Team Penske soundbites heading into Las Vegas

BRAD KESELOWSKI, NO. 2 MILLER LITE FORD THE TEAM IS OFF TO A STRONG START, HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING TO LAS VEGAS THIS WEEKEND? “Our No. 2 Miller Lite Ford team has come out strong in the first couple of races and I am proud of the effort. Now we just have to get that last little bit in order to win races. We will continue working with winning in mind in order to ensure we position ourselves to be in the new championship playoff format. It’s nice to be sitting second in the points early in the season. The best part is that we’re just getting started.”

PAUL WOLFE, CREW CHIEF NO. 2 MILLER LITE FORD WITH THE BIRTH OF YOUR SON YOU HAVE TAKEN ON A NEW ROLE AS A FATHER. WILL IT BE DIFFICULT TO GO TO LAS VEGAS? “This is a fascinating experience. You see other guys on the team go through it, you hear about the way it impacts people, but until it happens to you – you just don’t truly grasp what it means. Aleah and I are grateful to have a healthy baby. I am really impressed with how strong my wife is – wow – being there with her for the birth was a magical moment. As to leaving this weekend, yeah it will be a little tough, but I am excited to get back to the track and continue to build on the strong start the 2 car has had and work on getting that first win of the season. It’s hard to put all these feelings into words and while all parents have things in common, we all bring our own feelings to the experience. I am very happy and thankful too.”

JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD LAST WEEKEND, YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING FOR THE WIN LATE IN THE RACE. WILL THE NEW POINTS FORMAT CHANGE HOW YOU RUN? “Yes and no. I mean, you are going to take more chances at the end of the race. That is what happened with us last weekend. At the end, I thought I would try and stick it in there three-wide and make a pass for the lead. That is what you have to do to try and win one of these things. We lost a spot because of it, but that’s not a big deal. But you aren’t going to try something if you could lose a bunch of spots, because points are still important. A fourth is still better than a 20th. So it will be a case-by-case thing, but I think you will see a lot more of people ‘going for it’ at the end of races.”

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS OF THE NEW KNOCKOUT QUALIFYING FORMAT LAST WEEKEND? “I think it was a lot of fun. I mean, like anything else, there are some tweaks that you can make and I think that you will see NASCAR make a few over the next couple of weeks. We need to find a better way to help cool the cars down. If you can get the cars cooled down faster, you will see guys making more runs. But it takes 15 minutes or more to get these cars cooled down, so you really can only make one run unless you are on the bubble and you will try and make a second one. But the format and the idea is great and cool for the fans. Thankfully in Phoenix, we laid down a good lap time early and didn’t have to worry about it. I wouldn’t want to be sitting 11th or 12th with a couple of minutes to go, that’s for sure.”