SRT Motorsports Dodge drivers have tough Phoenix 200

Brad Keselowski (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger) Finished 9th

WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT WILL HELP YOU TOMORROW? “Well, you know, this track, it changes a lot as you run and as the sun sets so all kinds of things to learn about that. Track position is just so important and certainly got a heavy dose of that today.”

Brad Keselowski

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT RESTART WHERE YOU FELL BACK? “I think it was the 18 car (Joey Logano) and he just beat me. He was just faster.”

WAS THIS RACE TODAY PRODUCTIVE? DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FOR TOMORROW? “Well you’re always learning. If you’re not learning you’re not paying enough attention.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF YOUR CUP CAR TODAY IN PRACTICE? DID YOU FIND SOME OF THE SPEED THAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR? “I think it’s pretty good. I’d like to be a touch faster but it’s pretty good and I feel like we can have a solid day tomorrow.”

Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger) Finished 14th

YOU WERE IN CONTENTION FOR A TOP 10 UNTIL YOU SPUN LATE IN THE RACE. WHAT HAPPENED? “The 54 (Kyle Busch), I don’t know if he got loose or what happened, but he hit us in the left-rear and turned us around. The positive out of it was that he hit me hard enough that it just spun us. I never had any time to catch it. Other than we got a little bit of damage from the tire being flattened and lost a lap and didn’t get back on the lead lap until 20 to go. That was the tough part about it for us. I thought that we were really, really good yesterday and I was kind of talked into some changes on it for today and it wasn’t very good. I had some real good restarts that helped us to gain four or five spots. I don’t know if that was what was wrong with the 54 because he was mad that he got passed on the restart or what. The Alliance Truck Parts Dodge Challenger was a little bit of handful at times and it was pretty good at times. We never got the consistency where we needed it. We’ll just go into Homestead and see what we can do there. We’re proud of all the work the guys put into it. We just need to be better.”

Jeremy Bullins (Crew Chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger)

YOUR DAY WAS LOOKING GOOD UNTIL THAT RESTART WHERE YOU FELL BACK. “It certainly had the potential to be really good. Obviously that restart didn’t go our way and we just battled to come back from there. At least we got a top 10 out of it. We had a good car, just one of those days where we didn’t get everything out of it.”

ANY IDEA WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT RESTART? “To be honest, no; Brad and I haven’t had a chance to talk yet. We’ll figure it out and be better for it.”

IT SEEMED LIKE IF YOU GOT OUT OF THE MAIN GROOVE TODAY YOU MIGHT BE IN TROUBLE. “That’s exactly right. It’s maybe a groove and a half race track and outside of that groove there’s not a lot of grip. This tire is not very forgiving once you get outside that groove so I’m sure that’s part of it.”

YOUR PIT CREW APPEARED TO HAVE A GOOD DAY. “Great day by the pit crew. We had a strategy going in and executed it and I believe we at least held out on and picked up spots every stop. They did a great job today.”

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