Keselowski and Hornish have long day at Kansas

Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished Eighth

WHAT WAS THAT RACE LIKE TODAY? “I don’t even know how to explain it. I’m ready to go home and have a couple beers. It’s just a long day. Everybody has been asking all season long where have all the cautions been? The answer is that they flew to Kansas because there was caution after caution and it seemed like every wreck today seemed to happen in front of me. I’m glad to survive the carnage and brought back a decent car, the Miller Lite Dodge, in OK shape and dodged a bullet. That’s the only way that I can describe it. Whew! Just a tough day.”

Brad Keselowski, Penske Racing Dodge

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

YOU SAID THIS WAS GOING TO BE THE TOUGHEST RACE IN THE CHASE AND YOU SURVIVED: “Yeah. I feel like surviving Talladega right here. I said when we finished Talladega that somebody should make, ‘I Survived Talladega’ t-shirts. Well, I didn’t know coming to Kansas it was going to be the same. Just wrecks and accidents and blown tires, everything you can imagine happened today. I felt really lucky to survive it.”

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK TODAY? “I don’t think that it’s fair to blame one thing, whether it’s the track, or the driver, or the tire. It’s a combination of a car that’s really heavy and fast that requires a tire that’s really hard with poor grip and is at the limit of blowing out. You combine all those factors and it puts the drivers in a position to where we have to make risky and dumb moves, that’s cool. Some people would say that’s good, some would say it’s bad. And then, it also creates some of the blown tires as well. It’s just a combination of things. Cup cars in general, right now, have never been tougher to driver and these cars just drove really badly today. Some people would say that’s a good thing, some would say it’s a bad thing. Obviously, with the points lead, it’s a good thing. Either way, I’m glad to survive it.”

IS IT A FOUR-MAN BATTLE WITH FOUR RACES LEFT? “It looked like Kasey (Kahne) might have closed in a little bit. Every point counts.”

WHAT WHERE YOUR THOUGHTS WHEN YOU SAW THE 48 RIGHT BEHIND YOU? “I thought they did a hell of a job fixing that car is what I was thinking. They were coming.”

HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS YOUR DAY TODAY? “Long. Just a long day. Eventful. Proud to come away with something.”

FOUR TO GO AND YOU’RE STILL THE CHAMPIONSHIP LEADER: “I see it coming all the way down to Homestead. It will be decided there. I’m happy with the season that we’ve had so far and the position that we’re in. It’s going to come down to the last race, that’s pretty obvious after today.”

Paul Wolfe (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T)

HOW DIFFICULT WAS STRATEGY TODAY WITH ALL THOSE CAUTIONS? “In a lot of ways, it actually makes it a little easier because there wasn’t a fuel strategy that came into effect because of all the cautions. Everybody was able to make it on fuel. It’s just an OK day for us. It was hard to overcome 25th (Keselowski qualified 25th) at a repaved track where it’s one lane. That’s that biggest thing that we fought today, where we started. We’re going to have to figure that out to win this championship.”

RESTARTS WERE REALLY TOUGH TODAY. ANYTHING YOU TOLD BRAD DURING THE RACE TO HELP GET HIM THROUGH RESTARTS? “Just do your thing. He’s really good on restarts. He’s smart and kept the Miller Lite Dodge out of trouble all day. He never put himself in a position, except when the 18 and 39 spun in front on him, where he was in a bad spot. We saw some really good cars just lose it on their own today. It got to a point in the race where he wasn’t going to be one of those guys today. He drove hard. He wasn’t going to make it a worse day than it could have been. We’ll take an eighth-place finish, be happy with the points that we got and head to Martinsville.”

Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 26th

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY? “I got spun by the 78 and tried to make it one more lap to get a yellow flag. We had a pretty good car today. It’s all about track position. We just couldn’t get the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge where we wanted it to be. I begged them to try and get us some track position; it’s unfortunate.”

HOW WAS THE RACING? “We had more yellows today than the rest of the year combined (laughs). It’s been pretty tough today. Everyone knows that they have to get everything they can on the restarts because it’s so hard to pass once everyone gets strung out. Everybody is trying to take advantage of each other and you get lots of yellows when that happens.”

KYLE BUSCH SAID THAT THE DRIVERS WERE BEING IMPATIENT TODAY. WOULD YOU AGREE? “I was trying to be real impatient. I restarted ninth and I was just trying to hold my own. I think we fell back to 18th and then once we got some green flag runs, we got back up to ninth. I didn’t need two laps of green, 10 laps of yellow, two laps of green. We had a really good car over the long run. Obviously, it’s impatience when you’re trying to push hard in one lap or when the green flag comes out (after a caution). I know they’re trying to do their best to make the track better, to make it more exciting for the fans. It’s tough racing out there today.”

Source; SRT Motorsports