Contact: Matthew Simmons

Adam Saal

Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes - Race Final - Darlington Raceway

May 8, 2010, DARLINGTON, S.C. - (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 3rd “We really fought hard. It was a good run for us here at Darlington. I haven’t had a solid run like tonight since Ricky Craven and I battled it out for that win. It feels good to get our Miller Lite Dodge back up front. It came down to a strategy where I though two tires would be the way to go at the end. We had the right strategy, we just didn’t have enough . I think Denny Hamlin and Jamie McMurray were stronger than us tonight, but we’ll take this third- place finish. I was going for it on the last lap. I was on the edge, but it doesn’t matter because you just have to cross that finish line. This track is so much fun to race when you finish good.”

“It was a great battle. I feel like we did everything right as far as strategy. To come in for that last stop and be on the two-tire sequence, that certainly put us in a good situation. The last runs were the fastest for the Miller Lite Dodge. Just want to thank all our guys. We kept working and ended up with a good finish.”

“When we first started off tonight, I thought we were in for a long battle. Our car was very loose to start off and we were very loose at Richmond last week to start off. But when we got back to the race shop last week, we figured out what we had wrong. I just thought we had the same thing happening to us again. I tried to protect the race car, I tried to keep it off the fence and kind of nurse it through each of the pit stops early on. The guys were solid. Our adjustments started coming too. We were the best at the end. Our car really came on strong with three runs to go. That’s when you have to be in position. We were in a great pit strategy position to just take two tires on the last stop. So it really worked out in our favor. We also had most of our restarts in the outside lane which I felt more comfortable in. When things go your way, things just seem to click and hopefully you end up with a top five out of it. We did with our Miller Lite Dodge. So, I’m very proud of this run.”

STEVE ADDINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) “We were a little loose at the start. That kind of caught us off guard. We spent most of the night trying to tighten our Miller Lite Dodge back up. We finally got it to where it was working a little bit tight for Kurt. It was a good night overall. We had great pit stops all night. The guys were able to get Kurt out really fast and hold our track position. We’ll definitely take this top-three and head to Dover feeling pretty good about the weekend.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Dodge Charger) Finished 12th “It’s a solid finish. I wanted a top-10 so bad. We should have finished 11th, but was going for 10th and made a little mistake that dropped me a spot. We did all that we could. I wanted a top-10, but it’s also important to get those driver points. It’s nice to have a strong showing. We had a decent car most of the night.”

WHAT WERE THE KEYS FOR YOU TONIGHT? “Our pit strategy was great all night. I tried to keep it off the fence all night and just make sure that we finished the race. I needed to be a touch faster. I can get better at that for sure.”

TWO TOP 12’S IN YOUR FIRST TWO CUP STARTS HERE AT DARLINGTON. WHAT MAKES YOU SO GOOD HERE? “I just like coming here. It’s a unique challenge and just a fun race track that rewards drivers that drive hard and that’s my style.”

JAY GUY (Crew Chief, No. 12 Penske Dodge) “It was a good points night for us. We just struggled a bit there at the beginning of the race, being a little bit too loose. I thought that we were going to have a top-10, but we got a Darlington stripe there at the end which cost us a few positions. Brad drove great. He battled all night and deserves a ton of credit. Great stops by the crew. To leave this place with your car in one piece and a top-12 is great.”

SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Finished 31st “It was a tough night for the Mobil 1 Dodge. We started 25th and worked our way all the way inside the top 15. From there, we had two separate right-rear tire issues and brushed the wall in Turn 2. We had to make a series of pit stops for repairs which put us behind. We had a couple of other incidents afterwards and we just couldn't get back on the lead lap again. It was a long night and things just didn’t seem to go our way. I like unique tracks like Darlington, but I haven’t had much success here. This is definitely a track that I will circle for next year.”

-- 30 --

-###- Additional information and news from Stellantis are available at: https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com