KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger) Finished 2nd
"It was a great run for our Miller Lite Dodge Charger. I felt like our car got better and better as the race went on. We made a couple of adjustments as the race went on just trying to get the back end to cool down. We were sliding around a bit. To race with (Juan Pablo) Montoya and (Marcos) Ambrose, those two guys come from a different world when it comes to racing. I had a blast. Second place today and we got by Ambrose at the end. We battled hard with our Miller Lite Dodge. It feels good to do that on a road course.
"We had a hard fought battle today. Montoya raced smart and Ambrose was there in the mix. I think where I messed up is when I let Ambrose get in behind me on the last restart. I wanted him and Montoya to battle and take each other out. That would have gotten us a great shot at the win. We were right there in the mix with our car. Steve (Addington, crew chief) made great adjustments. I thought our car got better as the race went on, just sliding the rear end a little bit; just a little too loose. It was great to race with those world-class guys today. A guy from Colombia and Australia, it's neat to see the different world's come together on a road course and see who can come out on top. We finished second. Montoya had a strong car."
“It was a great effort. Real proud of the way our race went today. Didn't seem like there was one single hiccup. We had solid pit stops, solid strategy. Just the way that we came together after yesterday's practice not knowing if we had enough speed, we changed quite a few things on the Miller Lite Dodge. Steve Addington, the guys, are very smart. They're on top of their game. I really enjoyed today's race.
“It gave something to me personally to run good on a road course, but team satisfaction to change as many things as we did to have some speed. To come up short just to Montoya, to beat Ambrose, racing with those two world class guys, it was fun. I learned quite a bit. There's still some room to grow on road racing.
“Feels good to bring it home in second for Miller Lite and Dodge. We’re pulling the banner for Dodge this year. Any time we can have a close shot at victory, that's what Roger Penske always says, ‘Put yourself in position to win, you'll get those.’
“Great spotters all the way around the race track. It just feels like a perfect day other than the one guy that was a little faster than us.”
Q. Do you believe in karma?For those of us that do, you're looking at the 48, he finishes 28th, you get a lot of your points back from last week, it's a great day for you.
KURT BUSCH: “Yeah, I mean, points are points right now. Bonus points are the most important to take with you to the Chase. We feel comfortable in our point position. I know they do. Once the Chase starts, that's when every point counts. That's when you don't need to take risky bump-draft moves or find yourself in a tight position that you don't want to be in.
“So you don't want to wish bad upon anybody. For us, we had a solid day. I was real proud of my effort today and the guys' effort. Just seemed like one of those types of feelings where, hey, everything is clicking, went in the zone. The 90 laps felt like 40 laps for us today.
Q. How important was it today to know when to take chances and when to play a little safe and be consistent?
KURT BUSCH: “It's always tough to get those restarts and separate yourself. That's when you're taking a little bit of a risk or you really got to be on the aggressive side because you can get bottled up real quick. That's where the double file restarts have changed our game.
“Once it would stretch out, you wanted to run a comfortable pace, but you wanted to maintain pace with the leaders. I couldn't quite do that. Ambrose beat me a couple times getting into turn one. I know Montoya was strong as well. To race with those two guys, I was definitely feeling the groove today. Just came up a bit short.”
Q. You mentioned the world class nature of it. Can you put in perspective what's that like? Does having those guys in the series raise the game of road course racing?
KURT BUSCH: “Yeah, the thing I was looking forward to was those guys' lack of experience, so to speak, in finding the pace of the race. We've seen guys like Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace win at road racing because you have that oval mentality, background, wait ‘till the end to attack, don't run every lap on that ragged edge.
“My thought was today the Colombian, the Australian, would rough each other up running aggressively, not knowing when to pace themselves. But what I noticed, because I finished second, Ambrose was third, is the fact that they have matured into the realm of what it takes to be competitive at Sprint Cup levels. Their backgrounds are very different. But so is Sprint Cup racing. So is NASCAR.
“They've done a great job and peaked really well in the three, four years they've been in it to put themselves in position to run well road racing.
“I felt like today was a big morale victory to come in between those two guys because of the different backgrounds of racing, the way they've matured. If Ambrose wouldn't have stalled his car, he would have taken Sonoma.”
Q. Has road racing improved in NASCAR overall?
KURT BUSCH: “It's a unique feeling. Each time we go to Sonoma, Watkins Glen, who is going to be the big daddy at the end of the day.”
Q. The Penske, Ganassi story continues today. You guys have run 1 2 several times this year, competed for poles. Seems you are fast at the same places. Is that coincidence?
KURT BUSCH: “It is coincidence. It's always fun to bring a Penske car home in front of the Ganassi car. Those guys beat us today. Their road racing program is very strong, even if you take Montoya out. McMurray was good today. Look what they do in the Grand Am Series. They're dominating. They have a comfortable lead in points in the Grand Am situation. Ganassi is able to cross pollinate that like we are with our IRL program to find some different areas to polish up on, to make the car the best it can be.
“Roger will feel very pleased about today's effort. I know he will. But there's always that little bit in him that says, ‘Hey, you let a Ganassi car beat you.’”
Q. Can you talk about the pass you made on Marcos? For so long he was so dominant, then you blew by him.
KURT BUSCH: “Again, it gets back to the attack, don't run every lap on that ragged edge.
My thought was today the Colombian, the Australian, would rough each other up running aggressively not knowing when to pace themselves. But what I noticed, because I finished second, Ambrose was third, is the fact that they have matured into the realm of what it takes to be competitive at Sprint Cup levels. Their backgrounds are very different. But so is Sprint Cup racing. So is NASCAR. They've done a great job and peaked really well in the three, four years they've been in it to put themselves in position to run well road racing. I felt like today was a big morale victory to come in between those two guys because of the different backgrounds of racing, the way they've matured. If Ambrose wouldn't have stalled his car, he would have taken Sonoma.”
Q. How does your finish today prop you up for the stretch run of the season?
KURT BUSCH: “It's a solid finish. The tough part is a 33rd last week, a second today, you divide that by two, that's 17 and a half. That doesn't get it done when you're in the Chase. It does help ease the pain as far as where we are in points. We came up a bit shy of winning. When you win, you get to take those bonus points with you to the Chase.
“To come up shy of those 10 points, we can't be too upset because Montoya really had us beat today. Overall, just for us to finally put a nice exclamation point on a road course race without having anything go wrong, not running out of fuel, not having a flat tire, not getting run over by a Hendrick car, feels pretty good. All right, we're done (laughter).”
Q. Can you talk about the 42, the dominance he showed?
KURT BUSCH: “Montoya is a world class athlete. The way he drives on road courses, there's always something to learn and there's always something to pick up. The way he's matured over the years of his first win at Sonoma, they won by a big fuel mileage game there. Today he just had raw speed. What I told him in Victory Lane, I was real proud of the way he raced Ambrose. He raced him smart, didn’t race over his head. Maybe he settled into that Sprint Cup mentality of, I have to be here at the end, I don't have to really run that Formula One pace every lap”.
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Finished 14th
“That was definitely the best car I’ve had on a road course since I’ve been in the Cup Series. I’m real happy about that. We were good for a couple of laps. We need to work on our long run speed and we definitely need to work on our brakes a little bit. We kept fading the brakes and couldn’t get it stopped like I wanted too. I felt like I gave up a lot of track position early. I figured out every five or 10 laps, I needed to give more brake bit to the front to keep from locking the rear up. Once we did that, it was all good. I’m just really proud of the guys on the Mobil 1 Dodge. It wasn’t the greatest day, but we’ll take it.
“If we hadn’t given up those spots early because I kept locking up the rear, I think we had a 10th-place car. I didn’t get a good start on that last restart and gave up a couple of spot. The brakes weren’t good enough for me to drive in deep and pass somebody. I’m pretty happy with the day. It went straight all day and the car really isn’t beat up.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) Finished 20th
“I was kind of surprised to pull out a top 20. I made some mistakes early in the race, but worked hard the rest of the race. We really ran strong the last 15 laps, passed a lot of cars and had fun. We made the car better during the race and I got better driving the car. I made a lot of mistakes at the start, but the end of the race, I think I did a pretty good job. Jay (Guy, crew chief) and the guys made great adjustments. We just needed a little bit more. For my first Cup race here, I would say we did OK.”
__________________
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
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