Photo Credit: Noel Lanier/OnPitRoad.com
Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
CampingWorld.com 500 Advance – Talladega Superspeedway
Friday, October 23, 2015
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Fusion, came into this event last year needing a win in order to advance to the Eliminator Round, and he got it. This season, he finds himself seventh in a crowded field of drivers looking to be one of the eight who advance next week at Martinsville. Keselowski spoke about his situation and other issues around this weekend’s event before today’s practice.
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH TO SUNDAY’S RACE? “First off, glad to be here at Talladega. I haven’t done one of these in a little while. I need to make it a point to do a few more, but it’s certainly a huge weekend – not just for my team but for the sport with the last race of this bracket. What’s the name of this bracket? Contender bracket, ok. So we’re in a decent position, not quite as hectic as last season, but certainly not perfect either by any means. It should be interesting to see how it all unfolds. We know we need to have a very strong day to be able to get to the next round, but the interesting thing is there’s only one car out of the 12 in this bracket that doesn’t feel that way, so that should be very exciting when it come crunch time at the end of this race, especially if something is to happen early in the race and someone gets damaged or eliminated with a wreck. As far as an approach, people ask me that all the time when I come to Talladega and kind of always reminds me, I think it was Mike Tyson who used to say that everybody has a plan until they get in the ring. Well, Talladega is the same way. Everybody has a plan here, or an approach, until they drop the green and then it usually doesn’t work. We’ve had some really good approaches here in the past that have worked, but we’ll just have to see. I’m not really all that interested in sharing what my plan is now, but hopefully it’ll play out.”
WHEN IS BLOCKING ALLOWED OR NOT ALLOWED? “I haven’t seen a rule in the rulebook yet against blocking, so I’m gonna say it’s always allowed. And then you might get into some other garbage about driver codes, but I’ve never seen a rule against blocking – not one that’s been enforced – so that’s the first answer. What was the second.”
IS IT DIFFERENT AT A RESTRICTOR PLATE RACE? “What makes it different? This year we’re running restrictor plates everywhere and sometimes it does feel like Atlanta is a little more similar to Talladega than what it ever used to be, but there’s still a very, very big gap. Anytime you have to lift in the corner it completely changes the type of racing. Here and Daytona we don’t have to lift, so that really downplays handling and up plays strategy and tactics. It’s still quite a bit different. What was the third?
DOES THE CHASE ADD ANOTHER ELEMENT TO IT? “Absolutely. I think you’re looking at this weekend and there are certainly gonna be some people that race scared and racing scared, to me, means sometimes you race not to win, but to not lose as far as the points are concerned. At Talladega, that is a big effect on the strategy and the way the race plays out. I think we’ve seen races here, in fact the last spring race, we saw that where the race stayed single-file for a long, long time, which, to me, is kind of somewhat a showing of racing scared, where you’re happy with where you’re running and you don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that so you stay in line. The tactics certainly change when the circumstances around them change, and the Chase is certainly a change from a normal race weekend.”
DOES THE ONE ATTEMPT AT A GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED RESTART MAKE THE STAKES EVEN HIGHER NOW? “Initially, when I heard there was gonna be one attempt at a green-white-checkered I thought it was a big deal and then I read somebody’s stat that they posted that there’s only been one multiple green-white-checkered on a plate track in like 15 races, so odds are it’s not gonna make a big difference at all. Usually, if there’s a wreck it happens on the last lap, not on the one-to-go lap or two-to-go lap, so it probably won’t make a difference.”
DO YOU THINK THERE SHOULD ONLY BE ONE GREEN-WHITE-CHECKER ATTEMPT AT ALL THE PLATE RACES? “Yeah, I’m good with it. The hard part for me is when you let the cat out of the bag and you do three attempts, it’s hard to go back. I think some would say that’s part of the value proposition for our sport for some of the partners and stakeholders or fans, so it’s hard to put the lid back on that, put the cat back in the bag, whatever metaphor you want to use, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I support it, but I guess it would really depend on what the fans think at the end of the day, but I doubt there will be any meaningful impact.”
WILL GUYS RACE ANY DIFFERENTLY THIS WEEKEND BASED ON DILLON’S ACCIDENT HERE THE LAST TIME OR WILL THE SAME WAY AND HOPE SOMETHING LIKE THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN? “Everybody is gonna do the same. I don’t think Austin’s accident is gonna change the racing one bit. That’s my personal opinion. We’re race car drivers. We’re here to win and that’s the risk we sign up for, at least in my eyes.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT OWNERSHIP IN THE TRUCK SERIES AND THE ISSUE WITH TRYING TO MAINTAIN SPONSORSHIP? “This sport is in somewhat of an awkward position as it comes to funding. The problem in my opinion that you see with that is this sport has essentially from a funding standpoint relied so long on millionaires that were not afraid to lose money and not necessarily on a viable business model and so owners that aren’t afraid to lose money have come in time over time into the second and third tier, put a lot of money in, lasted 5-10 years, maybe less, lost a lot of money and walked away. In doing so, they’ve upped the cost for the people that plan on sustaining a position in this sport. They’ve upped it in the sense of what you have to do to be competitive. I feel like I could probably operate my truck team at maybe 60 or 70 percent of the budget we spend right now, and in that case it would be a lot closer or easier to break even than what it is right now, but in doing so we wouldn’t be competitive, we wouldn’t be professional compared to the other teams around us with those that are willing to take a financial loss, and I would lose my interest without being competitive or professional. So that’s the difficult position I see in the second and third tier series. It’s certainly different than the Cup level, but it is what it is. I know what I signed up for, so I don’t have anything to complain about. I know I was quite happy to hear Dale with that piece you talked about with Josh Berry be so open and forthcoming because I think he has one of the strongest voices in the garage. When anyone else says it, they’re whining. When Dale Jr. says it, it’s gospel. So I was really proud of him for that, but it’s a tough position. I always try to frame it in this sense at the end of the day. As a person, a professional involved in motorsports I’m not really, besides providing entertainment, we’re not really providing anything for the community, so in that sense it shouldn’t be easy. This should be tough. It should be very difficult to sustain yourself in this sport and the bottom half should continue to show turnover, and so it’s our challenge to stay out of that bottom half. But there’s like a knowledge that I have in my mind that there’s always gonna be turnover in this sport and there should be because this is not curing cancer, this is motorsports. It should be very hard to be a part of the game, and in some sense I feel very strongly that there should be no free rides for those that don’t perform.”
IN THE LAST 5 TALLADEGA RACES MORE THAN 60 PERCENT OF THE INCIDENTS INVOLVING MULTIPLE CARS HAVE STARTED IN THE TOP 10. WHY? “I’d say the racing is probably the most chaotic at that particular range – around 10th place. Beyond that, why do we all wreck around the top 10? I guess probably because you have to make riskier moves to get to the front, and I wouldn’t necessarily say a wreck in the top 10 is from bad driving. Everything we do here is a risk vs. reward proposition and the odds aren’t in your favor. Eventually, you’re gonna wreck. You’re relying on others to give while you’re taking and sometimes people are just tired of giving.”
WHAT EMOTIONS DO YOU HAVE SEEING THE SUCCESS JOEY IS HAVING WHILE YOU HAVE SEEMINGLY BEEN A BIT BEHIND? IS IT ENCOURAGING, FRUSTRATING? HOW DO YOU LOOK AT IT? “I’m extremely encouraged for Joey. Joey is having, really by every other season’s measurement other than this format, a championship year. I’m proud of that. He’s one of the closest friends I have in the garage for a lot of different reasons, and so I don’t take anything negative from it. I’m excited. It’s encouraging for me in the sense that we know we have the same potential that we just have to find it. I think our teams operate quite a bit differently and I would say it’s probably encouraging for my team to try new things and to be better and expand. So I don’t take any negative from it. I’m certainly not happy to not be winning as much as he is, but that’s not a negative connotation. I think it’s an opportunity more so than anything else.”
IS IT FRUSTRATING YOU SEE HIS SUCCESS AND YOU’RE NOT ABLE TO ATTAIN THAT? “No, it’s not frustrating for me. I’m happy for Joey and his success, so I’m not discouraged by it. I feel like this sport cycles. I felt like last year up until we had the issue at Martinsville we had six wins, we had the most wins of anyone last year, and I felt my cars were probably some of the best in the garage, if not the best, and the last few weeks we haven’t showcased that. But I know it can cycle. It could cycle in the next three weeks. I really feel like for our team that if we can get through this weekend, that we’ll go all the way to Homestead. I look at Martinsville as one of our tracks where we were really strong in the spring and I feel like we’ve put a lot of emphasis on that program, along with Phoenix where we went and tested and were blazing fast. And at Texas, where we’ve had a good run almost every year and done everything to not win the race, but be right up there. So from that standpoint, I would say in order for us to win Homestead, if we make it that far, we need to be faster, but, again, this sport is about cycles and four weeks from now is a pretty extensive time period to hit a cycle, and I’m hopeful and positive that we can.”
WOULD JOEY BE ABLE TO HELP YOU IN THIS RACE AND WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS RACE? DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT A LOT? “Yes, definitely a teammate can help you. I feel like I wouldn’t have won this race last year without Joey. We were running first, second or third with 20 or 30 to go. We pitted and there was a yellow right in the middle of the pit cycle and I think we cycled out to 20th, which was kind of the story of us on plate tracks last year. Joey and I worked together and got up to the lead, so I feel like we can do that again, if need be, so I’m very optimistic about that, along with my teammate Ryan Blaney. I feel like I kind of owe both of them a lot of credit for winning this race last fall, so I would expect that we’ll work together in some way. I would expect that a lot of other teammates will too, and we’ll just have to be better.”
WHAT ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE RACE? “Of course you always think about it, but kind of like I was saying earlier, you can come here with a plan or approach and when they drop the green a lot of times it goes out the window. My first real thought is, ‘Don’t wreck.’ And if we can get through this race without wrecking, we’ll have a really good day.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO WIN THE TRUCK SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP AS AN OWNER? “This has been, I think first and foremost like you were saying, the best year that we’ve ever had with the truck team, and the best year we’ve ever had with results on the track, the best year we’ve ever had with the people working there and the culture, and really the best year we’ve ever had in every form that you could probably measure a team – some tangible, some not. So I’m really happy about that. We’ve got a lot of positive things going on and really positive plans for the future. As far as what it would mean to win a championship, I think we have the right people in place right now to do it. I’ve been a part of the Truck Series with my family since its inception, where I think we’ve made two or three runs at a championship and each time came up second or third, which has been really frustrating for our family, but I think in a lot of ways it would fulfill a legacy that my family has had in this sport for a very long time. I think it’s important to note that when I first came to this sport I never dreamed of winning a Cup championship, I never dreamed of really even winning an XFINITY championship. And the opportunity fell in my lap to drive for Dale, and the opportunity fell in my lap to drive for Roger and the next thing I knew I had championships in both levels and you kind of look back in the mirror and say, ‘All I was trying to do was win a truck championship, and now I’ve got these other two. This is great.’ We’re way more than I ever dreamed of, but that’s all well and fine. I’m very proud of those accomplishments, but I still want to do what I’ve dreamed of since a little kid and joining this sport, which is being a part of a championship-winning truck team and I haven’t done that. I’ve been really close and that opportunity is as close, if not closer, than it’s ever been, so we’d like to seize the opportunity.”
