News

Brad Keselowski
No. 12 Penske/AAA Dodge Charger
Sylvania 300
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
September 19, 2010

No. 12 Penske/AAA Dodge Charger News and Notes
• This Week’s Charger… The No. 12 Penske/AAA Dodge Charger team will use chassis PRS-708 during Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS). Keselowski last drove this chassis to a 20th-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
• No. 12 Penske Dodge in 2010... After 26 events, Keselowski and the No. 12 Penske/AAA Dodge Charger team currently sit 26th in the Cup Series driver and owner point standings.
• Loudon Rewind… After beginning the 2010 spring race at NHMS from the 14th position, Keselowski quickly raced his way inside the top-10 in the early portions of the event. However, as the race moved into a long green-flag run, the No. 12 Dodge developed a tight-handling condition and began to fall back in the running order. In his second-career Cup Series start NHMS, Keselowski crossed the finish line in 26th place.
• Keselowski NASCAR History at Loudon… In addition to his two career Cup Series races at NHMS, Keselowski has made three career starts in the Nationwide Series at the “Magic Mile.” In his last Nationwide Series start at the venue in June of this year, Keselowski qualified on the pole and finished second. He has never qualified or finished outside the top-10 in three career Nationwide Series starts at NHMS. Keselowski also has one career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at NHMS. In 2005, he led three laps en route to a 21st-place finish in his family-owned Truck Series entry.
• The Rest is History... In the first race for Penske Racing at New Hampshire, Rusty Wallace started from the 33rd position and finished in Victory Lane on July 11, 1993. In 55 combined starts at the oval, Penske Racing has notched four wins (Ryan Newman – two, Wallace – one and Kurt Busch – one), six poles, 14 top-five and 28 top-10 finishes. Penske Racing entries have led 859 laps in those races and have completed 95% of all laps contested at New Hampshire.  

Brad Keselowski on his goals for the Chase races
“I don’t have any specific goals for the Chase races that we don’t have any other week. We want to go out and do the best we can and challenge for wins. That doesn’t change because we can’t win the championship. It probably gives us some added incentive to go for wins because we don’t have to worry about points. You do have to be mindful of who you are racing because you don’t want to put yourself in bad spots with a guy in the Chase, but if I have a fast car I’m going to get all the positions I can.”

Brad Keselowski on New Hampshire keeping both of its Cup Series dates in 2011
“I love the fact that New Hampshire is going to have both of its dates next year. It’s one of those tracks we can go to and almost guarantee that it will be sold out. Any place that can do that deserves to have two races a year and deserves to keep them. The racing that we put on at New Hampshire sometimes gets a bad rap, but I think the spring race this year was one of the most-exciting finishes of the year. Last-lap or late-race passes put people in the stands and we had that at Loudon in June.”

Crew chief Jay Guy on preparing for the second race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
“We had a decent run at Richmond last weekend and we’re looking forward to applying some of those same setup ideas this weekend in Loudon. The tracks are really similar, especially the sweeping corners. New Hampshire has a little less banking, which makes it a little harder to pass. But I think we learned a lot from the first New Hampshire race that we can put together with what we learned at Richmond to give Brad a competitive car. He has a very solid Nationwide Series record there so hopefully we can match that this weekend.”