BRAD KESELOWSKIJEREMY BULLINS
THE MODERATOR: We're joined in the media center by race winner Brad Keselowski. This is his third victory of the season. He's the driver of the No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge, and he's the winner of the inaugural Indiana 250 here at the Brickyard. Talk about that win and just being a part of the first victory here. BRAD KESELOWSKI: Just a special day. The Brickyard means so much to all of us as race car drivers and to the sport in general, and it transcends three different forms of auto racing, whether it's IndyCar in the United States, F1 and their history here, and then obviously with stock cars and their initial time here to the current date, from '94 on, it transcends into a special victory or a special place to race I should probably say. I'm glad to be some small part of that with winning the inaugural Nationwide race here and hope I can be a big part of that history by being able to win tomorrow and pull off a double. That would be extremely special to me, and I would really enjoy that. But just a great day, and full of some challenges for sure. Trying to beat Kyle Busch was going to be very tough on our own with speed, but my team persevered on pit road, had an excellent pit stop that beat him off pit road and gave us an opportunity to capitalize, and then in traffic it came down to me making the right moves and catching the right breaks and so forth, and we were able to capitalize, and I think what's what great teams do, they capitalize on opportunity, and we had that today with the 22 Discount Tire Dodge. KERRY THARP: Crew chief Jeremy Bullins, talk about just how the team performed out on pit road and obviously was a big part of today's win. JEREMY BULLINS: Absolutely. That last pit stop our guys beat everybody out on four tires. There were some guys that took two tires where we felt like with as many laps as there were to go, four tires was the way to go. Our guys stepped up and beat everybody off pit four. We were the first car on four tires, and that was really the difference. Brad got a good restart, got to the lead, and that was pretty much it.
Q. Brad, can you tell us about that last restart? Did you spin your tires and did Sam bump ahead? BRAD KESELOWSKI: It happened really fast, and I don't have a complete picture of what happened, so it's hard for me to make a statement about it. But I can tell you my perception of it was I got a push from Sam, and it was a little more than I could take, and certainly I wasn't going full throttle but I was not in the zone when Elliott took off. It appeared that Elliott got a push from behind, as well, and maybe he just couldn't slow down, I don't know. I don't know how it all played out. I think NASCAR has made it a point to say that they're not going to measure down to a millimeter on who beats who to the restart line, they just want it to be close and fair. It was obvious that the 2 car I believe it was, which is kind of hard to say because it's my number on the Cup side, that Elliott beat us by more than that. So that's NASCAR's call as far as how it all worked out in the box and so forth. It's very difficult to say from my view, and I'd like to see a full replay to kind of verify some of the things that I saw. But obviously NASCAR saw something they didn't like and made a call accordingly, and that's their job.
Q. For being a two and a half mile track, this place really does put an emphasis on momentum when you're actually going to make a pass, and when you made the pass for the lead, it almost looked as though you held up a little bit going through 1 and 2 so you got the run off of 2 to make the pass. Does that take a special kind of discipline to be able to kind of hold back and get the throttle down at the right time to make the pass? BRAD KESELOWSKI: I think any racer who has any success will tell you that racing requires a lot of discipline and a lot of aggression, and knowing which one to use and when to use it is critical to your success, and certainly passes here at Indy are no exception. I believe you're talking about passing Sam for the lead. Being able to get by Sam was a critical moment for us in the race. He had a very fast race car, as did we, and we had four tires and he had two at that point, and we needed to get by him before another yellow came out, and it kind of evened us out. So certainly I was hustling to make that happen as quickly as possible. At that time the 54 was still quite a threat to win the race, and it just came down to executing the move I needed to execute to win the race, and that was it.
Q. On that restart, were you thinking, well, they've got to penalize Sadler, or were you just like I don't know what they're going to do, I just need to keep racing? BRAD KESELOWSKI: I think my spotter said it best, you've got to look forward and keep pushing because there was no guarantee that there was going to be a reaction, and so I did.
Q. Did you think they should? BRAD KESELOWSKI: Like I said, I don't have enough I didn't have enough info to really make a great call on how I felt about it, not to form a solid opinion.
Q. You get to tease Roger about not being here; will you reward him with his first NASCAR BRAD KESELOWSKI: You're damned right I will. I don't know how to answer it any more than that. I don't know how many wins how many wins is this for him, like 18?
Q. Was this his 100th NASCAR? BRAD KESELOWSKI: Didn't they say it was like 18th? OK, so this would be his 16th win? I got his one Indy win he wasn't here for. How about that? Or 100th stock car win? I don't know if that counts ARCA wins. There's some ARCA races in there, and I know that kind of messes up the trivia.
Q. How long do you think it'll take before he finds out? BRAD KESELOWSKI: I don't know, I'm not sure. Somebody said he was still in the air.
Q. I understand he's out of communication. BRAD KESELOWSKI: I have no idea. You know probably better than I do.
Q. Do you text him? BRAD KESELOWSKI: No, he has a way of finding these things out.
Q. I'm sure there's a Bat Phone on the plane. BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, I'm sure there is, too.
Q. When you were young up in Michigan, did you ever come down to the track as a youngster or anything? BRAD KESELOWSKI: The first time I came to the Brickyard I came just to check out the museum. I think that was 2003. You know when you pull through that tunnel what a special place you've entered. I can't say that I've had opportunities to race here other than on the Cup side here starting in 2010, but I'm proud of the opportunities we've had and the way we've been able to have some success, especially here today.
Q. Jeremy, ordinarily it seems to me that if something goes wrong in a pit call, crew chiefs get more blame than they get the credit for the win, so just how does it feel, you've executed very well the last couple of races with Brad, and how does that feel for you and your team building when you make calls that result in days like today? JEREMY BULLINS: Well, you know, we started the year off bringing good cars to the racetrack, and we had some little things go wrong, and we knew if we could ever get it going all together that this is what could happen. We've kind of gotten on a little roll lately, and it feels good for your work to pay off, and certainly it's good, but it's not just me. Like I said, the whole company, I mean, to finish one two with two brand new race cars and great pit crews, and top to bottom it was just a great weekend.
Q. Jeremy, with this being the inaugural race, and obviously the cars are similar to a Cup car but they're different, what did you pull off from a resource standpoint to set up this initial car when it came off the truck to have it at least be in the ballpark? JEREMY BULLINS: Well, I was fortunate enough that I've been in the Cup Series for a while now as a race engineer, so I've been coming here instead of where the Nationwide Series had been racing at RP, so my most recent experience was from here. We finished second here a couple years ago, the team I was working with. I love this place and have had this on the calendar since I took the job, and knowing that it was the first race we knew we were going to do everything we could to be sitting right here, and it feels really good that it happened. It's just one of those things where no matter what it is, it's still a race car, and we all sit down and put our heads together and say, OK, what do we think will work for Indy, and that's what we shot for, and today it worked out. KERRY THARP: Guys, congratulations on winning the inaugural Indy 250 and good luck tomorrow.
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An Interview With:
SAM HORNISH JR.TY DILLONAUSTIN DILLON
KERRY THARP: We're getting ready to hear from our third place finisher, and that is Ty Dillon, and he drove the No. 51 WESCO Chevrolet, and he's joined by his brother, Austin Dillon, who finished fifth and is the highest finishing Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate with his fifth place finish, and I believe right now I'm told you are one point out of the championship points race behind Elliott Sadler, Austin. So congratulations to the Dillon brothers. We had you guys in here about 48 hours ago. For both of you guys, first time at the big track. You've both come in in the top 5. Pretty impressive. Austin with a fifth place finish, one point out of the race, what were your impressions of today's race, drove the No. 3 AdvoCare Chevrolet? AUSTIN DILLON: Well, it was pretty interesting. You know, as the race went on, you saw a lot of, I guess, important track position played. Definitely in our situation we had to get some track position, and it worked out for us. I had a good race car early, was racing up there near the top 5 and smacked the wall after we made our last adjustment getting into Turn 1, and that just hurt us pretty bad, lost quite a few positions when I did that, and it was just a driver error there. We were able to recover and come down pit road and take two tires at the end when we needed to, loosen it up just enough to maintain and fought them off there on the restarts. It was pretty wild. Those last restarts were crazy, and it was a fun day, though, and congratulations to Ty for kicking my butt. That was pretty impressive. He's got a lot to look forward to, and his new sponsor WESCO, it's great for them, too. KERRY THARP: And Ty, certainly coming here to the famous Brickyard for the first time, and you come in third and you beat you're ahead of a lot of accomplished drivers. That had to be something that you feel good about, and like you said, you beat your older brother there a little bit, too. Talk about your performance out there today. TY DILLON: Yeah, I was just so excited to first of all, got to thank WESCO for giving me the opportunity to run in this race, and Nationwide Insurance, too, for allowing us to put the Nationwide Series here at the big track in Indianapolis. Just coming here if you would have given me a top 10 I would have been ecstatic. I kind of learned a little bit about myself this week. I did this last year with the Truck Series and just went into those last three races in the Truck Series last year with an open attitude, just wanting to have fun and drive a race car. I had no pressure with the points. And then the same thing this year with no pressure with the points, just wanted to have fun here at a historic track like Indy. It made me a better driver and opened my mind more to adjust in the race car. I think this weekend did a lot for me in confidence and how I'm going to approach the Camping World Truck Series from this point on. But I'm just so happy for my guys. My truck team was pitting my car all weekend, and Gil Martin, the legendary crew chief, he's done a lot of good things in our sport, crew chiefed it and did an awesome job.
Q. For both of you but specifically for Ty, you seemed to unload fast, and I know you've run ARCA on a couple big tracks, but how can you explain coming to a track that's as unique as this and unloading and taking to it so easily? TY DILLON: I think a lot of the credit is to the Truck Series. Every time you unload in the Truck Series you're wide open for the first 20 laps and you have to drive as hard as you can in that series, and just having that attitude that I've been able to have all year with the Truck Series and driving that and unloading here with an open attitude and knowing I was going to have to drive real hard with these Nationwide cars, and after talking to Paul and Max and all the people who have raced here before, it sounded like we were really going to have to hustle these Nationwide cars. And I couldn't have done it without amazing equipment. Gil Martin and everybody at RCR put together this car for me. I think all the teams were putting it together at the shop last week, and I couldn't have done it without a great car. So with that and then just having an open attitude and driving as hard as I could from the moment we unloaded.
Q. I didn't want to pick on you, Austin, but Ty, what are you going to remember more, third place or beating your older brother? TY DILLON: Both. I won't let him live either one down. No, he did an awesome job. I was hoping he would get the points lead, too. That would have been really cool. They've got a lot of steam coming, and they've been doing really well in this second half. Heck, just racing here at Indy is awesome, so I'll remember everything about this day.
Q. What was the competition like between you two when you were younger? AUSTIN DILLON: We've always been really competitive in anything we've done, no matter what it is, sports anything except school. TY DILLON: That was reverse psychology. AUSTIN DILLON: No, we've always been competitive, whatever it took to win or to be the best, and I think that's what pushes us each and every day. It's nice having a brother that's very competitive and very talented. I know he pushes me, and I hope I push him.
Q. Austin, what did you see in that last restart where Elliott got black flagged? AUSTIN DILLON: I don't know if I want to answer after that last question (laughing). No, anyways, the last restart, all I remember it's so important right now that you have to go on restarts. Restarts are where all your passing is done, and especially at a big track like this, momentum is huge. I feel like that's everything is restarts. Going into that last restart, I loaded for Bear to go. The 22, I could hear I felt like I heard him go. We went. I pushed Elliott. The 22 spun his tires I felt like. I think the 12 was pushing him, too. I don't know past that. I just went. So I kind of have to see the replay to really give you more information. I just know we went when I just went when the green was out. KERRY THARP: Guys, thank you very much. Now we're going to hear from our race runner up, and that's Sam Hornish, Jr. He drove the No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge for Penske Racing. Congratulations on a good finish out there today. Can you talk about your race. SAM HORNISH JR.: Car was pretty good right from the start, and really to be honest with you, after practice on Thursday, if you would have told me that we would have finished 15th I would have been somewhat happy with that. We didn't feel like the car was very good. We made some solid changes on it overnight and really made the car quite a bit better. I was happy with it right from the beginning of the race, was able to make passes on people and be able to kind of put my car where I wanted it, where on Thursday I was just kind of holding on for dear life for quite a bit of the practice. Really happy with the pit stops that the other guys did on the Alliance Truck Parts Dodge. They were able to gain us spots every time we came down pit road. We took two tires there at the end to try to get the track position hoping that we'd get some green flag running toward the end, and then lo and behold, Brad takes four and gets by us. That was probably the difference between being able to battle him I don't know that I would have ever been able to hold him off. He was really strong all day long and just had a little bit more speed than what we did. But to be able to come out of here with a one two for Penske Racing was great. Just wish the captain was here to enjoy it with us, but the guys at Penske Racing did a wonderful job. They brought two new cars here for Brad and I, put a lot of work into this race, and to be able to get a one two finish feels pretty good. I guess if there's a guy that I can handle losing to, it's Brad. But I want to win. To be that close, you know, would have been real nice to be able to do that. But there's always next week. But there's never a chance to win the inaugural Nationwide race again. If I seem a little bit disappointed, I guess that's probably why.
Q. How important was it for you to come back after last week in Chicago to have a good finish here? Does that help? And also, could you take us through when Kyle spun? SAM HORNISH JR.: For us to be able to come back and to have a good weekend, it was really good for the team's morale. I mean, there was a lot of the guys that were pretty disappointed after last week, and mostly on how our strategy played out. But for them to be able to come back and to have a good strategy today, we felt like we had at Penske Racing we basically had both strategies covered there toward the end, which is always a good thing to do, gives you two shots to win, depending on how the yellows come. That restart, Brad always almost always seems like he slows down the restart, and that one he went before he ever got to the thing. I don't know what it was, but I was going to file in third there, and I haven't seen a replay of it yet, but left the lane to the inside because they said the 54 was looking down there, and I just next thing I felt him bump into me and saw him spinning. I would have done anything to not be around that, regardless if it's my fault or not. I would have much rather not been around that, but we put it behind us and tried to do the last restart, and man, it was it's a little bit tough knowing what to do. I wanted to push Brad. It was unbelievable how that all played out there at the end, and I was going to be happy to finish third and got a little bit of a bonus.
Q. You've had a pretty hectic three weeks here, flying in unexpectedly and jumping in a car to get out there and race and then coming here, then Chicago. SAM HORNISH JR.: Yeah, we've really had a busy couple weeks, that's for sure. But look at how we've ran over that couple weeks. Daytona really wasn't we didn't finish the way we wanted to, but we were really points racing and making sure we kept ourselves out of trouble. And then obviously you have we were fourth at Loudon, we were seventh last week or eighth last week; we should have been first to fourth at worst. To come out of there with an eighth place finish or whatever it ended up being was not a good day for us. There was no real infighting amongst our team. I think all of us just wanted to bury our head for a while, all for different reasons, whether it was for what happened or getting us in that position. But the thing that we did was we all manned up and said what we could do better, tried to figure out a way to get everybody back on board. I guess the way that I look at it is a lot of teams could have fallen apart after the weekend that we had last weekend, and we did the best that we could do to try to come a little bit closer together. With the way that everything has been going, it seems like a lot longer than three weeks. It seems like about three months since Daytona, and mostly because I keep getting all these answers not that I can't answer, but I have no idea what the answer is. I don't know how many more races I'm going to get to run the Shell Pennzoil car on the Cup side. I don't know what I'm doing next weekend as far as how we're getting back and forth, which practice sessions we're going to run, things like that. Well, I guess I do know I'm flying on Brad's plane back and forth, but I don't know what our itinerary is going to be. But I know that we're going to go try to do the best that we can tomorrow with the Shell Pennzoil car, keep those guys on the right track. They're a hard core team. Those guys are all veterans and know how to keep moving forward, so we're going to try to do the best that we can with that. We go test on Monday up at Michigan, and then we'll head off to Pocono or Iowa or wherever we're going.
Q. You won here in an IndyCar before and you did it on a last lap pass. When Brad was out ahead of you with say 10 to go, were you trying to envision if you could get back to him that you might be able to take advantage, or was the draft not going to give you a chance at that? SAM HORNISH JR.: Well, it took me a bit to get around the 3 and to be able to kind of go after Brad even, and I felt like, yeah, I'm catching up to him a little bit, and I'm sitting there going, yeah, I'm catching up to him, but as soon as I get there it's going to be, A, tougher because of the aero, and B, he's probably just going to push the gas pedal down a little bit harder. He's probably saving a little something there. Brad is pretty darned good. I didn't have any dreams of grandeur or whatever of going out there and passing him on the last lap. It would have been awesome if we did, but I felt like as soon as I got within 10 car lengths he was going to step it back up a little bit. It's really tough racing your teammate like that because you can't make a mistake because all of a sudden we go from finishing one two to I'm the guy that couldn't finish second. I knew it was going to have to be one of those deals where he made a mistake for me to be able to get the job done and to feel comfortable about doing it. He had the four tires and he had a good car and had a good restart on not the next to last one but I think two from the end and somehow figured out how to get from seventh to second in about a lap and a quarter. I knew he was going to be tough to beat.
Q. You got a win at Phoenix, you got a second here, both flat tracks. What makes you good on flat? SAM HORNISH JR.: I don't know. I think that Chicago has got some banking to it. We were decent there last week. But I think that a little bit of the mentality of what I grew up racing. I did mostly road courses, so I mean, that's generally pretty flat. I like tracks like Phoenix that are different from end to end because they're what I call compromise racetracks. You're never going to get your car perfect at both ends, so you try to work on one end that you think is going to be more beneficial for you to get passes done and then you kind of try to maintain on the other end. Pocono is another place that's like that. That's if you really look at it. This is a lot of a in my opinion, a compromise racetrack. You've got to be really free into 1 and 3 to have any kind of a shot to get the car to turn off of 2 and 4, so I just did the best that I could to get the car freed up enough to be able to turn off of 3 and 4 and try to guide it in the best I could in the other end, so this is a compromise racetrack. I think flat tracks are just I don't know why, but maybe it's because you have to let off and you have to be gentle with the throttle. But there's some other guys that are pretty darned good at that, too. I don't know why it seems like we run well at these ones. But I like them. I was scared to death a couple times the other day in the practice and really was wanting to pull my hair out, but I'm like, we'll get it better or we won't; there's not that much to think about here. And we tried to make good changes over our day off and get ready for today. Man, I was so happy when I got out there and started that race, and I'm like, man, I can drive close to people, I can pass people. Just a good feeling to be able to get in the car and it does what you want it to do. KERRY THARP: Sam, thank you, and good luck tomorrow.
