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Brad
Keselowski Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Samson
Stone Ford F-150
O’Reilly
200
Started
22nd
Finished
14th
Points’
Position 20th
KESELOWSKI
KEEPS HIS COOL AT
Hot
does not even begin to describe conditions at the
Keselowski
fought his No, 29 Samson Stone Ford known as Super Droop, early in the event as
he did not feel like the truck would turn as well in the center of the corner as
it was during the earlier practice sessions. But as the cautions flew
during the course of the event, Keselowski was able to come to the attention of
his pit crew for wedge adjustments which would pay off toward the end of the
event. With only ten laps remaining, Keselowski’s truck would take to
the adjustments allowing him to run some of the fastest lap times of the 200-lap
event.
A
late race caution would fly setting up the field for a green-white-checker
finish with the 21-year old Keselowski in the 17th position with one of the
fastest trucks in the field based on lap times. As the field came to the
white flag, Keselowski had battled to the inside lane of veteran driver, Jimmy
Spencer when both trucks headed for the same piece of race track in turn three
sending Spencer spinning into a cloud of smoke. Keselowski was able to
maintain his position and make two additional passes on the final lap to bring
his truck home in the 14th position.
“For
as long of a day as Memphis felt like because of the extreme heat,” said
Keselowski, “I would have liked about 25 more laps in the race. Our
truck finally responded well with ten laps to go and that was just not enough
time to get to where we could have been in the field. I think we could
have made it into the top ten with about 20 more laps. But the heat was
pretty intense out here all day, but it didn’t really get to me until the red
flag in the race when we were just sitting there. The track workers were
great though because they brought all the drivers water, ice packs and cold
towels which was a really big help.”
“There
at the end of the race I was going for a position on the inside of Spencer and
we were racing hard coming to the white flag,” said Keselowski. “I had
the inside line and when he went for the same piece of real estate, we just got
together. It was certainly nothing intentional, just hard racing on the
last lap.”
Keselowski
moved into the 20th position in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship
points and now sits only 11 points from 19th position and 78 points away from
18th position. The series will have the next weekend off before tackling
the half-mile of
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Lisa
Hughes Kennedy
LM
Motorsports Marketing
(704)
500-9504 mobile
(704)
799-3195 office
LKennedy@LMMotorsportsmarketing.com
Keselowski Looking to Continue Solid Points’ Finishes at Memphis: Brad Keselowski is looking to continue his climb in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points this weekend as the series heads to the short track of Memphis Motorsports Park. The 21-year old Keselowski has been working hard to claw his way back into the top-20 in series points since dropping from 20th back to 24th following an engine failure at the Michigan event a month ago.
“It is amazing just how competitive this NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is just by making the statement that we are trying hard to work back into the top-20 in series points,” said Keselowski. “Years ago it was nothing to be within the top-20 and now there are well-funded teams that are struggling to stay within the top-30. We were really making some solid progress before the Michigan event, but that one really hurt us and forced us to make up more ground. But we have made great attempts to lead some laps and finish within the top-20 or top-15 each weekend and that has helped to get us back within striking range of that top-20 in points.”
While Keselowski has had only one start at the three-quarter mile Memphis Motorsports Park, his K Automotive team has made seven starts at the track with much success including three top-five finishes and four top-tens. Keselowski hopes that his newly-skinned short track truck will help him to his second top ten finish of the 2005 season.
“Unfortunately I did not have the luck at Memphis that our team has had here in the past,” said Keselowski. “We were pretty good in practice last season, but we lost the rear end early in the event and that parked us for the remainder of the race. But we have spent a lot of time working on the body of this short track piece and I think we have a good shot at another solid finish with our Samson Stone Ford. This is the same truck that we ran really well with at Mansfield earlier this season and as long as we can avoid the obvious short track issues I think we will be able to leave Memphis in the top-20 in series points.”
The K Automotive team celebrated their 250th start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series two weeks ago at the Kentucky Speedway before the series enjoyed a much needed weekend off in preparation for this weekend’s Memphis event. However team owners, Bob and Kay Keselowski had anything but off time as they attended an ARCA Re/Max Series event with son, Brian Keselowski, at the short track of Berlin Raceway in Michigan. Brian qualified his car in the 11th position, ran in the top five for much of the evening and finished in the ninth position scoring his second top ten finish in a row in the series.
Keselowski currently sits only three points away from the 20th position in series points and 15 points away from the 19th position in series points. The O’Reilly 200 will take the green flag on Saturday, July 23 at 8:00pm ET and can be seen live on Speed Channel.
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Lisa Hughes Kennedy
LM Motorsports Marketing
(704) 799-3195 office
(704) 500-9504 mobile