have to have ticket sales. At the end of the day, you want things to be settled on the race track.”
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
Last Updated: Friday, Jun 11, 2010 5:34 pm, EDT
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400
Michigan International Speedway
Order Driver (No.) Car Qualifying Speed 1 Kurt Busch (2) Dodge 189.984
2 Jamie McMurray (1) Chevrolet 189.788
3 Jimmie Johnson (48) Chevrolet 189.668
4 Kasey Kahne (9) Ford 189.623
5 Jeff Burton (31) Chevrolet 189.474
6 Jeff Gordon (24) Chevrolet 189.359
7 Denny Hamlin (11) Toyota 189.145
8 Ryan Newman (39) Chevrolet 189.051
9 David Reutimann (00) Toyota 188.907
10 Juan Pablo Montoya (42) Chevrolet 188.655
11 Elliott Sadler (19) Ford 188.521
12 Joey Logano (20) Toyota 188.314
13 Martin Truex Jr. (56) Toyota 188.309
14 David Ragan (6) Ford 188.270
15 Kyle Busch (18) Toyota 188.245
16 Greg Biffle (16) Ford 188.245
17 Tony Stewart (14) Chevrolet 188.221 18 Sam Hornish Jr. (77) Dodge 187.867
19 Carl Edwards (99) Ford 187.813
20 Robby Gordon (7) Toyota 187.642
21 Mark Martin (5) Chevrolet 187.603
22 Paul Menard (98) Ford 187.603
23 Regan Smith (78) Chevrolet 187.593
24 Marcos Ambrose (47) Toyota 187.529
25 Clint Bowyer (33) Chevrolet 187.480
26 AJ Allmendinger (43) Ford 187.437
27 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) Chevrolet 187.393
28 Bill Elliott (21) Ford 187.251
29 Scott Speed (82) Toyota 187.246
30 Bobby Labonte (71) Chevrolet 186.848
31 Kevin Harvick (29) Chevrolet 186.616
32 Casey Mears (83) Toyota 186.398 33 Brad Keselowski (12) Dodge 186.292
34 Travis Kvapil (38) Ford 186.191
35 Landon Cassill (09) Chevrolet 186.090
36 David Gilliland (37) Ford 185.946
37 Joe Nemechek (87) Toyota 185.922
38 Max Papis (13) Toyota 185.821
39 Matt Kenseth (17) Ford 185.538 40 J.J. Yeley (46) Dodge 185.209
41 Todd Bodine (164) Toyota 184.914
42 Kevin Conway (34) Ford 183.271
43 David Stremme (26) Ford 184.862
44 Dave Blaney (66) DNQ 184.426
45 Michael Waltrip (55) DNQ 183.519
46 Johnny Sauter (36) DNQ
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
Posted By Press Release On June 11, 2010 @ 5:52 pm In Press Releases, Sprint Cup Series
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Starts 1st
“The Miller Lite Dodge felt great. It’s definitely going to start warming up out there. I was hoping to go out for qualifying as early as I could, knowing that if it gets hotter, the track will really get slick. The Miller Lite guys did a great job getting the car ready. We’re fast. I think that we have a top-five car. At Michigan you can pass; go high, go low. We spent a lot of time in race trim trying to dial this car in. I was a little bit loose on exit in race trim. We’ll see what happens with the weather. Rain may come in and change the track.”
HOW WILL THE TRACK BE IF IT DOESN’T RUBBER-IN? “It will really go through a big mood swing. It (the track) really becomes a bear trying to keep track of all day. You get what you get early and then it becomes a game of where and when the line moves.”
IT’S YOUR SECOND POLE OF THE SEASON; TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN. “It was a Heluva Good Lap! I was excited after practice with the first lap we made in qualifying trim on the car’s grip level. And with the rain, the way it came in and the way the time slot worked out for us to get qualifying underway, you wanted to be in the first few cars to go out because the cloud cover was still there. Once I saw (Jamie) McMurray, he was the first car out and he ran in the 37-second bracket, I knew the pace was going to be quick. We just made a small adjustment to loosen up our car. It still must be a good vibe off the Vortex bottle. The Miller Lite Dodge has been good the last few weeks and we left this Vortex paint scheme on there and it has been great to have everybody in Milwaukee talking about it. Their support to keep this paint scheme, something that we didn’t initially plan on having through the summer months, is great, it’s going good. I give all the credit to the crew and Steve Addington for making the sharp decision that it takes to set a car on the pole and stay on top of changing track conditions.”
CAN YOU SHARE SOME MEMORIES ABOUT THE RAINOUT WIN IN 2007 WHICH YOU CALLED THE “72 HOURS OF MIS”? “We were joking about that today. It’s much more pleasant this time around than it was back in 2007. We were all ready to go on Sunday and got rained out. A lot of people left knowing that it was going to rain on Monday. I just camped out in the motor home waiting for the sun to finally poke through and it really didn’t break through on Tuesday. When we finally got out there (on Tuesday), there was too much fog to race because the spotter couldn’t see the cars going into Turn 3. You go through the motions just trying to get focused for the race; ready for the routine and then you just couldn’t. To finally get the full 400 miles in and to see the grandstands packed with our Michigan natives from the Midwest, it was surprising to see that great of a turnout on a Tuesday. It might be one of the only races won on a Tuesday and to claim that victory was something special. Anytime you win at Michigan, it’s special, especially for your manufacturer.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE PENSKE-GANASSI RIVALRY IS STARTING TO RESEMBLE THAT OF INDYCAR? “It’s always been a genuine rivalry between Ganassi and Penske. The drivers, we don’t feel it as much, but with situation that keep coming up like this and with Roger texting me or patting me on the back saying, ‘Way to bring it home for the good guys,’ it makes you feel like the rivalry is there for sure. It’s just coincidental that we’re running good and the Ganassi cars are running good. Whether it’s my teammates and Montoya or myself and McMurray, it’s good to be on that competitive side. Whereas, we see the RCR cars and Gibbs cars running into each other a lot, that’s just coincidental as well. It’s just one of those fun times where things are going good for both of our programs and hope that the rivalry continues.”
YOUR FIRST POLE AT MIS IN ABOUT 20 RACES, IS IT JUST A MATTER OF HAVNG THE RIGHT CAR, RIGHT PACKAGE? “You have to have the full package here at Michigan. I missed a bunch of times. My weak area before was Turn 4. Today that was our strong point, especially looking at the segment times around the race track. You’ve got to have the horsepower. You’ve got to have the aerodynamics. You’ve got to have the handling. And most importantly, which is probably the most important factor, you have to get the optimum track conditions.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Starts 18th
“Our Mobil 1 Dodge wasn’t too bad. We didn’t get a practice qualifying run in earlier today. I didn’t drive it in deep enough and coming out of Turn 4, it just slid all over the place. I had a wiggle and had to get out of the throttle. It wiggled again, slid and scrubbed off a bunch of speed. I think that we’ll be good for Sunday. I’d like to get practice in tomorrow to fine-tune the car.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) Starts 33rd
“I just couldn’t commit to the throttle because we were too loose and just scrubbed too much speed. We’re close. I gave it all that I had; just too free in (Turns) 3 & 4.”
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 3rd
“It was a great effort by our Miller Lite Dodge team. We had a strong car early on. It seems like we lost a little bit of speed as the race went on, lost a little grip when the track rubbered in. We made good adjustments and had solid pit stops. That’s what this game is all about. This is tough. There isn’t any other racing in the world where, if you’re off a little bit, people are going to go by you. Hats off to my guys, especially the guys back at the shop building these great cars. We keep advancing every time we bring our car to the race track. It was a good day here at Michigan. We qualified on the pole, led laps and finished third.
“It’s definitely a weather game when you come to Michigan, as much as fuel mileage. Overall though, you’ve got to have the speed on the straightaways and the handling. This is a track that will test all different areas. That’s why when one guy hits it right, they just check out. We had that early on. Kasey Kahne was in the mix. Denny Hamlin, once halfway rolled around, his car had really good grip that started to go away for us. The track got rubbered in and his car just kept gaining speed and ours lost a little bit of speed. To lead laps, sit on the pole and finish third with our Miller Lite Dodge, I was pulling hard for our Dodge. We’re like David vs. Goliath out there. Overall, for all the hard work that’s going on up here in Detroit and to see all these great fans here at Michigan Speedway, it means a lot to see our fan support out there and the support of all our manufacturers.”
STEVE ADDINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) "A real solid points day for our miller Lite Dodge. It really was an uneventful day to be honest. The Miller Lite Dodge was awesome off the truck this weekend. To earn a pole at Michigan is special because it's in Dodge's backyard and that's important to everyone at Penske. I told Kurt that we just need to keep building on solid finishes and focus in on making the Chase. We want to win, but the big picture is making the Chase. Making the Chase would be a big accomplishment for this team. Kurt (Busch) drove a great race. We'll take the third-place finish and head to Sonoma."
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Finished 26th “We just weren’t very good today from the start of the green. We did everything that we could to get track position and get the car to run better. We got the car better in the middle of the race, but just fell of late. Late in the race we had a problem on pit road during a green flag pit stop and that cost us a bunch of spots. It was a tough day for us. We’ll move on to Sonoma and anything can happen on a road course.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) Finished 27th “It was a tough day for our Penske Dodge. We just missed it. I’m not sure what happened. We’ll go back and take a look at the numbers and see where we missed.”
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options
The AutoGuide.com network consists of the largest network of enthusiast-owned enthusiast-operated automotive communities.
AutoGuide.com provides the latest car reviews, auto show coverage, new car prices, and automotive news. The AutoGuide network operates more than 100 automotive forums where our users consult peers for shopping information and advice, and share opinions as a community.
Linear Mode
