SRT Motorsports - Sprint Cup Advance - Michigan

DODGE AT MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
• Dodge has won nine races at Michigan International Speedway: Charlie Glotzbach, Richard Petty (2), Sterling Marlin, Ryan Newman (2), Jeremy Mayfield, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch. 
• Kurt Busch earned Dodge its last win at MIS at the August event in 2010.  He started 15th and led 36 laps en route to victory. 
• Dodge has six wins at MIS since its return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001.
• Dodge holds the MIS qualifying record of 37.069 seconds, 194.232 mph (Ryan Newman, June 2005).

DODGE NEWS AND NOTES
• Brad Keselowski moved inside the top 10 of the Sprint Cup Series driver point standings for the first time this season after his 16th-place finish at Pocono last weekend.  He’s currently 10th.

FROM THE ENGINEER -
“This week, Michigan International Speedway (MIS) could become the new definition of speed in the Sprint Cup Series. The tire tests on the new surface this spring already produced speeds in excess of 210 mph and there could be even more speed once teams get another crack at the new asphalt this week.  MIS was already the most severe test of engine components in the series.  The never-before seen speeds we'll likely see this week will only heighten the concern that engineers have for key driveline components.  Michigan will be interesting this week, scary for engineers, but interesting for everybody else.”
Howard Comstock, SRT Motorsports Engineering

DODGE QUOTES:
“Whenever you repave a track or drastically make a change of the nature of a repave, it’s going to change the racing and how it works.  You know the question: is it going to be better? Is it going to be worse?  Is it going to be this or is it going to be that?  You know time will tell.  I think the track has a lot of key events that will probably indicate how the Cup race will go.  The Cup race is obviously the Granddaddy race for this racetrack.  There is a Nationwide event and an ARCA event beforehand.  I think that will probably provide the biggest indicator of the quality of racing that we will see come Sunday, but I feel pretty good about it.  I feel like the Nationwide race here is going to be crazy.  That might be one of the best races of the year for any of the series.
Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge

“Michigan has always been a basic, really fast two-mile oval and with the new repaving it will be much faster.  Just how much greater the speeds we will run?  That’s the big question heading there and everyone is curious to find out.  The qualifying record will fall at Michigan on Saturday; that’s pretty much a given.”
A.J. Allmendinger, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge

DID YOU KNOW?
• The Dodge Charger street car is the only rear-wheel-drive model in Sprint Cup Series competition that is available with a V-8 engine.
• SRT Motorsports includes all of Chrysler Group’s NASCAR racing efforts for Dodge and RAM.
• Dodge Motorsports can be followed on Twitter at @teamdodge.
• There will be eight jet dryers available for track drying this weekend at Michigan; it takes approximately 120 minutes to dry the two-mile track after a significant rainfall.
• MIS has named a signature hot dog after Dodge driver A.J. Allmendinger.  Called the ‘Dinger Dog’, it includes spicy chili and jalapenos.

FROM THE CREW CHIEF:
“As far as what I am hearing for the top speeds into the corner at Michigan…215 (mph)…some swore they saw 219 (mph) during the tire test there.  Our team did not participate in the tire test, but our teammates did.  We’ve discussed it a lot with them and the consensus is it’s going to be really fast.  I read where Montoya said he had hit 238 at Michigan during his open-wheel days and that at times during the test, his stock car felt faster.

“From all the information we’ve gathered since the April tire test at Michigan, I’ll not hesitate in saying that I think it’ll take a 36-flat (36.000-second lap) or better to win the pole there on Saturday.  The forecast calls for sunny and 90 degrees there on Saturday and that’ll work to slow the cars down but I predict that it’ll take a 36-flat or better to win the pole there.”
Todd Gordon, crew chief, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
• 5 – Number of cautions in the June event last year.
• 10 – Different winners in the first 14 Sprint Cup races this season.  Only Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart have multiple race wins.
• 16 – Number of Sprint Cup races (19%) that have been won from the pole at MIS – the most of any starting position at the two-mile speedway.
• 80 – Number of cautions in the first 14 races this season including 33 for accidents and 27 for debris.
• 22,000 – Tons of asphalt used to repave MIS earlier this year.

DODGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I think they did a great job repaving that facility.  What I mean by that is they did a great job with their approach which was to pave it in October and give the track a whole winter to cure.  When we got on the race track (for the tire test), there was zero break-in time to the surface which is critical.  When we get there (this week), everyone can just go out there and run.  We saw at Phoenix where they had to rush their repave and in the process, it required some additional steps to make the facility to where you can run without tearing the pavement up.  I think that hurt the racing there.  The track did a great effort of dragging tires and so forth to supplement it, but it took us really until we came back this spring to get the racing as strong as it could be.”
 Brad Keselowski, driver, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger, on the re-pave at Michigan International Speedway

THE DODGE BOYS
• Dodge drivers have 214 wins in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
• Dodge teams have posted 54 victories since the manufacturer’s return to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
• Dodge has posted wins each season since its return in 2001 including seven wins twice (2002 and 2006).

DODGE HISTORICAL DATA
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Lee Petty, 2/1/53, West Palm Beach, Fla., 100 miles, .5-mile track.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Brad Keselowski, 05/06/2012, Aaron’s 499, Talladega Superspeedway, 160.192 mph avg. speed.