SRT Motorsports - Sprint Cup Post-Qualifying Quotes - Pocono

 
Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 25th
“The car was free in the middle of all three corners.  We ran a .30 in the heat of the day yesterday so I thought we’d at least be in the 20s.  It’s not secure enough and will make things hard for us tomorrow.  We’ll do the best we can and figure out how to make it a little better for tomorrow and give ourselves an opportunity to figure out how to pick up some sports.”  
 
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 31st
HOW IS THE OUTLOOK FOR TOMORROW?  “Well, I mean obviously just finished qualifying and didn’t get a very strong qualifying run in but that’s kind of been the story of our season.  Our cars have been very fast in race trim but not in qualifying trim so that’s something that we’re working on and don’t quite have an answer to but we’ll see what we can come up with each and every week trying to get a little smarter on that.  The most important thing is race trim and the speed that you have there and the execution that you have out of your team and certainly the driver and I’m proud of where we’re at in those categories.  So you know I think I’m glad to be back at Pocono like you said for obvious reasons so it’s nice to return to a track where you’ve had success, just makes you feel even that much better about the outlook for the weekend.  Like I said we’ve got some speed in race trim so just have to stay patient and find our way up to the front towards the end when it counts.”

FIVE WEEKS AGO YOU RACED HERE.  OFTEN IN THE PAST WHEN PEOPLE LEFT HERE THEY WEREN’T REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO COMING BACK.  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT THIS YEAR?  “Yeah I think it’s the history of my team to where we always get better towards the second time where we go to tracks.  I don’t think this weekend will be any exception.  You know we had a decent run coming together the last time we were here with the new pavement and had some electronics issues that caught us behind and we just never got a shot to fully recover from that.  I think you know all things being even and not having those issues we could have had a top-five, top-10 day and I think we’re even more competitive this time around so you know for those reasons I always look forward to coming back to tracks in the summer stretch.”

REGARDING ELECTRONICS ISSUES, DO YOU MEAN PIT ROAD?  “No, no we had issues with something in the ignition system.”

YOU ALSO HAD SOME ISSUES ON PIT ROAD.  ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THOSE?  IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WILL DO DIFFERENTLY THIS WEEKEND AS OPPOSED TO WHEN YOU WERE FIRST HERE TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DON’T GET CAUGHT FOR SPEEDING?  “Well you’re concerned about getting busted on pit road every week.  I joke with my spotter that the first 30 seconds off of pit road I feel like I don’t breathe because you know you’re worried that he’s going to come over the radio and say you have some kind of penalty.  You know that’s every week that you’re concerned about it if you’re doing it right.  Certainly the last time we were here there were some issues that seemed to be in a much higher volume and that would lead to your suspicion that there was something tricky going on.  It’s my job to find a way around it and I didn’t do that the last time we were here.  Hopefully I will this time.”

CAN YOU REFLECT A LITTLE BIT ON THE LAST 365 DAYS?  THIS TIME LAST YEAR YOU HAD THE BAD ANKLE AND THEN YOU WON THE RACE.  “Well it’s certainly been a good run.  I’m not really all that good about reflecting back on things like that.  I think it’s probably more my mentality to look forward as to where our program is heading and you know I just always feel like there’s not a lot to be achieved by looking backwards, at least not to your own history.  You’re going to repeat some of the mistakes but I mean obviously that’s not something we’re planning on doing.  When it comes to success, looking back it’s usually not very helpful.  But I’m happy to be where I’m at.  I’m part of a competitive team.  I enjoy going to the racetrack and before that stretch I can’t say that was the case but now it is so things are good.  It’s a good time in my life.” 

WHEN JIMMIE JOHNSON WAS IN HERE YESTERDAY HE WAS PRETTY CONFIDENT THAT A LOT OF WHAT WORKED AT INDIANAPOLIS WOULD TRANSFER TO TOMORROW.  CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK THEY WERE ABLE TO DO AT INDY?  “They’ve got their cars to the next level.  I felt like we were all on a pretty even playing field for most of the spring and summer stretch and I think the results indicated that where you saw multiple teams with three wins or two wins or one win.  We saw a lot of parity in the series.  You know if what we saw at Indy continues along I think that parity will cease and desist.  We’ve all got to keep working to try to catch back up to how they’ve moved the ball forward and I think they deserve credit for it.  It’s a smart group of people over there so the onus is on us to evolve our cars to the next level to not just catch them but to get back in front of them and I think my team is very committed to that.  But the success of you know the other competitors in the garage of doing that is really going to dictate how the Chase plays out, not just this race but how the Chase and future of the season plays out.”

NOW THAT A.J.’S SITUATION IS RESOLVED, HOW MUCH OF A ROLE WILL YOU HAVE OR ARE YOU INTERESTED IN HAVING IN DETERMINING WHO IS GOING TO BE YOUR FULL-TIME TEAMMATE NEXT SEASON?  HAVE YOU EXPRESSED ANY PREFERECES TO ROGER PENSKE?  “Well it’s certainly something that I’ve thought about and you know I’ve told Roger from day one when I came to Penske Racing I didn’t want to just be a driver.  I wanted to be part of a team and part of making Penske Racing as strong as possible.  Certainly the strength of your teammate plays into that and I think that Kurt (Busch) and I last year had a great relationship that showed on track results.  There’s a lot of times where I look back at him and think of what a good pairing we were together and wished that some things would have worked out a little bit differently but that, again, is the past and you know things are where they are.  Along those lines that was just starting to develop with A.J.  Only time would tell how successful we would have been together but again that’s a road past.  Now the key is looking forward trying to find another situation like what we had with Kurt that led to two very successful teams.  Something that I’m very proud of was that Penske Racing was the only company in the sport that was able to get all their cars in the Chase and I think that was a product of our relationship.  You know I hope that we can secure a teammate that is of an elite talent that I can work with and certainly some of that responsibility is mine to communicate that and I think that’s something that Mr. Penske takes very seriously.  There’s no guarantee of that but I know that he’s on my side and I’m on his and if we all got each other’s backs it’ll work out.  It’s something we’ve discussed but I can’t tell you that we’ve come up with an answer.”
 
YOU DID THE MICHIGAN TIRE TEST BACK IN APRIL AND AFTER THAT IT SOUNDED LIKE EVERYTHING WAS GOING TO BE FINE.  AFTER THIS WEEK’S TEST WE HEAR EVERYTHING SHOULD BE FINE.  WHAT GIVES US MORE CONFIDENCE THAT THIS TIME IT’S FINE?  “That’s a very good question because going back to the evolution of the sport you never know how it’s going to evolve.  From the time we went there in April to the time we came back in June I believe it was the sport evolved and we weren’t able to keep up with it.  So it could evolve again in the next two weeks, three weeks.  That’s certainly something that’s possible to where it doesn’t work but all the trends look good and that’s really all you have to go off of.  I wish there was a more scientific approach to that situation but obviously there’s not.” 

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR MINDSET OVER THE NEXT SIX RACES BEFORE THE CHASE?  “Well I don’t see where anyone within the top 10 it matters.  The only thing that matters is how many wins you have and your gap back to 11th and our gap back to 11th is more secure than it’s ever been and our wins are right there with everyone else that’s at the top level.  So whether I was sitting 10th or first that’s all that matters; even sitting first means nothing.  So that’s where our focus has been and will continue to be throughout what I’ll call our regular season or pre-Chase and once it gets to the Chase then those numbers matter.  Until then I think they’re insignificant and you know I’m not concerned about those things.  The only thing I really am concerned about now is winning a race and winning another race and then another race.  That’s what drives me before the Chase starts.” 

HAS JIMMIE JOHNSON AND HIS TEAM FIGURED OUT SOMETHING MECHANICALLY THAT’S PUT EVERYBODY ELSE KIND OF CHASING THEM NOW?  “They’ve evolved their cars, certainly, and the onus us to keep up.  And to go back to what I said earlier that you know I think there was a lot of parity earlier in the season where from what I saw last weekend that disappeared.  We’ve got to evolve if we’re going to have a shot at having the same speed they have in the Chase.  There’s more to winning races than just speed.  I think those that have been here for a while know that.  You still have to execute your weekend, make smart decisions inside the car and behind the pit box, etc.  Reliability is always a concern as well.  I think we’ve seen that this year perhaps more so than ever as far as my time in the sport is concerned.  So those are things that you have to do right.  I always look at speed as being the foundation for any team’s success and you know right now they’re at an A and the rest of us are a Bs and Cs.  We’ve got to step it up.” 
 

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