News

Brad Keselowski
No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger
Sylvania 300
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
September 25, 2011
TV: ESPN at 2:00 PM   Radio: MRN/Sirius Channel 90 at 1:00 PM

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-761 during Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS). This is a new chassis to the No. 2 fleet.
• No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge in 2011... After 28 points-paying events, Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger team are tied for sixth with Ryan Newman in the 2011 Chase for the Championship standings. Keselowski sits just 14 points from the lead following a fifth-place finish in the Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Monday.
• One Year Ago… Keselowski picked up his first career NSCS pole award in the 2010 edition of the Sylvania 300 at NHMS. He has since scored a second pole award, which came in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway this May. 
• Driver Turned Crew Chief…  Crew chief Paul Wolfe has an extensive driving history at NHMS. The 34-year-old has one career start in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at the venue, along with 11 starts in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (KNPSE) competition. In those 11 KNPSE starts, Wolfe accumulated four top-five finishes, six top-10 results and 137 laps led.
• Wicked Great Taste… The featured tag line on the bumper of the “Blue Deuce” this weekend at New Hampshire will be “Wicked Great Taste.” Wicked is a commonly used adjective in New England as an extreme variation of the word “very.” In this case it is used to describe the award-winning taste of Miller Lite.
• Have a Beer with Brad… Keselowski will make an appearance at Shooter’s located at 190 State Route 3 in Belmont, N.H. beginning at 6:30 PM on Friday, September 23.
• The Rest is History... In the first-ever race for Penske Racing at New Hampshire, Rusty Wallace started from the 33rd position and finished in Victory Lane on July 11, 1993. In 60 combined starts at the oval, Penske Racing has notched four wins (Ryan Newman – two, Wallace – one and Kurt Busch – one), seven poles, 14 top-five and 29 top-10 finishes. Penske Racing entries have led 927 laps in those races.  

Brad Keselowski on racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
“It’s always a lot of fun when we go up to Loudon to race. The fans really love what we do and they show it by filling the stands. It’s one of those tracks we can go to and almost guarantee that it will be sold out. The racing that we put on at New Hampshire sometimes gets a bad rap, but I think it has produced some of the most-exciting finishes over the last few years. It’s a one mile track, but it races like a short track. There is a lot of beating and banging and bumping and running – all of the things that the fans love.”

Brad Keselowski on his solid start to the 2011 Chase for the Championship
“In my mind Chicago was one of the weaker tracks for us in the Chase. To come out of there with a fifth-place finish was exactly what we needed to do. There are a lot of guys in the Chase that can’t say the same thing. Now we go to a portion in the schedule where I think we can really do some damage, starting this weekend in Loudon. Thinking back to the spring race, that was a race we’d all like to have back. That 35th-place finish hurt our chances of getting into the top-10 and being able to use our bonus points. We had a good car then and I have no reason to think we haven’t gotten better.”

Crew chief Paul Wolfe on this weekend’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
“Loudon is a unique racetrack. It has aspects of both Richmond and Phoenix all rolled into one. We work really hard to get the car to turn the center (of the corners) and maintain forward drive for late into a run. It’s a very flat layout, which presents a lot of different challenges. With no banking to catch the car, it can be very hard on brakes because the straightaways are long and you can build up a lot of speed before you get to the corner. It is so hard to pass, you really need the complete package to win there – good brakes, handling and pit stops.”