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| Brad Keselowski finished 18th in the spring Texas race (Getty) |
No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
AAA Texas 500
Texas Motor Speedway
November 6, 2011
TV: ESPN at 3:00 PM ET Radio: PRN/Sirius Channel 90 at 2:00 PM ET
No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger News and Notes
* · This Week’s Charger… The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team will race chassis PRS-805 during Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. This is a new chassis to the No. 2 fleet.
* · No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge in 2011… After 33 points-paying events, Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team are ranked fourth in the 2011 Chase for the Championship standings. Keselowski sits 27 points behind leader Carl Edwards following a 17th-place finish in the Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway last Sunday afternoon.
* · Texas Firsts… Keselowski made his first Cup Series start at TMS in November of 2008. After starting the race from the 37th position, the then 24-year-old Keselowski raced his way to a respectable 19th-place finishing position. In November of the following year, Keselowski made his first NASCAR start with Penske Racing at TMS, as he finished 35th in that race. Additionally, in the 2011 spring race at TMS, Keselowski led 32 laps – his first laps led at the track – before finishing 18th.
* · Cheers To Chasing Greatness… The featured tag line on the rear bumper of the “Blue Deuce” this weekend in Texas will be “Cheers To Chasing Greatness.” Keselowski continues to battle for the Cup Series championship, which would be a “great” accomplishment in his first season driving the iconic car.
* · Deuces Wild… When Brad wins a race during the 2011 Chase for the Championship, two lucky fans will win their own “man cave,” compliments of Miller Lite. The man cave gear includes a “kegerator,” a dart board, Miller Lite neon sign, a basketball game and pub furniture. Visit MillerLite.com/Brad to enter.
* · The Rest is History… Penske Racing made its first Cup Series start at TMS during the track’s inaugural event in 1997. In 50 combined Cup Series starts at the venue, the organization has garnered two wins (Ryan Newman – 2003 and Kurt Busch – 2009), three poles and nine top-five finishes.
Brad Keselowski on racing at Texas Motor Speedway: “Texas really is a unique racetrack and a unique layout. From above it looks like any normal 1.5-mile track, but the transitions into and off of the corners are quite a bit different than Charlotte, Las Vegas or any of the other mile-and-a-halfs. There is a lot of banking into the corners, which means you can carry a lot of speed in and to the center of the turns, but you lose that speed on exit as the track flattens out. It’s difficult because normally you can carry the same amount of grip and speed on both corner entry and corner exit. You have to adjust accordingly and sometimes that’s hard to do at 180 miles per hour. It’s easy to find yourself in trouble, especially off of Turn 2.”
Brad Keselowski on his fourth-place position in the Chase with three races remaining: “We put ourselves in position to have a great day at Martinsville on Sunday, but that wasn’t in the cards. That’s what happens late in a race on a short track. We took a hit in the points, but this team has been the underdog all year long. We’re not going to stop doing the things that put us in this position. Twenty seven points is not insurmountable. We’re going to need a little help, but there are guys that are due to have something go wrong over these last three races. At the end of the day, we have speed in our cars and that will win out more often than not.”
Crew chief Paul Wolfe on Texas Motor Speedway: “Texas is a place with a lot of unique characteristics. The track has bumps in Turn 2 and has aged to where grip becomes a big factor late into a run. We want to set the car up to run the bottom of the track, but yet, still have the flexibility to run various lines through the corners. This is a new car for us this weekend – a new specification that we’ve developed at Penske Racing. We’ve rolled out several new cars during the Chase and have been very happy with their performance. Brad has shown that he knows how to get around these 1.5-mile tracks and I think we’ll have a solid weekend at Texas.”
- Penske Racing, Press Release
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