Dodge teams Atlanta race quotes

Brad Keselowski

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T):

YOU WERE RACING JASON LEFFLER HARD FOR POSITION AT THE END OF THE RACE AND HE SPUN. DID YOU MAKE CONTACT WITH HIM? “No. It looked like he just lost it, I’m not sure. I know I wasn’t anywhere near him. I don’t know what happened to him.”

HOW DID YOU FEEL OUT THERE BACK IN YOUR OLD RIDE? “It felt good to be back out there. Certainly would like to get a little bit better finish. I didn’t quite get it done there at the end of the race. I’ve got no one to blame but myself. Still just need to find a little bit more speed in these cars but there not far off for sure and keep plugging away with it with the Discount Tire team.”

YOU PASSED SEVERAL CARS FOR POSITION NEAR THE END OF THE RACE. WAS THAT THE BEST THE CAR HAD BEEN ALL NIGHT? “Yeah right there at the end it was starting to come alive. It didn’t take off good on the restart but after that it did.”

DID THE TRACK CHANGE DURING THE RACE TONIGHT? “I don’t know [laughs]. I really don’t. Wish I had a better answer for you.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN TONIGHT THAT YOU CAN APPLY AT TEXAS OR CHARLOTTE? “We’re always learning that’s for sure. Little things about the car and what I need to better and things I could have done better, too.”

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TODD GORDON (Crew Chief, No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger R/T):

YOU SCORED A SEVENTH-PLACE FINISH BUT ARE YOU GUYS A LITTLE BIT FRUSTRATED? “Obviously with Brad returning you have higher expectations. Just one of those things where it didn’t seem like we got in the right line on restarts. We got choked up, especially that last one. We got stuck with the 66 [Steve Wallace] and he cost us a lot of track position. We finally got by him and just didn’t have enough time to run him back down but Brad was doing a good job of it. We chased the car a little bit tonight. We’ll go to Richmond next week and work on it again.”

BRAD PASSED SEVERAL CARS ON THAT LAST RUN OF THE RACE. WAS THAT THE BEST THAT THE CAR HAD BEEN ALL NIGHT? “After we got clear of the 66 I think we had pretty good speed. Just one of those things where there’s a lot of different levels of talent out here and speed and how you catch ‘em. And that seemed to be something we struggled with tonight was trying to catch people at the right places to not kill your speed. It’s good to have Brad back in the Discount Tire Dodge.”

DO YOU THINK THE TRACK CHANGED A LOT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE TO THE END? “No I didn’t really feel like the racetrack changed. Right off the bat we struggled with a few things and we kind of felt like we were a little off the whole night. Just didn’t have enough times to make a swing at it to get it where we needed it to be but felt like we were getting there at the end.”

DID YOU LEARN SOMETHING TONIGHT THAT WILL HELP YOU AT THE OTHER INTERMEDIATE TRACKS THIS SEASON? “I tell ya, this place is it’s own creature. As much as they look alike, Atlanta is its own creature. I think we’ll be fine come Texas and Charlotte.”

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