9/21/97 Sprint Cup Race Mark Martin 133.00
6/6/04 Sprint Cup Qualifying Jeremy Mayfield 161.522
9/25/04 Nationwide Race Martin Truex Jr. 122.00
6/5/04 Nationwide Qualifying David Green 157.916
6/2/06 Camping World Truck Race Mark Martin 120.00
6/4/05 Camping World Truck Qualifying David Starr 157.577
Nationwide Series Upcoming Race May 15. Saturday, ABC 2:30 PM
Sprint Cup Series Upcoming Race May 16, Sunday, FOX 1:00 PM
Autism Speaks 400
Track Facts
Dover International Speedway
Location: Dover, DE
Banking/Turns: Oval
Distance: 1.00 mile
Shape: Oval
Most Cup Wins (since 1975)
* Jimmie Johnson 5
LINK:dodgemotorsports.com
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5/30/09 Heluva Good! 200 Joey Logano Brad Keselowski Chevrolet $1,158,928
9/26/09 Dover 200 Kyle Busch Clint Bowyer Chevrolet $1,158,928
5/31/08 Heluva Good! 200 Carl Edwards Denny Hamlin Toyota $1,163,459
9/20/08 Camping World RV Sales 200 Kyle Busch Kyle Busch Toyota $1,163,459
9/22/07 RoadLoans.com 200 Greg Biffle Denny Hamlin Chevrolet $1,127,483
6/2/07 Dover 200 Denny Hamlin Carl Edwards Ford $1,127,483
6/3/06 StonebridgeRacing.com 200 Kevin Harvick Jeff Burton Chevrolet $1,106,436
9/23/06 Dover 200 Scott Riggs Clint Bowyer Chevrolet $1,106,436
Dodge NASCAR Nationwide Series Dover Pre Race Notes & Quotes
Posted By Press Release On May 12, 2010 @ 6:41 pm In Nationwide Series
Dodge Motorsports NNS Race Advance
Heluva’ Good 200
Dover International Speedway
Dodge in NASCAR Nationwide Series
• Dodge has three win in the 2010 NNS season (Justin Allgaier – Bristol and Brad Keselowski – Talladega and Richmond).
• Penske Racing has three wins along with 11 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes through the first 10 races this season.
Justin Allgaier celebrates winning the Scotts Turf Builder 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway, his first career victory in the NASCAR Nationwide Series - Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR
JUSTIN ALLGAIER – No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge
Highlights:
• Earned his first NASCAR Nationwide Series win this year at Bristol Motor Speedway, leading a 1-2 Penske Racing Dodge finish.
• Allgaier’s fifth-place position in the point standings is best among full-time, Nationwide Series-only drivers. Allgaier leads fellow Nationwide-only driver Jason Leffler, currently ranked ninth, by 357 points.
• Allgaier has finished 17th or better in the 10 races this season including five top-10 finishes.
• He was the 2009 Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the Nationwide Series.
• Earned his first career Nationwide Series pole at Memphis last fall.
• Second full year with Penske Racing in Nationwide Series.
• Won the ARCA championship in 2008, posting six wins and overcoming a 105-point deficit in final race.
Brad Keselowski celebrates celebrates with his crew – including a very proud father Bob Keselowski – in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series BUBBA burger 250 at Richmond International Raceway. - Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 22 Ruby Tuesday Dodge
Highlights:
• Keselowski leads the Nationwide Series driver standings with a 55 point advantage over second place.
• Keselowski earned back-to-back wins at Talladega and Richmond earlier this season.
• Keselowski has earned eight top-five finishes of the season.
• Keselowski has finished inside the top 10 in 37 of the last 41 Nationwide races.
• Earlier this year, he claimed back-to-back poles at Las Vegas and Bristol.
• Recorded career-high four victories in 2009 (Dover, Iowa, Michigan and Memphis).
“I don’t think Dover gets the recognition that it deserves. It’s a nasty racetrack and I mean that in a good way. Very few tracks are as physically demanding as Dover. It’s hard on both the drivers and equipment. At no point during the race can you just log laps because, if you aren’t racing another driver, you are making sure that you keep your car out of the wall. For that reason, Dover is one of my favorite tracks. I was able to win there last year and we are running well enough that we can win this week, too.” - – Brad Keselowski, No. 22 Ruby Tuesday Dodge Charger
“Dover is a great race track. It’s a concrete surface, which is something that has obviously been very kind to us here lately. It’s a fast track, and every time you drive off into the corners it’s equivalent to the height of a one or two-story building. It’s a place where you’re never able to relax. Even the straightaways are very demanding at Dover.
“It’s pretty incredible to be making my 50th Nationwide Series start this weekend. I’ve been very fortunate to be part of the Penske organization for all of those starts. Hopefully we’ll be able to add another zero to that number in a few years and be talking about my 500th NASCAR start someday.” - – Justin Allgaier, No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge Charger
"At Dover, it seems like there are so many guys who are competitive. Even when they cut it back from 500 laps to 400 laps; it's still one of the toughest and most demanding races. All the corners can be treacherous and if someone gets out of shape coming out of (Turn) 2; it's so narrow that you can sweep up a whole bunch of cars into the mess. We just hope we're able to run up front with them there this weekend and have a shot at getting a win."
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Dodge Charger
"Dover is very much like a roller coaster that you are in control of. The drops are very severe and the load that is put on your body doesn't go left to right, it goes straight down. So you feel yourself essentially getting shorter when you go into the corners and your body compresses. Fighter pilots call that a 'z-load' axis. Coming out of the corners, you are almost driving uphill and blind. It's very hard on your body, very physically demanding, and it can take its toll on you after a long race."
Sam Hornish Jr., No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
"It's like they built a little ramp at the end of each of the straight-aways by about six inches that just launches the whole car into the corners. Obviously, the front end is heavier on these cars, so when you get in there, the front is more secure and the back wants to slide around. So you're easy on the brakes until you know the car is set then you can brake a lot harder. I like Dover; it's a lot of fun and we usually run really well there in the spring race. I'm looking forward to this weekend and hopefully learning more to help when we return there in the fall."
FROM THE CREW CHIEFS
Travis Geisler, No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
"Dover is one of my favorite race tracks on the circuit; it is very demanding on the car and drivers. Watching the cars drop off the straightaway into the 24 degree-banked corners really gives you a feel for how fast they are going. The key to Dover will be getting the car stable during the entry phase of the corner because the back of the car really wants to slide out. A good qualifying position has always been important but that is more because of the tight pit road than the difficulty to pass on the track. In the past few races the track has widened out a lot in the corners and has allowed for good side-by-side racing. The Mobil 1 Dodge team is ready to take on the 'Monster Mile'."
Jay Guy, No. 12 Dodge Charger
"Track position is important, so you have to place more of an emphasis on qualifying. The track will change a lot throughout the race so the biggest concern is making sure you keep up with that through your adjustments."
FROM THE ENGINEER -- HOWARD COMSTOCK, DODGE MOTORSPORTS, NASCAR ENGINEERING
"A lot of people think of Dover as just a big Bristol, but it's not necessarily that simple. Cars may still run just as fast at Bristol minus a bunch of sheet metal, but Dover's 32 miles per hour faster average makes aerodynamics an important part of any Dover setup. If Darlington last week is any indication, the new spoiler configuration has added downforce to the cars, increased speeds even more and made aerodynamics that much more important."
-source: dodge motorsports
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- May 14, 2010 ALL-STAR: No Holds Barred - Brad Keselowski
Brad Keselowski is in his sophomore year in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race...
Brad Keselowski, Penske Racing Dodge First All-Star start: 5/16/2009 Best finish: 17th (2009) How he made the race: Won April 2009 race at Talladega Superspeedway
When Brad Keselowski made his first start in the Sprint All-Star Race one year ago, much was still in limbo about the young driver’s future in NASCAR’s top series.
Running a full-time Nationwide Series schedule for JR Motorsports and a part-time Cup slate for Hendrick Motorsports and the underfunded Phoenix Racing team, Keselowski had not yet settled on a place to race full time in 2010.
That, of course, would soon change. Keselowski signed a multiyear contract with Penske Racing in September to compete for the organization full time in the Cup and Nationwide series in 2010.
The 26-year-old has since learned that he’ll be moving over to Penske’s flagship No. 2 car with sponsorship from Miller Lite in 2011.
But that’s all still down the road a bit.
A more pressing matter at hand for Keselowski is how he'll fare in his second All-Star Race appearance, which will mark his first with Penske in the prestigious exhibition. Conventional wisdom would indicate that Keselowski is more equipped for success than in his All-Star debut with the cash-strapped Phoenix Racing outfit, which decided only two weeks earlier to field an All-Star entry for Keselowski after the youngster’s thrilling upset win at Talladega made him event eligible.
Keselowski was a non-factor in the race, finishing 17th and last among cars not involved in on-track scrum. The Michigan native understandably has much loftier goals this time for the annual winner-take-all affair.
He also feels that he learned a thing or two from his first start in the All-Star Race, a non-points paying event that tends to bring out the aggression of the most tempered drivers.
Keselowski, of course, is notorious for his hold-nothing-back approach to competition, so the unconventional All-Star format – which this year features 100 laps over four segments and a $1 million winner’s payday - seems almost tailor-made to Keselowski’s style.
“The All-Star Race has a different strategy to it, and probably those things are the biggest things you learn just from experience,” Keselowski said. “And then having the car like I know I'm going to have from Penske Racing this year gives you some confidence that you can go out there and run up front and contend for the win. All of those things feel really good.”
Despite a rough start to the season, Keselowski seems to gradually be finding his way. After four finishes outside the top 20 in the opening four races, Keselowski has picked up the pace considerably.
His No. 12 Dodge has been outside the top 16 just once over the last seven races. Meanwhile, he's enjoyed even more success on the Nationwide side, where he is the series points leader thanks to nine top-10s, including two wins, in 10 starts.
“We have been racing pretty well with the 12 (Cup) team and we have gotten a lot of consistency lately where we are running in that 15th-place range and finishing in there,” said Keselowski, who is 25th in the Cup standings entering Sunday’s race in Dover, Del. “ … Those are solid runs. We want to get better and we want to be in contention for winning and for wins, but those are coming, and right now we are making those baby steps. … So, you know, just really enjoying this time of year and everything that's going on both on and off the race track, and every weekend going to the race track is a real joy.”
With the current All-Star procedure that puts winners from both the present and previous season in the race, Keselowski’s win at Talladega last year earned him not only one but two berths in the popular event.
And he’s certainly glad it did.
“It's a fun race … because it's specifically with champions and other winners,” Keselowski said. “You know you're racing the best. There's a level of pride that comes with that, and (that) makes it fun, and there's just more attention on you, because there's less cars.
“And then obviously night racing and everything that goes with that, there's just so much pride that that race has. There's some purse things, too, naturally, but for some reason, that race is just always known for being one of the key, premier races to watch, and it becomes the same thing for us as drivers; it's one of the key, premier races to win.”
NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race
Saturday, May 22, 2010
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race returns on Saturday, May 22, 2010. The annual all-star event features a special format with a 10-lap Saturday-night shootout reminiscent of the sports' roots at short-tracks around the country. Drivers and teams go head-to-head on home turf to take home $1 million. Only the series' top drivers are eligible for the race, which is preceded by an action-packed last-chance qualifying race.
Prior to the racing action, fans with a race ticket will have the chance to enjoy a FREE concert by one of the most talked about rock bands of the last decade, Creed. The concert is presented by Native Trading Associates. An enormous commercial success in the late 90s and early 2000s, Creed has sold 26 million records in the United States and an estimated 35 million worldwide, including three multi-platinum albums. The group has also won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song for "With Arms Wide Open" in 2001.
Don't miss your chance to see NASCAR drivers and crews at their best, under the lights on the legendary 1.5 mile superspeedway, plus a free concert by Creed. Tickets start at just $39!
Last Updated: Friday, May 14, 2010 4:38 pm, EDT
Autism Speaks 400
Dover International Speedway
Order Driver (No.) Car Qualifying Speed
1 Martin Truex Jr. (56) Toyota 157.315
2 Kasey Kahne (9) Ford 157.274
3 Mark Martin (5) Chevrolet 157.198
4 Kyle Busch (18) Toyota 157.006
5 Jimmie Johnson (48) Chevrolet 156.904
6 Ryan Newman (39) Chevrolet 156.849
7 Clint Bowyer (33) Chevrolet 156.829
8 AJ Allmendinger (43) Ford 156.706
9 Carl Edwards (99) Ford 156.678 10 Sam Hornish Jr. (77) Dodge 156.597
11 Jamie McMurray (1) Chevrolet 156.576 12 Kurt Busch (2) Dodge 156.427
13 David Reutimann (00) Toyota 156.406
14 Denny Hamlin (11) Toyota 156.331
15 Jeff Gordon (24) Chevrolet 156.250
16 Tony Stewart (14) Chevrolet 156.236
17 Jeff Burton (31) Chevrolet 156.223
18 Joey Logano (20) Toyota 156.216
19 Elliott Sadler (19) Ford 156.074 20 Brad Keselowski (12) Dodge 155.871
21 Matt Kenseth (17) Ford 155.730
22 David Ragan (6) Ford 155.615
23 Paul Menard (98) Ford 155.534
24 Greg Biffle (16) Ford 155.092 25 J.J. Yeley (46) Dodge 155.005
26 Marcos Ambrose (47) Toyota 154.999
27 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) Chevrolet 154.779
28 Juan Pablo Montoya (42) Chevrolet 154.652
29 Scott Speed (82) Toyota 154.573
30 Kevin Harvick (29) Chevrolet 154.487
31 David Stremme (26) Ford 154.361
32 Mike Bliss (09) Chevrolet 154.182
33 Bobby Labonte (71) Chevrolet 154.011
34 Michael McDowell (55) Toyota 153.892
35 Dave Blaney (66) Toyota 153.807
36 Joe Nemechek (87) Toyota 153.787
37 Regan Smith (78) Chevrolet 153.734
38 Travis Kvapil (34) Ford 153.721
39 Casey Mears (83) Toyota 153.564
40 David Gilliland (38) Ford 153.094
41 Kevin Conway (37) Ford 151.777
42 Robby Gordon (7) Toyota 151.598
43 Johnny Sauter (36) Chevrolet 152.795
44 Todd Bodine (164) DNQ 152.698
45 Max Papis (13) DNQ 152.420
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Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes - Final Qualifying - Dover
DOVER, Del.,, May 14, 2010 -
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Qualified 10th
“That’s not quite what we thought we were going to be able to get there, but the track tightened up a little bit more than what we thought it was going to and got quite a bit of push coming off turn four there. That made the back end snap out a little bit. We’re real happy with the team’s hard work today. We felt our car was really good in our race runs. We look forward to tomorrow, getting some good practice time out there and learn a couple of things. I always like coming to Dover. It’s a real fun race track. It feels like a roller-coaster getting down in the corners. I like it a lot. It’s a good place to come to after Darlington last week. Both of the tracks feel really fast and kind of get you amped up for the All-Star race.”
"We were just too tight. It's a real hot, slick track right now and we were too tight. It looks like all three Penske cars ran about the same lap times. We just need to loosen our Penske Dodge up a bit through the center of the corner."
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Qualified 12th
"A real good second lap for us. The car was really tight on the first lap and just wouldn't turn. I didn't have any grip in 1 and 2. Some guys had scuff tires; we had stickers. It may have been smart to have scuffs. The car was much better on the second lap, but just too tight at the apex on both ends. There's just not a lot of grip out there right now. I think an 88 (22.88) was the pole; we ran .01. That’s how close the field is right now."
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Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes - Kurt Busch Open Interview - Dover
DOVER, Del.,, May 14, 2010 -
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON DOVER THIS WEEKEND, YOUR THOUGHTS ON COMING BACK TO DOVER? “I feel like this has been a good track for me in the past. It’s always been special for me as well, having made my first start here in the Cup series back in the fall of 2000. It’s one intimidating track, that’s for sure. Anytime that you get loose coming off the corner and spin off of (Turn 2) or Turn 4, you have a good shot at hitting the inside wall and making your weekend a lot longer. You have to be careful each and every lap and work your way up to speed. At the Monster Mile, it’s all about tire conservation. You can really abuse your right-front tire and get in trouble. That’s why you have to err on the looser side of the setup. We’ll see how it shakes out. Goodyear brought a different tire than what we’ve had here in the past. It’s got us scrambling a little bit. It’s got us more on the tighter side. Practice was OK for us. We found ourselves mid-pack in the first session. We’ll throw a few things at it for qualifying and see what we can get for our Miller Lite Dodge.”
DOES BRAD KESELOWSKI INSPIRE OR MOTIVATE YOU? “I feel like Brad’s brought a unique intensity to our team. You have to help the young drivers when you want to help them, and then you have to let them make their own mistakes so that they can learn on their own. Right now, it’s about him getting comfortable with the Cup car. That’s what I’ve seen with him so far. He’s got a great understanding of his Nationwide car and how to drive those styles of cars. The Cup car is a little different for him right now. Once he blends into some of the setups and some of the feel that we have on the 2 car and Sam has on the 77, then I feel like it will be time for the next step. But right now, he’s doing a great job understanding what it takes to make his 12 team fast. Just give him more time under his belt. When we see him come to some of these tracks for the second time with these Penske cars, I’ll think he’ll start to settle in a little better and I think that there’s going to be more positive feedback and that will make the team stronger. Not just his team, the 12 and the 77. For me, I like to help see young kids come along and try to make sure that they don’t make too many mistakes and rough up too many feathers. I did a lot of things the wrong way when I started. It’s fun to give back and help someone know what to look for and what to look out for.”
HOW DOES DOVER COMPARE TO BRISTOL? “I like the short-track feel that Bristol has on the concrete surface. You can really be aggressive with the car. You can toss it around sideways and know that things are going to be under control. If you try to be aggressive here at the Monster Mile and toss it around sideways, it’s going to bite you really quick because of the extra speed that you carry. I like the challenge here. It is like a big Bristol as far as looks, but this place is more like a mile-and-a-half than it does like a short-track like Bristol. You have to look out for not just mechanical changes in the car, but the aero side of it as well because of the speeds that we carry. With the rear spoiler on the car, I think that we’re going to see quicker speeds in qualifying than normal. We’ve seen that the last few weeks, especially the track record at Darlington in extreme heat. The car just seems to have more rear downforce with the rear spoiler on them and that will help the cars race side-by-side better here at the Monster Mile.”
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF NAVIGATING PIT ROAD HERE AT DOVER? “Pit box 1 is definitely the best pit box out here, hands down. People put more emphasis on qualifying here than they do at other tracks because of that pit box. Jimmie Johnson spent all day in qualifying trim. Something Brad Keselowski did was stay in qualifying trim all practice trying to get that extra ‘ooph’ in qualifying and that better pit box selection. Then there are other times when you have an easy day when you have a lapped down car in front of you, somebody had trouble right in front of you that’s pitted right next to you, so you get an easy in and out that makes it easy on pit lane. Then there’s those days where you’re just as congested as congested can be when you pull in, the guy in front of you pulls in, the guy in front of him pulls in right afterwards and now all three of you are blocking you in. You hope that in qualifying you’re in the top 10 and you get a decent pit box selection to help yourself on Sunday.”
IS DOVER ON OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TRACKS WHERE QUALIFYING AND PIT BOX SELECTIONS ARE KEYS? “I would say (Dover) is definitely on the side of more importance. If it’s a scale of one to 10, I would give this track and eight on importance. A place like Indianapolis, you want to be towards the end of pit road because it’s so narrow. When you’re driving down pit road, it’s so easy to get in a wreck on pit road at Indianapolis, so that one is and eight or a nine. Bristol gets real tight. It doesn’t have as high of a ranking because guys get a lap down and it opens some of the ins and outs off of pit road. Track that is very easy are California Speedway, Michigan Speedway, those are the least worrisome on pit road because there are such big (pit) boxes. It’s a two-mile race track and everybody gets spread out when racing, so there’s not that much drama when you’re on pit road at those tracks.”
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DOVER, Del. , May 15, 2010 - BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Ruby Tuesday Dodge Charger) Finished Seventh
"We had a really good Ruby Tuesday Dodge early in the race. I was running down (race leader) Kyle (Busch) when I felt the car start to deteriorate over a period of five laps. It just got looser and looser and looser on every lap. Every time that I would go over the bumps, the car would just shoot sideways until I finally looped it coming out of Turn 4. At that point, I was just praying that I could keep it off the wall and save the car. We got lucky and didn't do any aero damage, but the car got really unpredictable. Paul (Wolfe, crew chief) made a great adjustment just before that last long run to help tighten me up and gain some spots back and get a top-10 finish out of it. A really hard fought day for sure."
PAUL WOLFE (crew chief, No. 22 Ruby Tuesday Dodge Charger)
"Considering what happened with Brad and the spin, we'll take a seventh-place finish. It's still a bit frustrating. We had a really fast Ruby Tuesday Dodge Charger the first couple of runs when all of a sudden the car went bad. I'm still not sure what happened. But yeah, it's a good day for us. Looking at the big picture, when you're running for a championship, you need all the points that you can get. We need to keep taking bad days and making the most that we can out of them. We may look at this race a few months from now and realize how important a seventh was for us."
JUSTIN ALLGAIER (No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge Charger) Finished 16th
"A busy day inside the car for sure. It started with me making a mistake on pit road with our Verizon Wireless Dodge. We put ourselves in a bit of a hole by starting 29th, but had a fast race car and drove
all the way inside the top 10. Unfortunalty, we couldn't get any better and the car just became a
hand full. We had a shot at a top 12 late when that caution came out, but I felt a tire going down and decided to pit and take four tires to make sure. Just one of those days."
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