Dodge Motorsports NSCS Race Advance - Coca-Cola 600 - Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, , May 25, 2010 - For Immediate Release
Dodge Motorsports NSCS Race Advance
Coca-Cola 600
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Sunday, May 30, 2010
DODGE AT CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
• Dodge has six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 600-mile wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway (Richard Petty (2), Buddy Baker (2) and Kasey Kahne (2).
• Dodge’s last Coca-Cola 600 win was in 2008 (Kahne).
• Dodge has 14 Sprint Cup wins (both events) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• Dodge’s Kurt Busch is the most recent winner at Charlotte Motor Speedway, winning the 2010 Sprint All-Star Race last weekend.
• Busch has scored top-10 finishes in two of the last three Charlotte races.
• Dodge has won four regular-season races at Charlotte Motor Speedway since returning to the sport in 2001.
THE DODGE BOYS
• Dodge has 206 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.
• Dodge’s most recent point win came at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kurt Busch led 129 laps en route to victory in the Kobalt Tools 500.
• Dodge claimed four Sprint Cup Series victories in 2009.
• Dodge teams have posted 46 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).
DODGE IN 600-MILE RACES
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 600 Mile Win at Charlotte Motor Speedway: Buddy Baker, 5/26/2008, World 600, 104.207 mph avg. speed.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 600 Win at Charlotte Motor Speedway: Kasey Kahne, 5/25/2008, Coca-Cola 600, mph 135.772 avg. speed.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Kurt Busch’s has made nine career starts at the Coca-Cola 600. His best finish was in 2004 when he finished 11th.
• Brad Keselowski will be making his first-career Coca-Cola 600 start this weekend.
• Sam Hornish Jr. posted top-20 finishes in his first two 600-mile starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• Four of the last five Charlotte races were won from a top-5 starting position.
• Through 12 races of 2010, Kurt Busch’s average starting position of 10.2 is the highest of his career (10.4).
• An All-Star/Coca-Cola 600 sweep has happened six times previously. The most recent in 2008 (Kasey Kahne).
DODGE HISTORICAL DATA AT CMS (all point races)
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Lee Petty, 2/1/53, West Palm, Fla., 100 miles, .5-mile track.
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Charlotte: Lee Roy Yarbrough, 10/16/1966, National 500, 130.576 mph avg. speed.
DODGE DRIVER QUOTES
“You have to figure out how to be at your very best at night under the lights. It’s a real marathon – 600 miles – out there and you have to stay on top of a continuously changing track. You really have to get your car handling well on the long runs. Then, you have to consider all those restarts that we’ll likely have as the race winds down. It’s definitely the biggest challenge that we face in our sport.” Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
“Racing 600 miles, in one sitting, is very challenging. We’ve had a couple weekends this year where rain has forced us to run both the Nationwide and Cup Series races on the same day. Those equaled to over 800 miles. The difference is they weren’t in one sitting. We were able to get out of the car, stretch our legs and get something to drink. You don’t have that luxury in the Coca-Cola 600. It can wear you down physically, as well as mentally, and you need to be prepared for it.” Brad Keselowski, No 12 Dodge Charger
“As far as speedway races go, I thought our Mobil 1 Dodge in the Coca-Cola 600 last year was the best car we had all season. We were being real patient to make it to the last bit of the race to run hard and then it rained shortly after the halfway point. It was a very disappointing day for us because I thought we had a car that was capable of a top finish or maybe even a win. This race is the ultimate test of your patience as a driver. Racing for 500 miles seems like a long time, and if you add more miles than that it seems like an eternity.” Sam Hornish Jr., No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
FROM THE ENGINEER – HOWARD COMSTOCK, DODGE MOTORSPORTS, NASCAR ENGINEERING
"After their dominating win at Charlotte last Saturday night in the Sprint All-Star Race, Kurt Busch and his No. 2 Penske Dodge team have the best setup notes in the garage. The 600 mile (race) marathon this week will require a different strategy. A loose race car is a fast race car and we saw plenty of fast race cars last week in the All-Star format. But a race car as loose as we saw last week would never finish this 600 mile test and teams will have to be much more conservative in this race that goes into the night."
FROM THE CREW CHIEFS
"For anyone in NASCAR there are three races that everyone really wants to win, the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Coca-Cola 600. The longest race of the season puts everything to the test. With a start time of 6 p.m., the track goes through a big transition into the night. It is important to stay on top of what the track is doing to make good adjustments during the race. It is great to be racing in your backyard and there would be nothing better than celebrating a victory on Memorial Day weekend." Travis Geisler, No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger
“The 600 is such a demanding race on the car, crew and driver. The car has to last all 600 miles without having any mechanical failures and the driver and crew have to stay mentally and physically sharp. We tried some different packages last week in the All-Star event and we feel really good about our chances this week.” Jay Guy, No. 12 Dodge Charger
DODGE BOYS NSCS 2010 BEST
• Kurt Busch
Start - 2nd - Bristol,
Finish - Win – Atlanta
Last Updated: Thursday, May 27, 2010 8:42 pm, EDT
Coca-Cola 600
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Order Driver (No.) Car Qualifying Speed
1 Ryan Newman (39) Chevrolet 187.546
2 Kurt Busch (2) Dodge 187.292
3 Martin Truex Jr. (56) Toyota 187.188
4 Kasey Kahne (9) Ford 187.169
5 Jimmie Johnson (48) Chevrolet 186.974
6 David Reutimann (00) Toyota 186.825
7 Denny Hamlin (11) Toyota 186.767
8 Joey Logano (20) Toyota 186.728
9 Kyle Busch (18) Toyota 186.528
10 Clint Bowyer (33) Chevrolet 186.053
11 Mark Martin (5) Chevrolet 186.021
12 Jeff Burton (31) Chevrolet 185.803
13 Casey Mears (83) Toyota 185.535 14 Sam Hornish Jr. (77) Dodge 185.459
15 Jeff Gordon (24) Chevrolet 185.452
16 Matt Kenseth (17) Ford 185.052
17 Dave Blaney (66) Toyota 184.932
18 AJ Allmendinger (43) Ford 184.906
19 Joe Nemechek (87) Toyota 184.856
20 Juan Pablo Montoya (42) Chevrolet 184.634
21 Scott Speed (82) Toyota 184.609
22 Johnny Sauter (36) Chevrolet 184.464
23 Kevin Harvick (29) Chevrolet 184.407
24 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) Chevrolet 184.344
25 Bill Elliott (21) Ford 184.344
26 Tony Stewart (14) Chevrolet 184.326
27 Jamie McMurray (1) Chevrolet 184.181
28 David Gilliland (37) Ford 184.093
29 Todd Bodine (164) Toyota 184.049
30 Michael McDowell (55) Toyota 184.037
31 Carl Edwards (99) Ford 183.949
32 Regan Smith (78) Chevrolet 183.855
33 Paul Menard (98) Ford 183.586
34 Marcos Ambrose (47) Toyota 183.542
35 David Ragan (6) Ford 183.306
36 Robby Gordon (7) Toyota 183.281 37 Brad Keselowski (12) Dodge 182.599
38 Bobby Labonte (71) Chevrolet 182.562
39 Elliott Sadler (19) Ford 181.977
40 Greg Biffle (16) Ford 181.690
41 Travis Kvapil (38) Ford 180.590
42 Kevin Conway (34) Ford 179.838 43 J.J. Yeley (46) Dodge 183.243
44 Reed Sorenson (132) DNQ 183.125
45 Max Papis (13) DNQ 182.902
46 David Stremme (26) DNQ 182.673
47 Mike Bliss (09) DNQ 182.469
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
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Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes - Kurt Busch Open Interview - Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, , May 27, 2010 -KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger)
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SPRINT ALL-STAR WIN, THE COCA-COLA 600 THIS WEEKEND AND COMING BACK TO CHARLOTTE? “I feel like it has been a great week with the celebration of the All-Star win and how everybody at Miller is very excited especially with our promotion around the vortex bottle and just the team. We put together a team party this week at the shop on Wednesday afternoon. We closed the shop down about a half hour early and had pizza and beer for all the guys. And the people were hanging out afterwards, having a couple more beers and enjoying each other, talking to each other and feeling that comrade. It was really exciting for me to see that happen. The trophy was there. Everybody was taking pictures with it and touching it. It just makes it an exciting week. Today when I drove into the race track, I said ‘all right, this is 600 weekend and we need to shift gears’. So here we are. We have the same setup that we won the race with. We’re excited about what it has given us so far, what it yielded in the hot daytime versus what it had in the cool conditions the other night. So, we’ll just go off that baseline. In years past here at the 600, I struggled transitioning from day to night. I feel like I’ve always had a better car in the daytime and I struggled at night. So this time around, we’d be foolish if we changed the setup too much from that All-Star race and base the setup around that. If we struggle in the daytime, we know that we can make it to the final portion of the race, hopefully, and race them hard then.”
PENSKE RACING HAS NEVER WON A POINT’S RACE AT CHARLOTTE. WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR YOU GUYS TO WIN THE 600 AND THE INDY TEAM TO WIN THE 500? “It would be special. It was a great week for Roger. On Saturday, he wins the Indy 500 pole again and we were able to bring it home on Saturday night. To see his emotions, that smile on his face. He deserves it. He’s worked that hard. Those Indy car guys, it’s amazing. He’s won Indy 14 times and on the stock car side, we were able to push (Ryan Newman) to get one Daytona 500 victory. It’s funny how many wins he has on Memorial Day weekend up in Indy versus what he doesn’t have down here in Charlotte. Hopefully, it comes this weekend. It would be pretty special for us to do that. He’s got the best opportunity to do it. He’s got the best odds to do it this weekend with three cars up there and three cars down here.”
WHAT’S YOUR THINKING ON THE PROTOCOL ON THE DENNY HAMLIN-KYLE BUSCH INCIDENT LAST WEEKEND DURING THE ALL-STAR RACE? “When teammates start to feud, it doesn’t do anything good for the team internally and it usually starts with something on track. Just like this season, we’ve had Jeff Gordon really upset with Jimmie Johnson after Talladega. On the outside, you always hope when you see things like that, top drivers feuding like that, it breaks it down a little bit and it might soften it up to where they don’t run as competitive at the track. That’s what you have to be careful of. In the long run, you know that these guys are going to work it out, the guys at Hendrick, Gibbs. It might even make them stronger with one of them admitting fault and putting it behind them. I feel that Kyle had a good run to the outside of Hamlin, but at this type of race, anyone is going to put on a block. You have to be ready for it. Ultimately, my little brother made a mistake, got up in the fence. He’s been running these All-Star races for a few years now, running at a 1000 percent pace every year. It doesn’t take a 1000 percent pace to win it.”
DOES THE WIN LAST WEEKEND IN THE ALL-STAR RACE MAKE YOU A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER? DOES THE MICHIGAN RACE LAST AUGUST PROPEL YOUR CHANCES FOR THE JUNE RACE THIS YEAR? “I feel like our (All-Star) win was an exclamation point so far in our year, but it’s not going to guarantee that it’s going to hoist us right in the championship battle. We have to continue to find new setups like we did the other night and make our cars better. We had great horsepower the other night and that’s a true testament to our engine program. That’s an engine that you can run for 100 laps. It’s not something that you can put together for a 500-mile race or 600-mile race. We’ll continue to work hard. We were fourth in points this time last year. We’re ninth now. It’s because RCR is running strong and a couple of Roush cars that are in a mix. That’s four cars, plus the other five and that makes us ninth in points. We’re doing about the same as last year. We’re just going to have to step it up another notch if we’re going to be a championship team.
At Michigan Speedway, it’s a great track because it’s in the backyard of the automotive manufactures. There are always big bragging rights when you win. Year ago when I won at Michigan (driving a Ford), I got a letter from Edsel Ford. Those types of moments are special and everyone pushes hard at MIS to win for their brand. Does it help propel you in the second race in August to help you in the Chase? I’ve always thought of Michigan as being one of those summer race tracks. We race there in June, race there in August and it’s not part of the Chase at all. It’s just one of those tracks that you just push hard for the manufacturer, but doesn’t have any relevance towards the Chase.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT QUALIFYING HERE? “Yeah, it’s one of the toughest qualifying tracks. Charlotte, Indy…big temperature changes from when we practice to qualifying. We had some hot, sunny conditions today. The track is really slick. You don’t know if you can hold it wide open off of Turn 2 and 4 without breaking loose. If you wreck the car, it’s only going to make your weekend that much longer. You qualify at night for one lap after the sun starts to set after 7 p.m.”
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
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Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes - Final Qualifying - Charlotte
CHARLOTTE , May 27, 2010 - KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger) Qualified 2nd
“A great run for our Miller Lite Vortex Dodge. Just a little tight. I drove it into Turn 1 a little too deep, but the rest of the run was great. I'm really proud of my guys and the way that this car is running. Our car is fast on the cool surface and really stable when it was hot this afternoon. All and all, a good qualifying effort for the Blue Deuce.
"In 2007 we were teammates and he ended up getting the pole for the 600. Tonight, I gave it all that I had but just came up a bit shy. Newman is just that good in qualifying. Anytime that you're second to Newman when he has the pole, you know that you've had a great qualifying lap."
YOU CAME EVER SO CLOSE TO GETTING THE POLE…ONCE AGAIN, YOUR CAR IS PERFORMING VERY WELL HERE AT CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY. “It was definitely a great effort from our team to be able to balance out that setup from last Saturday night into a qualifying package. It was a little bit of a head scratcher, but we were able to pull through and get it pretty close. I have the upmost confidence in the car to get it done. I just felt like off of Turn 4, I lost a little bit of speed primarily because I drove it into Turn 3 maybe a little too deep. A little bit too confident I guess. I missed a little bit of time and it’s amazing, you can almost feel that four-hundredths of a second as you drive off of Turn 4. (Ryan) Newman is a great qualifier. Congratulations to him. When we were teammates, we always pushed each other hard on qualifying days. In 2007, I had a better car than him in practice and he still beat me, got the pole and I was outside pole. It’s a great effort to start the 600 outside pole. We’ll have a great pit box selection and that will help us all night long. It’s funny, you lose by four-hundredths sometimes and it stings. You lose by two-tenths and it doesn’t matter. With Roger on the pole up at Indy, I was trying to deliver him a pole down here in Charlotte. We’re close. We’re front row and we’ll go from there.”
WILL THE HIGH LINE BE A BENEFIT FOR YOUR CAR ON SUNDAY NIGHT? "It could be but (Ryan) Newman has the selection. I think that we're going to be a bit more patient on the initial start of a 600 miler. I'd let (Newman) choose the lane that he wants and go and I hope to file in second, not third or fourth and start the race off from there. Later in the race during the 600 miler is when restarts are going to be interesting."
ANY SIGNIFICANCE THAT YOU AND TRUEX BOTH QUALIFIED AND RAN WELL IN THE ALL-STAR RACE AND AGAIN HERE FOR QUALIFYING? "I feel like our setup is going really well. (Truex) hit a groove back in Dover and they were on the pole. His crew chief Pat Tryson, I got to work with him the last couple years. Maybe some of those ideas that we have over at Penske filtered over to Michael Waltrip and they're doing well. That's when you know you're doing well when a good crew chief goes to a great driver like Martin Truex and the two match well with their personalities, they start finding setups. We hope that we can be number eight in drivers that won both the All-Star and 600."
WITH WEATHER MAYBE PLAYING A FACTOR ON SATURDAY, CAN WE ASSUME THAT THE GUYS WHO ARE FAST TODAY WILL STILL BE FAST ON SUNDAY? "In a situation like we're in right now with a good setup and feeling good where we are, it can rain and we'll be in a good position. If it does, then everybody will get time to work on their chassis setups and we'll see who has speed then. Weather permitting and how it shakes out right now, I'll take an average of All-Star finish and qualifying result, mix them together and see who some of the favorites are."
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Qualified 14th
"The Mobil 1 Dodge was pretty good out there and a 14th place starting position on Sunday is definitely respectable. Last weekend, all three of our teams came to Charlotte trying different things. It seemed like Kurt (Busch) and those guys really hit on something and that benefits all of the Penske Racing teams. It's a long race for sure, but we have a good starting spot and I'm looking forward to racing 600 miles on Sunday."
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) Qualified 37th
“Just a tough break. Our Dodge just broke free and I couldn't save it. It's a shame because that was a really fast race car. The car felt good on that first lap and I was trying to get all that I could out of the second lap when it broke free. I've got a great team. They'll do whatever they can to get another good, strong car ready for Sunday.”
__________________
Rick
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 113,000 sold)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
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CHARLOTTE , May 31, 2010 - KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger) Race Winner
“It’s unbelievable how much this is a team effort. I get the spoil job of driving an awesome Miller Lite Dodge like this. This is a great team. Everybody pulls the rope in the same direction. It’s unbelievable to have a car that would stick that good. This being Memorial Day, I thought about the troops all day long. To all the men and women that serve and protect our freedom, thank you. We’ll be celebrating on the lake tomorrow. Everybody should stop by their convenience store tomorrow and get these Miller Lite vortex bottles, that’s what I’m talking about. And Tuesday, go buy a Dodge. Most important, Roger (Penske), this one was for you. I thought about that Ganassi car behind me. He wasn’t going to get by.
“It’s unbelievable with this team. To have a car to run that well last Saturday night on the short runs and to have a car today to make the long runs was awesome. This team deserves it. It’s a special fete to win the All-Star race and the 600. It’s just a fantastic day for all of our employees, all of our associates and Miller Lite of course and for Dodge. With this Dodge program, we’re going strong.”
“Yeah, this has been a dream come true, to be able to wrap up this special weekend, to put a bow on it with this Coca-Cola 600 win. It's a prestigious race, a tough race, and most of all it's a team race.
This was a fantastic job by my guys that battled all day long to keep me up front. I don't know what our worst running position was, but I can't say it was worse than fifth or sixth maybe. Great pit stops, great calls by Steve Addington, Dave Winston, my guys. This was a race for the ages to. Have a car as good as it was in the daytime, I was afraid of it at night. I didn't know if it was going to be able to give me the handle like it had early on in the race. It played out in our favor. I'm speechless in the fact that we swept both races. But it's an unbelievable weekend for Miller Lite, their Vortex bottle, Memorial Day weekend for all of our troops giving us our freedom. I thought about those guys all day long. When you're out there racing your heart out, you see things come your way; you just have to thank the Lord as well. Things fell into our hands, especially at the end. To get a caution, quick adjustment, make our car even better. McMurray kept us honest. He was right there at the end. It wasn't like we faded back into the pack; he just separated himself from the pack to come and get us. He taught me a couple things about my line. I needed to adjust it. It helped us stay out in front of him at the end. Real happy we were able to bring this home, especially for Dodge. We're going to celebrate big Memorial Day with Miller Lites tomorrow. When the Dodge dealerships open up, when Kurt wins, you win. Hopefully whoever signed up is going to get a Dodge Challenger. Happy to bring that home for somebody."
Q. Kurt, I think it was while you were celebrating on the track you said over your radio, we get to go into the real Victory Lane at Charlotte. What did you mean by that?
KURT BUSCH: Well, it's hallowed ground to get to stand where some of the greats have stood. Over the years with the All Star Race, they bring a big trailer out on the front straightaway. It's great to celebrate on the front straightaway old school style like you would do on a Saturday night show. That's what it makes you feel like the Saturday night Shootout in a late model race and you're right there with the fans. But when you go into hallowed ground, when you go into Victory Lane at Charlotte, I've missed out on a couple poles, never got to taste it, never got to feel it. It was very special to drive the Miller Lite Dodge in there today. The car I was driving 600 miles, to drive it in there, it was pretty special.
Q. Kurt, could you talk about getting Roger his first win in the Coca-Cola 600. I take it he wasn't here, is that right? I know he was in Indy.
KURT BUSCH: I talked to him yesterday, wished him luck for this weekend. I told him last Thursday that we missed the pole by four hundredths of a second but I'm going to try not to let you down in the big show. He said he would be watching on TV. I was a bit puzzled. I was hoping he would be celebrating up at Indy with a big win. Roger is an amazing individual. I'm happy to race for him and bring him home wins, especially on a day like today when he didn't get it at Indy and we beat a Ganassi car today to win it. That's something special. I keep saying the word 'special' because the 600 is really, really something that I think of the greats that have this style trophy sitting in their case. My team helped me do that today. To beat a Ganassi car, McMurray, those guys kept us honest, he was in the mix. If I could say anything, I would say Ganassi should give that guy a raise and pay that man.
Q. Kurt, since you won the championship, you've had a lot of wins, a lot of solid showings, been competitive. Putting these races back to back sort of makes you the guy at this moment in time since 2004. People are going to say; Maybe this guy is the favorite for the championship.
KURT BUSCH: It's tough. I'm not one to go out there with a big flash and a big flair. I used to early on. I'd run my head up against the wall. I'd run my racecar up against the wall. Reviews came in negative. For me, that's not how I wanted to be remembered, how I wanted to be looked at, sitting there on the porch talking with my grandkids about things. That 2003 taught me a lot. 2004 backed up what I was thinking from my mindset. So you go out there. A guy like Jeff Burton, Mark Martin, and those kind of guys I learned a lot from at Roush Racing when I was having my troubles. I look up to those guys tremendously. Those guys don't get a lot of that flash or flair or recognition, but they're one of the greats in our sport.
A weekend like this, walking in here today, I looked at this ring, I've got the ring from last weekend, we're going to make a big team ring on the Charlotte sweep weekend and give it to all the Penske employees and commemorate what this means to be able to dominate on two weekends like this in Charlotte. It ranks right up there with one of the championship emotions I had in 2004.
Q. It's been a pretty good month for your family. This is six in a row now between you and your brother. Who has the better chance to continue to streak next week?
KURT BUSCH: Well, we both do. I like our chances with the way that our team's clicking. Those guys were strong the last few weeks, like at Richmond and Dover. Darlington, he was strong as well.
For us, our game right now, this team's clicking on all eight cylinders. We have to keep going, finding new things to make our Dodges faster. If I had to say who had the better chance, I love Pocono. Right now we've been doing good on tracks that I struggle on. I'm going to say I struggle on all the racetracks coming up so we don't beat ourselves.
Q. Could you comment on what you told your team over the radio about sweeping the checkbook here at Charlotte. Also, for a guy who does struggle here, to have such a great weekend, what does it say for you and your team the rest of the way?
KURT BUSCH: It means we're having another pizza party, beer and pizza party, during this week. It's a week of celebration. It's a week of some more hard work. We have to continue to stay focused and to get everything as good as we can make it for the next week. I might have forgot the second part of your question. But the way that we just have to stay focused, celebrate this week when we can, then get on it with Pocono next week. We'll just have to continue on.
Q. How have you been able to run as well as you have, being the one Dodge team out there, instead of having anything to share with people?
KURT BUSCH: It's fun. It's a great relationship I have with Ralph Gilles, our CEO at Dodge, and our engineers that give us the support up there in Detroit that work closely with Steve Addington, Tom, our lead engineer back at the race shop. To put all your eggs in one basket, to look at it, to have the skeptics think it was going to put us behind, you know, it's a fight, don't get me wrong. I feel like sometimes we're out on an island. But we're out there and it feels good to have those guys on our side.
Q. The last couple runs before that final pit stop, you were fast early, then Jamie would catch up to you and pass you. Were you worried 21, 22 laps was going to be just enough for him to get you right at the end or did you think with the red wheels you were going to be able to hold him off?
KURT BUSCH: That special set of matched red wheels. I feel like when we did get behind him, help him with the debris on the radiator, when things go your way, they just click. When we had that stop, car got a little tight when we were behind him. We were running till the end. With the caution coming out with 25 or so, my crew put me out in front. I told them to loosen me up. I thought we would do in 20. If we had a 50 lap run in the end, he might have had the stronger car. I think what we saw last week with our power on the short run to win that All Star Race, we would have been foolish to do anything different except leave that setup in and work around it. Maybe McMurray was a little better at the end. It wasn't like we fell back into the clutches of the group; he separated himself to come up and get us. I don't know how many laps we led today, but it was an awesome feeling.
Q. What did you learn from last Saturday night's race that was able to help you tonight?
KURT BUSCH: Just the general setup, some of the aerodynamic balances. The engine didn't hurt last week. So I was pushing hard on those engine guys. Hey, can I have this power for 600 miles? You know, they looked at me funny and said, You got to take care of it. You can't put miles on it in practice.
It's a different package slightly from the hundred lap sprint last week to this 400 miler. Just an overall package. I couldn't be happier to have Steve, Dave Winston, Tom, all of our guys bouncing ideas off of each other. There's not one week that we don't improve something on our cars when we show up.
Q. How much does it mean to get Roger Penske a win here in the 600, especially after the guys at Indy couldn't get the victory, having the Ganassi guy finish behind you after the Ganassi team won at Indy?
KURT BUSCH: It's just a dream weekend that we've had starting last Saturday night. It even started on Friday night with us getting the pole with that rain out. We almost dug out a clean sweep with the pole, just 400 short. All of it's due to the teamwork. When you sit back and think about it, coming into the media center here, going to Victory Lane, when it starts to sink in, the first person I think about is Roger Penske. When I came to the program, we won at Michigan early on. That was special. We won the Daytona 500 together. Ryan Newman did, I pushed him to try to help do it. I always feel like I got a little bit of that win. To win the 600 and All Star back to back, this is something that will be front and center in Roger's NASCAR trophy case. I was happy to deliver, especially having Miller Lite on the side of the car, because this isn't a farewell tour, we'll still be with those guys. Anytime we can get Miller in Victory Lane this year and get beers sold, that's our job.
Q. Jamie was in here, showered you with compliments a little bit. Had a little fun with you on the radio. Said to tell you at one point during the race that he was going to be coming up to get you. Is there a different sense of comfort level racing against somebody you know off the track for the win? Also I noticed that Chip Ganassi went out of his way to congratulate Penske on the victory. You have a rivalry on the track. There seems to be a great sense of respect between the two programs.
KURT BUSCH: You said it exactly right. The two individuals in the car and the two individuals owning the cars have a lot of respect for each other. With Jamie, he's a great competitor. He's always been a bit underrated. I think he's a strong guy that shows up every week that gives it his all. His workout regimen, his commitment to racing has always been there. I'm happy to see him land on his feet over at Ganassi. To win the 500, I thought he was showing up on another big money race, I didn't want him to do that. To do it for Roger, to beat Ganassi, that's what it's all about. It's having that fresh rivalry, like you said. To be able to do it, a few weeks back at Darlington, I followed McMurray around all day. I know that I was hungry for a Bic Mac because he was driving the McDonald's car then. I know he's going to stop by and have a Miller Lite tomorrow because he was following us. It's just like that with us when we're outside the racetrack.
Q. Matt and Kyle have new crew chiefs. We don't see so many new driver/crew chief situations. Is there something happening that the three of you guys are in the top six?
KURT BUSCH: I'll say that the COT, there's guys that have been on one team and now they're on another. There's trends they saw and they matched. A little bit of switch up here and there. When he came available last fall, I knew we had to have him. His experience level is second to none. His résumé speaks for itself. Guys like Kyle, Kenseth, even Truex, Pat Tryson is a great guy, knows what we were running over there. They're running strong with that 56 camp, too.
Q: Congratulations on your race win tonight in the Coca-Cola 600;
STEVE ADDINGTON: It's awesome. I don't know how to describe the feeling, but I know it feels really good to look on the guys' faces when you cross that finish line first. That's what it's all about. I love seeing the guys happy, and their hard work pays off.
We sit and talk about what we need to put in the racecar. The guys that are out there making pit stops and working on the car are the ones that really put their sweat and blood out there for us to be able to run good. That's the big key for me, is to be able to come to Charlotte and run this good.
Q. How big of a change, small change, did you make to the car, if any, on that final pit stop? Did Kurt know all of a sudden he had a better racecar?
STEVE ADDINGTON: Put the red wheels on it. They were telling me that Kurt, he turned around and looked and saw the red wheels after his interview on TV. He was like, What's it's doing with red wheels on it? We were just trying to keep our car balanced right. We look at different things in the tire sets. From where we were the best, that's where we wanted to be at the end of the race. We went down and borrowed a set of tires. We were getting low on tires. They were having to glue them up. We were worried about a pit stop costing us a race because the lug nuts weren't dried on the wheels. I sent the tire guys down to the 77 pit. They had a set of tires that pretty much matched where we were at our best. So that's why we ended up with red wheels on it. Instead of getting a set from Goodyear, not knowing what we had, we kept it consistent to what was on the car. That was the big difference. The guys busted off a heck of a pit stop right there at the end. It was going to be, if we went out behind the 1 car, I felt like the 1 car would have won the race. We were matching each other lap time for lap time. It's hard to pass when you're doing that. When he was in front of us, we were running the same lap times as him. When he was behind us, he was running the same lap times as us. That pit stop was key to getting off in the restart to win the race.
Q. The 48 looked like it had crashed out completely tonight. They went in 33 laps later and came back out. You are ahead of them in points. How important is it for you to consider when an incident like that happens to turn around and get the car back on track? Is that more important than ever these days running to the Chase?
STEVE ADDINGTON: Yeah, it's big. You've got to go back there and assess the damage and try to get back out, whether it's for four points anymore, to get a car back out there. When I saw the wreck, I thought they were probably pretty much done. But those guys aren't going to give up. They're after a championship. They want to be in this Chase. That's the way they are. That's the mentality of them. That's the mentality of every one of us in the garage area. Yes, it's big to get the car back there, get it fixed as quick as possible, get it back out there to make up as many points as you can. They're going to be a championship contender. If you're going to win this championship, you're going to have to beat those guys and you're going to have to beat the Gibbs bunch and Hendricks bunch to win this championship. That's what we're concentrating on, is making our stuff better to do that.
Q. Steve, with this big weekend sweep, was Saturday that big of a shot in the arm from your team or has it been business as usual and this is the fruit of your labors?
STEVE ADDINGTON: It's the fruit and the labor of all the guys on the race team. We came over here and tested for two days. Like I told them, we did not have a very good test. We went back and sat down and evaluated the program to come back over here with something totally different. I heard it from him as it was a science project, I said, “This is what we're going to throw at it.” He said, “Anything, man.” I don't run good at Charlotte. We'll see how it shakes out. That's what we did. It's the fruits of the labor of the guys that worked, that I kept there working overtime late at night when they wanted to go home and see their kids, to make this change in the car before we came to the All Star Race and unloaded and had a great weekend. We went back and worked late. We get it in the 600 car, it works out for us. That makes me feel good, that we were able to do that on two different cars and give him the feel he needs in the cars.
Q. At this point you seem to have the mile and a half's figured out, lots of success finishing wise so far. Do you not feel that way, Steve? With three months left until the Chase begins, what more do you have to do to position yourself for that time of the year?
STEVE ADDINGTON: We're a long ways from having it figured out. I think we need to go back after these two weekends of the direction that we went to come here to Charlotte to race, it was big. I'll sit down with Dave Winston and the guys and talk about the direction we need to go to Pocono, especially him. This guy is the one that has to drive it. He's going to tell us whether we're going in the right direction or not. We've talked about the places that he ran good last year, and some of the places he struggled. We ran good at the places he struggled last year. We've changed up a little bit. So I think that we need to evaluate that and go forward and get better as we go. As long as we're getting better, that's the big key. Giving him what he needs in a racecar is the only reason that I do this, come to work here, is to give this guy what he needs to go win races. We've got to evaluate where we're going to go to Pocono and start. That is big. We came here and accomplished what we needed to accomplish. We made gains. I was sitting there thinking, even when we were running second, This is a big step for us if we finish second. It came down to let's do a pit stop and beat them out and we won the race. Two equal cars there. To make the gains from where we were at the test, from the feedback I got from the test to leave here, I wasn't real excited about it. It was like; we got to make a difference here. And we did. He liked it. So I'm excited about it, but we still got to real dissect it to go forward.
KURT BUSCH: What I really enjoy about Steve is the confidence he gives me in the car and the adjustments that he makes. When he comes into the sport, you're going to drive the wheels off anything and you can overstep the line and wreck some cars. As you get more experience, you line up with an experienced crew chief, there's some times when I'll just go, “Hey, make a change.” I'll drive the wheels off it, whatever you give me. I feel like he's helped me pick up my game because I have to have a fresher outlook on different setups. Like he says, getting back to the basics, going with some old school things, that's what we've done these last couple weeks. He got that vibe off of the poor test we had here at Charlotte based off my comments. So we'll keep plugging forward.
STEVE ADDINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge Charger)
“It’s all that guy that drives that car and that Dodge was absolutely amazing tonight. We came back and tried to get the car as close as we could to what we had last week. I’m just so pleased for Roger Penske and Penske Racing and all the guys that work on this 2 race car. And the guys back at the shop, Roy McCauley and that whole build team that work for us and Tom German on the engineering side, they’ve all been behind us 100 percent.
“That last caution fell our way. It came when we were able to run the same lap times, but couldn’t catch him. It was the same at the end there, he could run the same lap times, but couldn’t catch Kurt. To come here and win the All-Star race and the 600, that’s awesome.”
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Finished 17th
“A solid 17th-place finish for the Mobil 1 Dodge tonight. We weren’t too good the first 500 miles but we kept working on our race car and it took life the last 100 miles. We were pretty good on the short run; we just struggled on the longer runs tonight. We got ourselves behind early in the race; I got caught speeding on pit road and bunch of little things that just didn’t go our way. It was a good thing that we had 600 miles tonight (laughs). I’m proud of my guys. They hung in there all night and gave me a good race car when I needed it. We were a heck of a lot better than it looked at times.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) Finished 20th
A GREAT NIGHT FOR THE PENSKE DODGE, WHAT HAPPEDEND ON PIT ROAD WITH THE 18 CAR? “A really strong night for our Penske Dodge. To come back like we did after the pit road incident is a credit to all the guys on this team. They worked their butts off to keep our car on the lead lap despite the left-side damage. The pit road deal was just one of those racing deals. Nobody’s fault really. The 18 and I came out at the same time, just racing. That’s what happens when you have 43 cars trying to pit sometimes. To get a top-20 finish out of this is incredible. A hard fought race for sure.”
JAY GUY (Crew Chief, No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge)
“The effort on this 12 team was incredible. It’s hard to put into words how hard the Penske Dodge guys worked tonight. The 18 guy hit us leaving the pits and we had to fight back. We had an overheating issue and losing water pressure; we already had the front end banged up. We had to come in and cut off all that patch (on the front end) to fix the overheating issue to try and keep us on the lead lap. To start dead last and finish and to have our teammate Kurt (Busch) win the race is a great night for everyone at Penske Racing."
__________________
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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