News

Brad Keselowski
No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger
Atlanta Motor Speedway – Kobalt Tools 500
March 7, 2010

No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger News and Notes
• This Week’s Charger… The No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger team will use chassis PRS-710 during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. PRS-710 is a brand new chassis to the No. 12 Dodge team.
• A First Time for Everything... This weekend Keselowski will be able to cross Atlanta Motor Speedway off his list of tracks where he has never before competed in a Cup Series race. The first-year Penske Racing driver does have three Nationwide Series starts at the 1.5-mile oval, with one top-five finish and two top-10 results. 
• No. 12 Penske Dodge in 2010... After three events, Keselowski and the No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger team currently sit 30th in the Cup Series driver point standings and 29th in owner points. Keselowski finished 26th in last weekend’s Shelby American in Las Vegas, Nev.
• Follow Me on Twitter… Fans can now follow Keselowski on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/keselowski. Followers can get a glimpse inside his everyday life while keeping up-to-date on the latest news for the No. 12 Dodge team.
• Watch and Listen… The Kobalt Tools 500 will be seen live on Sunday, March 7 on the FOX television network. Race coverage is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET. The event will also be heard live on PRN Radio as well as Sirius Satellite Radio, channel 128.
• The Rest is History... Penske Racing made its first start at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 26, 1972, with the late Mark Donohue finishing 15th. In 81 starts at Atlanta, the organization has two wins (Rusty Wallace in 1993 and Kurt Busch in 2009), eight poles and nine top-five finishes.
 
Brad Keselowski on this weekend’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway
“I’ve always enjoyed racing at Atlanta in the Nationwide Series and I’m excited to make my first Cup Series start there this weekend. The place is just a lot of fun. You can run all over the track, but it seems to me that you need to run the bottom to be the most successful. The track is abrasive on tires, so you can’t abuse them early in a run. You have to ‘race the track,’ so to speak. After staying on the west coast for two races, it’s nice to come back closer to home. They have tremendous fans in Atlanta that love hard racing, which is my style. Hopefully we can give them a good show, but we also need a solid run to make up some ground in points.”

Crew chief Jay Guy on preparing a car for Atlanta Motor Speedway
“Atlanta is a very forgiving racetrack. If you miss the setup a little bit it has a lot of grooves that the driver can use to make the car handle more to his liking. You have a very fine line between getting the car to turn and being too loose. Drivers need enough security so they can be aggressive. Aerodynamics play a big part in racing at Atlanta. The dreaded ‘aero-tight’ condition comes into play so you have to balance the mechanical and aero platforms. It’s like the ‘new’ Darlington because it eats up tires more than any other track. You have to be mindful of that, especially in the front-end geometry, because you don’t want right front tire problems at a fast track like Atlanta.”