News

Brad Keselowski
No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
Samsung Mobile 500
Texas Motor Speedway
April 9, 2011

No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger News and Notes
• This Week’s Charger… The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team will use chassis PRS-745 during Sunday’s Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Keselowski drove this chassis to a 26th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last month.
• No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge in 2011... After six events, Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team sit 25th in the Cup Series driver and owner point standings. The team is coming off a 19th-place finish in the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
• Keselowski NASCAR History at Texas Motor Speedway… In addition to his five career Cup Series starts at TMS, Keselowski has made nine career NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) starts at the 1.5-mile oval. He has recorded top-five finishes in his last four NNS starts at the track, including a third-place result behind the wheel of the No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge in the 2010 fall race that clinched the NNS championship for the team. 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.
• Have at it, Brad… The featured tag line on the rear bumper of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge this weekend in Fontana is “Have at it, Brad.” Keselowski has embodied NASCAR’s “Have at it, Boys” mantra.
• 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 in that race.
• Follow Brad 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. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team.
• The Rest is History... Penske Racing made its first Cup Series start at TMS at the track’s inaugural event in 1997. In 48 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, 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 start to the season with the “Blue Deuce” team
“I couldn’t have asked for anything more from Miller Lite to start the season, and really to start the relationship. They really keep us engaged with the fans and I enjoy that. We’ve had several fast race cars throughout the first six races of the season, but we just haven’t capitalized on them because we are not catching any breaks. Bristol and Martinsville were two tracks where I thought we could run up front – and we had the cars to do it – but circumstances just didn’t go our way. Everyone on this team has remained positive and if we continue to put in the effort, I’m confident we’ll begin to see it in our results.”

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, but yet, still have the flexibility to run various lines through the corners. I feel like we have made significant improvements to this package over the last few weeks. We spent the first two days of this week testing so hopefully some of that information will transfer. 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.”