News

Brad Keselowski
No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger
AAA Texas 500
Texas Motor Speedway
November 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-720 during Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). Keselowski drove this chassis to a 19th-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in August
• No. 12 Penske Dodge in 2010... After 33 events, Keselowski and the No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger team currently sit 25th in the Cup Series driver and owner point standings.
• 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 driver 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.
• Keselowski NASCAR History at Texas Motor Speedway… In addition to his four career Cup Series starts at TMS, Keselowski has made eight career NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) starts at the 1.5-mile oval. He has recorded top-five finishes in his last three starts at the track, including a fourth-place result behind the wheel of the No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Charger in the spring NNS race. Keselowski has also made three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts at TMS, with his best finish of 20th coming in 2005 while driving his family-owned entry.
• Riding a Wave of Momentum… Keselowski and the No. 12 Penske Dodge team head into this weekend’s race at TMS on the heels of two consecutive top-10 finishes, the first two top-10s of the season for the first-year Penske Racing driver. It marks the first time the Penske Racing No. 12 entry has recorded consecutive top-10 finishes since the spring races at Talladega Superspeedway and Richmond International Raceway in 2008.
• The Rest is History... Penske Racing made its first Cup Series start at TMS in the track’s inaugural event in 1997. In 45 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 this weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway
“Texas really is a unique racetrack, a unique layout. From above it looks like any normal 1.5-mile track, but the transitions into and off 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, 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.”

Crew chief Jay Guy on the team’s momentum heading into Texas Motor Speedway
“We’re really starting to pick up some momentum with the No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger. We’ve known all year long that we could run up front and top-10 finishes in the last two races have validated that thinking. Everyone on this team has continued to work hard to give us something to build on for 2011. Now we just need to continue that this weekend at Texas, a track with a lot of unique characteristics. It 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, but yet, still have the flexibility to run various lines through the corners.”