NASCAR Post-Race Press Conference
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| Race winner Brad Keselowski celebrates in Daytona victory lane with daughter Scarlett |
| Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images |
THE MODERATOR: We are going to continue with our post-race media availability for today's Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola. We are now joined by race-winning crew chief Paul Wolfe and car owner Roger Penske. Paul, talk about what it's like to get your first win here on the box at Daytona.
PAUL WOLFE: Seemed like it was never going to happen, and you keep getting the questions, how do you guys win at Talladega and not do it at Daytona. I got that question a lot this weekend. It's great.
Had an amazing car, a great effort all around. You know, the thing that's most special to me is we had the complete package. Typically there's always trade-offs you make, whether you want to go for handling or speed, and we had both tonight, and hats off to all the guys at Roush Yates. I know Doug and those guys have worked really hard to continue to bring more and more, and I think that showed this weekend because all the Fords were strong.
And then on the chassis side and aero side, the guys have been working hard at the shop. To be able to not have to make sacrifices and have both, that's what it takes to put on a dominant performance like we did tonight, and Brad and the spotter obviously is a big part in that, and once you get the lead, kind of maintaining that control of the lanes, it was a lot of fun to watch, and just proud to be part of it.
It's the 100th Cup win for Penske, and it's an honor to work for this guy and a privilege. We try to make the most of every opportunity, and I feel like we were able to do that tonight.
THE MODERATOR: As Paul said, this is the 100th win for Team Penske, and we are joined by Roger Penske here. It's also the 50th anniversary of Team Penske. Why don't you talk about what tonight means to you.
ROGER PENSKE: Well, I think winning a race on the 4th of July weekend and thinking about all the people that support our country and make our country safe, I just am proud to be an American I guess is the most important thing on the 4th of July weekend.
To win 100 races with the competition that we have in this sport is amazing, and it comes down to the people. I guess Paul and I get to sit up here, but it's all the hundreds of people that work for us every single day that make a difference, and there's no question that Ford has stepped up. You could see with the qualifying, certainly with Greg, and the car was strong. I think it was a complete package tonight.
It couldn't come at a better time. 16 years ago we won our first 100th race in IndyCar, so it took a long time to get here on the NASCAR side. But pretty important night for us.
Q. Paul, Brad is putting together a pretty good worksheet at plate tracks. How have you seen him evolve over the years at these tracks?
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]PAUL WOLFE: Well, honestly, ever since I started working with him, I always thought it was one of his strengths for sure. Brad is a thinker and he studies and he tries to understand, so I know he's put his time in to try to understand how the draft works and how to be better at it. I think we kind of had success, like I said, early on at Talladega, but it just seemed like we couldn't quite get it together here at Daytona.
You know, and Daytona is a little bit more of a handling track, and I feel like we've been able to have cars fast enough to lead more laps, and I think running mid-pack to running in the lead and understanding how to manage the lead, and as you see these guys working one lane to the other, to manage that I think you've got to have cars good enough to get up front so you can learn that, and I think that communication between Brad and the spotter, just watching from Talladega in the spring to tonight, we've continued to get better at that, and I feel really good about our performance tonight and as we move forward into Talladega and the Chase.
Q. Roger, you look at Brad's stats since 2009, no driver has won more plate races. In your estimation is he the best right now on these kind of tracks?
ROGER PENSKE: Well, there's a lot of great racers on plates. You never say you're the best. But I think that his consistency — I think we've made our cars better. He certainly is a big factor in that as he comes into the shop and talks to the aero guys, and there's no question that with the Yates power here in the last couple of years it's given us a real advantage and competitive piece. To me there's a little bit of luck out there to stay out of trouble. But when you can sit up front — I think in the old days you'd sit back, I'm going to take it easy and then go at the end. We've said this tonight and we've said it in the past with Paul and certainly with Joey and Brad, you've got to race up front all night, and if you don't you're going to get in trouble, and you could see it again tonight.
I think it takes concentration. I don't know how he does it to be honest with you with those restarts and knowing when to pull from one side to the other, and I think Joey Meier, our spotter, should get a big pat on the back for being able to give him the right moves because he's almost in the passenger seat with him at every turn.
Q. Paul, you kind of touched on this, but you guys have led like one lap in the last four or five Daytona races. Have you been that far off? The stats are telling you that you really haven't been very good here.
PAUL WOLFE: Well, I don't think we've been as good as we were tonight for sure. We've had some top-five runs. We've had some decent cars. But it seems like overall we've just — we haven't made caught as many breaks here at Daytona as maybe we have at Talladega. But like I said, it's a little bit different style of racetrack, and we've learned a little bit this weekend and tried some different things.
You know, I was a little disappointed and caught off guard a little bit with how our car drove in the 500 earlier this year, and coming back here I was going to make sure that that didn't happen again, and we got a short practice yesterday morning and thought we were pretty good but still weren't sure. But I think as we saw qualifying and saw the speed in our car and then as we got into the race, it showed that we felt like we made some nice gains.
Q. Doug Yates was a guest on our show here yesterday. Big smile, he said, I found some more horsepower for Daytona. How perceivable, how much did you notice the different between now and last February?
ROGER PENSKE: Well, I can tell you that we knew he had some power because Brad had won a race — we went to Talladega and we had some extra power and we saw it, and we got the reliability because once you've been in the Chase you have a chance to — I wouldn't say gamble but try things you might not if you were trying to get your berth in the Chase.
I think we've been able to develop on the dynamometer, but you just need that opportunity to be able to run at the track, and we had a little issue tonight. Maybe no one realized it, but our temperature got way up. We picked up bunch of trash on the front of the car there, I think, after that first stop, and we almost had to come in.
Things went our way. I think the question about why we haven't been as good here, this is a handling track, and you look at Earnhardt and look at some of these guys who just had it, and I think what we've been is able to get the speed and we've worked hard with our aerodynamics to get a car that will also work in the corners, and we owe a big shout-out to our aerodynamic guys tonight because that car along with the engine piece, and of course Brad did a super job driving it.
Q. Roger, if you could just speak a little bit about getting that 100th win and what that means, and this was already a big season for your organization as it was, celebrating 50 years. To get that win at another iconic track where you've done so well with that and motorsports in general.
ROGER PENSKE: Well, I would just say that the 100th in NASCAR is something special. I think as I said earlier, to do it here on the 4th of July weekend, it's amazing. But it's a byproduct of all the good people we have, and to me we've got to continue to remember that. I just think that Paul and the team, we lose more than we win in this business, and you've got to know how to deal with the downs and take advantage of the ups, and I guess 100 wins puts us in a good position, but you look at the Gibbs and you look at Childress and certainly Hendrick and some of the other teams, these guys have won a lot of races.
I think we've competed in multiple series, and I think we're almost at 450 wins now, and we're I think three or four away from 500 poles. Our goal is 500 and 500. This was the first step to get to 100 in NASCAR.
Q. Roger, obviously racing is not a popularity sport, so if your competitors don't like your drivers or what have you, I'm sure — you probably don't care, but Joey — Kurt Busch was frustrated with Joey's move tonight, Tony Gibson was upset about it. Obviously in the last several months there have been some events with Joey where it's been spotlighted with guys who have been upset. Do you worry about I guess more and more guys getting upset with Joey, or do you like that in a sense because it shows that he's in your mind maybe kicking butt or doing things the right way?
ROGER PENSKE: Well, look, I have to look at each situation accordingly, and I would say this, that Joey has taken, I think, some undue criticism from my perspective based on some of the things that have happened. Certainly you can go back, and I could name three or four things that certainly weren't his fault.
But quite honestly, I think he's one of the best drivers on the racetrack out there day in and day out, and sure, people make mistakes. A lot of these drivers can knock somebody off the track, and they say, hey, I'm sorry, you follow me, and they move on. They don't let Logano do that. As far as I'm concerned, I'm behind him 300 percent, and I'll talk to Kurt, he didn't do it on purpose. It could have been a big mess down there tonight, too, and at the end of the day, that's racing as far as I'm concerned.
Q. Brad can be outspoken, and I think that sometimes his competitors maybe mock that a little bit. Does he not get enough credit for being as smart as he is?
ROGER PENSKE: Well, I think that he's a calculating guy, and you're not with him every day like we are in the shop and what he brings to the race team. He came early on, he said, look, I'm going to help you get a championship team. We did that. He helped to attract Paul Wolfe to the team. Look, this is not a popularity contest, and anybody that thinks it is, you know, we shouldn't be sitting here tonight.
This is racing, and unfortunately some people have different ideas. But look, I've got — I wouldn't trade these two drivers for anyone. They're young, they're aggressive, they win races. They work well with the sponsors, and they're high-integrity guys, so move on from there.
Paul, we've listened to Roger talk about this win and how he feels about it and everything. You've kind of touched on it, but in all of the career wins that you've had over your time, what does this win mean to you deep inside?
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]PAUL WOLFE: Well, I mean, it's obviously a big win and a great win for Team Penske and RP, the boss. But every win is special to me, and I go to the racetrack every weekend trying to do the best I can and putting that effort in. To be honest with you, I got the question a little earlier of, does it mean more because you guys are the team that got the 100th win. Coming into the weekend, I don't even know that that was on my mind. I didn't know until they brought the hats out in victory lane.
To be successful you can't think about those types of things. You just have the mindset of you're going to be the best and do the best you can every weekend, and then this is just icing on top. It's very special. Every win is special to me, and they have different meanings depending on where it is or why. You know, Daytona has been one we've wanted to win, and I think the 500 is definitely on our list of something that Brad and I haven't been able to do yet. Obviously we'll take this one and hopefully it makes us better when we come back in February.
Q. Paul, nobody really looks forward to the Chase race at Talladega, it being located where it is. But does what you guys have done this year at the plate tracks give you sort of a boost of confidence going in there if you really have to make something happen then?
PAUL WOLFE: I think any time you have speed in your race cars, that gives you confidence. I think we've shown that over the last year and a half, two years, that at the plate tracks we have speed in our race cars. That's important. You know, from there, there's a lot of things out of your control, and I try not to let those get to us too much.
I guess to answer your question, yeah, I mean, it gives us — if we get in that situation, hopefully we have a win, and it's not a concern. But if there's a place we have to go and a must-win situation, absolutely I feel great about the cars we're putting on the racetrack now at these plate tracks.
THE MODERATOR: Paul and Roger, congratulations on both the win and getting to 100 wins as an organization. Have a great evening.
We are now joined by the winner of tonight's Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola, the driver of the No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford, Brad Keselowski. Obviously a pretty big night for you, your first win here at Daytona, also marks win 100 for Team Penske. Talk a little bit about tonight.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Well, there's a lot of numbers. Let me see if I can get them all right. This is the 250th start, year 50 for Team Penske, 100th Cup win for Team Penske, my 20th win, and we finished first. I like that number the best. But really happy and proud for our team to be in victory lane tonight. It was a good effort for us for sure.
The wins are never easy to come by, and I think this one means a lot to me for sure because looking at our past here, it hasn't been all that rosy. I was telling Roger Penske when I was in victory lane and the fireworks were going off, usually I'm loading up the car and about to be to the airport, so it's nice to be here and have a great finish.
We brought a completely different effort than what we've normally had here and completely different approach, which was made feasible by having the two wins earlier in the season and knowing that we could try something different here, and boy, did it pay off, so a lot of credit to my team, Paul Wolfe, crew chief, for all the things that they're doing. Three wins, midpoint in the season, that's a good start.
Of course we want to finish it off and win another championship, and I think I told you guys at Pocono or told a bunch of the people at Pocono that I was ready for the Chase to start right now. I'm still ready for it to start right now. Let's go. I feel like we've got a great effort. We're as good as we've ever been, if not better, and we're ready.
Q. Take us through that last couple laps there with you and Kurt and what happened there. Obviously you pulled away.
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, restarts are so critical, and I got a great push from my teammate Joey Logano that helped put me in position to kind of establish the lead and be able to make the moves you need to make to hold off the lanes. Kurt had a couple really good runs. I thought he might have had me one time, and I was able to get up in front of him at the last second.
Daytona, Talladega, plate racing at its finest right there. Interesting how it all played out, and of course we feel glad to be able to get where we're at. These races can easily fall apart on us very quickly. Great shot that it was going to do that at the start. We had a bunch of debris on the nose and the car was overheating dramatically. A lot of credit to Doug Yates and his team for putting together a strong power point that could resist the temptation there when it was really hot.
Just a lot of things going on, and glad to put it all together.
Q. Brad, you look at the victories since 2009 at Talladega, at Daytona, you've got more than any other driver. Five, the next best is three. Where do you compare yourself to the other drivers at Talladega and Daytona?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Well, Talladega looks real good, Daytona not so much. There's a lot of great drivers on these plate races and a lot of variables to put them all together. Those numbers could shift a lot of ways fairly easily, so it's hard to make a comparison.
But when we have a great car like we did today, I feel like I can compete, like I can compete and make a run for it. You've always got to have the car, but when you have the car, you've got to make the most of it, and we were able to do both today.
Q. Is this a big deal to win at Daytona because of just the history at the track, or is it because of the type of racing and the way —
BRAD KESELOWSKI: I think for me it's the track. I've had very, very little success here. It's been one of our worst tracks quite honestly next to probably Sonoma. You know, thinking about that, I don't know if we had the highest of expectations, but Daytona is always a big race to have success at. I know it maybe doesn't feel the same way because this isn't the 500, but it's still a big deal to me. My family has been coming here for a long time, and I've had zero success here as a driver. I think we've led a lot of laps in XFINITY and Cup and even some in truck and haven't been able to close it out. To do it tonight is a big deal for me personally.
Q. Considering your success a few ways as of late, was this the strongest car that you've ever had?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Definitely the best car I've ever had here at Daytona, but I don't know if it was the strongest car I've ever had. We've had some good cars over the years at probably Loudon, Kentucky and a handful of other races, but this is definitely the best car I've ever had at Daytona, and I'm glad I didn't waste it.
Q. With the three victories as you alluded to, still a lot of laps to be raced, but how good do you feel about this season so far?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Really good. Three wins, midpoint in the season. If we're going back to numbers, it gives us a good shot of winning. Six wins was the best season we've ever had. Not that that's where I want to stop or that it's a guarantee, either way. But it's still a good place to be in.
Joey Logano and I were talking the other day, a Team Penske car has won the most races, I think, is it three out of the last four seasons, so that's something we're proud of, and we'd like to keep it going. Every win counts.
Q. After the race when people were asking you or asking your peers about your restrictor plate prowess and how good you've been here. They were more eager to give credit to your car.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: I would be, too.
Q. Is that okay with you that they were more thinking your car was —
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, it's easy to get caught up in semantics, but I would much rather be caught up in the trophy.
I'm just happy with where we're at. I think that those are always things that are usually a distraction. I think I'm just happy to be where I'm at and flattered if they say something nice, and if they don't, you take it for what it's worth with a grain of salt. But I'm not worried about it.
Q. I don't want to rain on the parade, but when you talk about feeling —
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Are you going to be Eeyore tonight? I thought it was Bob (Pockgrass).
Q. I'm taking it over tonight. When you talk about having the three wins, and obviously I don't want to make light of that, but with two of them coming on plate tracks, only one such plate track in the Chase, when you talk about feeling good, what are the things that you're seeing that — because I'm guessing not much translates from here or Talladega other than one race in the Chase, so why do you feel good and why should people feel good about you because two thirds of your wins come at tracks that play such a small part in the Chase?
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]BRAD KESELOWSKI: Well, I think the first part of my answer is I don't necessarily feel like I need to sell myself to people to make them feel good. I feel good about it myself, and so any question where I answer about how I feel good about it is really reflective of my genuine thoughts and feelings, not an attempt. I'm not being a car salesman up here. I would say that would be the first part of my answer.
But why do I feel good is we've had a lot of consistency the last few weeks. I think we've finished in the top 10 or top 5 eight or nine times in the last 10 weeks, so a lot of consistency there. A lot of close calls. Pocono we had a great shot at winning. I'm trying to think, the All-Star Race we were right up there, had a shot at winning, leading laps.
So there's been some races that haven't quite been as strong, as well, in fairness, but even the races where we're not quite as strong, we seem to be right there in that fifth- to tenth-place range, which is a lot of what the Chase is. A lot of what the Chase is is go run fifth to tenth every week and you'll find yourself at Homestead and then you've got to go win Homestead. Good consistency is a great trademark of a championship-winning team, and I feel that out of my team right now. I don't feel like, again, I need to sell that to anyone else, but that's how I feel about it myself.
Q. Considering your recent record at plate tracks, if you go to Talladega in the fall in a situation where you had to win the race, do you feel fairly confident what you guys can do there?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah. I mean, I feel like we're in a good spot. Rules could change three times from then, so it's hard to answer that right now. But I think that we're definitely heading the right direction and we have that opportunity. Those tracks it's harder than anywhere else to really feel great about it, but you always feel like you have an opportunity when you're fast, and we have fast cars at those tracks right now.
Q. Why have you been so bad here, especially when you're so good at Talladega? It doesn't really seem to make a ton of sense.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: I think from the get-go we've been really strong at Talladega, and we've used a lot of that approach coming here, and it's been awful. This is quite honestly the first time as a team that we've come to Daytona with a completely different approach than what we've had at Talladega, and it paid off with immediate results. I'm really thrilled for that for my team and for what that says about them, willing to try new things and work for it.
I think from my perspective what comes to mind is we came here for the 500, ran awful, went to Talladega and won in a good way, and there's a lot to be said for this as a team of probably looking in the mirror and saying, you know what, maybe we do need to do something different, and that might sound easy to come to, but there's a lot of roadblocks and barriers for a team to come together and be able to able to say that, so I'm proud that we were all able to do that, that I was willing to try different things and that the team was willing to try different things on the car and we were able to put all those pieces together.
Q. Could you talk a little bit about getting that 100th win for the organization? You spoke about it briefly, but I can imagine that's a pretty big deal.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: It's a huge deal, 100 wins for Roger here at the Sprint Cup level. I know his next goal will be 200. I'll probably hear it tomorrow. He'll want to know, when are we getting to 200. Someone gave me a stat, over the last two or three years since Joey has been on board, between the two of us we've won 20 or 30 percent of all the races Penske has ever won in Cup, so we're certainly in a great spot. But the captain, he likes to look forward, and I think that's a good thing.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on the win tonight and all the other milestones you hit.
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