NASCAR Cup

Allmendinger & Keselowski talk about Richmond qualifying

SRT Motorsports

Edited: Apr 28, 2012, 2:13 AM

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A.J. Allmendinger, Penske Racing Dodge

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

A.J. Allmendinger (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 4th ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT LAP? “Yeah, I’m really happy with that. You know, the lap times here are so close and this place is so tough to get a lap in and be smooth but overall just really happy with it. We’ve got to keep working on it. In race trim I wasn’t thrilled with it. There were times we made it better and times we made it worse; at least I feel like we ended on a good note. Overall I said if I could be in the top 10 after qualifying I’d be happy so being fourth is going to be really good. We’ll see what we’ve got for the race.”

YOU ARE CONSISTENTLY QUALIFYING BETTER. HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT AS YOU BUILD TOWARD CONTENDING FOR WINS ON A REGULAR BASIS? “Well, anything you can keep working on it is better. You know, we’ve had fast race cars; we just keep having bad luck. We keep working on it and we’ll get there. I feel like Todd (Gordon, crew chief) and I, we’ve just got to keep working together and this race team has got to keep getting better. We’re not where we want to be yet but we keep showing that we’ve got fast cars so if we can just keep doing that we’ll be okay.”

YOU HAVE BEEN RUNNING CONSISTENTLY BETTER SINCE BRISTOL A FEW WEEKS AGO. “I’d say at times we have the speed to be a race-winning car. We’re just not doing it consistently and then on top of it you’ve got the bad luck. The problem is I’m kind of negative when I at the points. I see 23rd and that’s what I see, a 23rd-place team. I know we’re better than that but you’ve got to have solid races without any trouble and hopefully that starts tomorrow night.”

DOES THE RACE TOMORROW NIGHT BOIL DOWN TO GETTING YOUR CHARGER TO TURN WELL IN THE CENTER OF THE CORNER? “No, I mean, you’ve got to have it turning good enough but this thing goes green like all these races have been going it’s all about rear grip and not shredding that right rear early in a run. It’s a happy medium. You’ve got to have it turning good enough that you’re not just plowing in the center and using the throttle to turn the car but in the end the car that’s going to win this race will be the one that turns good enough but has all the drive in the world compared to everybody. That’s hopefully what we’ve worked on.”

Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Qualified 16th “It just wasn’t fast, I’m not sure why. We’ll go back and look at it some more and see what we can find. I think qualifying and racing are two drastically different things here at Richmond and really any short track. With the COT car it’s hard to really get a read for that. I think it’s going to be a long, hard race and obviously got to have brakes and you’ve got to keep your car in one piece. Hopefully we’ll have enough speed to drive up through ‘em and get towards the front at the end.”

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