Mexico City: Brad Keselowski preview

LOOKING FOR IMPROVEMENT -- Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 88 Navy Accelerate Your Life Chevrolet Monte Carlo will be looking to improve his road course stats in this weekend's NASCAR Nationwide Series Corona Mexico 200 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.

LAST YEAR -- In last year's event in Mexico City, the 24-year-old driver completed one circuit of the 82-lap race after the engine in his No. 23 Chevrolet expired. Keselowski was credited with a 43rd-place finish. That event is his only experience in road course racing in the Nationwide Series.

TESTING -- At the end of the 2007 season, the No. 88 team spent two days testing at Sebring International Raceway in preparation for this year's road course events. While there Keselowski was able to learn from his teammate for the Mexico City race, Adrian Fernandez, as well as road course veteran Andy Pilgrim who drove the No. 88 Navy Chevrolet in two road-course events in 2007.

BACK TO SCHOOL -- To gain additional road course experience, Keselowski spent two days out in Chandler, Arizona, at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in November.

CHASSIS INFO -- The No. 88 Navy team will utilize Chassis No. 369 in Sunday's race in Mexico City. The team tested with this car in November at Sebring.

NO. 88 TEAM AT MEXICO -- The No. 88 U.S. Navy team has two prior starts at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. In 2006 the team finished 15th, and last year they finished 21st.

KESELOWSKI (on road course racing) -- "Road course racing is a lot of fun. It's definitely tricky and isn't really something I have a ton of experience with. We've done some testing and I went out to Bondurant last fall. I learned a lot between the two trips that should help me a lot this weekend in Mexico. I think one of the keys for me to run well will be to stay on the course. That's one of my big goals going into the race -- just to stay on the track and not get off course."

KESELOWSKI (on learning from veteran drivers) -- "Adrian Fernandez and Andy Pilgrim were down at Sebring with us for the test and they are both veterans when it comes to road racing. I learned a few things from Adrian while he was there. Andy was a huge help as well. He was able to point out a lot of things that helped me pick up speed over the course of the two-day test and I think I improved a lot in a short amount of time thanks to his advice."

KESELOWSKI (on racing in Mexico) -- "Going road course racing and competing at an international level is always different, but we all like racing wherever we can. They always seem to have a great crowd in Mexico and it's always pretty cool to race in front of a large number of fans, it adds to the level of excitement."

-credit: jrm