Manufacturer Quotes from the 2018 Brickyard 400

FORD

BRAD KESELOWSKI VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW

 

THIS IS VICTORY NUMBER 499 FOR TEAM PENSKE AND THE FIRST AT THE BRICKYARD. WE THOUGHT YOUR WIN LAST WEEK AT DARLINGTON WAS BIG, HOW BIG IS THIS? “It is incredible. Last year I lost this race almost the exact same way. To bring it home this way feels really good to make up for my mess up last year. To give Roger Penske his first Cup car win here at the Brickyard is just an incredible feeling. I am so happy for everyone at Team Penske. We were hoping it would be win 500 and the Brickyard but we don't care what number it is. It is the Brickyard! It is the first win for Discount Tire in the Cup Series which is great. They have been so good to us. This whole team, the call made today was just phenomenal. We weren’t the fastest car by far but this team never gave up on it, made the most of the strategy and executed a perfect race. That is something I am so proud of.”

 

YOU ARE ABOUT TO GO KISS THE BRICKS. WHAT WILL THAT BE LIKE? “A little grimy, but good. Grimy never tasted so good.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion – THE DAY ALMOST STARTED DISATROUS, BUT YOU RECOVERED AND LED SOME LAPS.  “Disaster is a good word.  It was not a smooth day by any means from start to finish, but our Jimmy John’s Ford was fast and that was the highlight of the day.”

ALL OF THE WINS THAT YOU HAVE IN THE REGULAR SEASON, NOW WE GO TO THE PLAYOFFS.  YOU AND KYLE ARE AT THE TOP.  WHAT’S THE STRATEGY FOR THE FINAL 10?  “Win.”

YOU HAVE BIG POINTS CUSHION TO START THE PLAYOFFS, BUT WILL YOU SET A TONE OF WINNING RACES AND NOT CONCENTRATE ON THAT ADVANTAGE WITH YOUR GUYS?  “They know that. We just take it one week at a time.  That’s really the only way that you can approach this is to try and get the most that you can next week, regroup, and then see what you have and go for it the next week.”

DO YOU LIKE WHERE YOU’RE SITTING RIGHT NOW AND HOW YOU’RE SET UP?  “I don’t think it’s a bad spot.  I think we did a good job in the first 26 and now you’ve just got to do it again in 10 more.”

 

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Mobil 1/Rush Truck Centers Ford Fusion – DO YOU TAKE ANY SOLACE FROM RUNNING SO WELL TODAY?  “Absolutely.  You’ve got to use good runs like that for a confidence-booster for the Playoffs.  It was a good run for us.  Man, it’s a game of luck.  There wasn’t really any strategy.  You can’t strategize for cautions that you don’t know are gonna exist.  I felt like we were definitely faster than the 11, but when he beat us out of the pits there, that position nobody passed anybody for the lead and unless they were a huge advantage on tires, and then all of a sudden the cautions come out and hand the 2 the win.  That’s what’s frustrating, but that’s the nature of the beast here.”

CLINT BOWYER CONTINUED -- CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH THE FINAL TWO RESTARTS?  “The first one wasn’t terrible.  When you’re on a drag race, where you start like that where it’s flat and you have to wait until he does something, you’re behind.  The only thing you could possibly do is roll up to him, which I was trying to do and as soon as you roll to him all they have to do is check and break your momentum and cause you to lift and then you’re screwed.  When they’re dead straight drag races like that you’re at a disadvantage, which you should be, he’s the leader, but the problem is those guys on tires and stuff like that behind your are then able to roll to you and they’re the ones with the advantage.  It really isn’t the front row, it’s the second row and even the third row sometimes.”

YOU WERE THE DOMINANT CAR WITH NO PRACTICE.  DOES THAT GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE?  “I wasn’t really worried about it.  In today’s day and age when you’ve got a guy like Mike and his talents with simulation and things like that, and Lee and Chris and everybody that works on that simulation setup side of what we’ve got going on, I’m not really worried about it.  Nine times out of 10, all kidding aside, you start the weekend out and you change things, and you second-guess yourself and you change some more, you second-guess yourself, and by the time it’s all said and done, when you really look back at things your best runs were when you went right back to how you unloaded.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion – HOW MUCH BETTER DO YOU FEEL THIS TIME GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS THAN BEFORE?  “I feel good.  I feel like we’ve got fast race cars and we’ve got a chance to go up there and compete to win races and go far into the Playoffs.  Just thinking about today and another lost opportunity for us.  We had a car capable of challenging to win and run up front and we just keep having things pop up.  Today, we had a flat right-rear tire running third getting ready to pass Blaney for second, so we keep having things go wrong and it’s unfortunate. But one of these days our luck is going to change and hopefully it starts this week at Vegas and when our luck changes, we’re gonna put our Smithfield Ford Fusion in Victory Lane.  We’ve been too fast and had too good of a car lately these last couple of months to not put it all together.”

WILL IT BE A BONUS GOING TO THESE TRACKS FOR A SECOND TIME WITH JOHNNY?  “I think so.  We’ve run really well and the more we work together the faster I feel like our cars are showing up to the race track and we’re doing a good job of understanding each other, understanding what I want out of the race car, understanding where we need to be balance-wise.  Johnny is making good adjustments and we’re bringing fast race cars to the race track.  If we keep doing that, we’re gonna be fine.  We’re gonna go into the Playoffs and we’re probably just gonna put our heads down and go to work like we have all year.  I feel like we’re under the radar and not a lot of people have noticed how much speed we’ve had, so hopefully we surprise a lot of people starting next week.”

AT THE START OF THE YEAR A LOT OF EYES WERE ON YOU AND THE GOAL WAS TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS.  OUTSIDE OF WINNING, DO YOU FEEL THIS YEAR HAS GONE THE WAY YOU HOPED?  “I think so.  We’ve had a really good year.  We’ve had fast race cars.  I feel like the one thing that’s missing is just a trip to Victory Lane.  We’ve run so well. 

ARIC ALMIROLA CONTINUED -- “We’ve had cars that have run up front and we’ve led races and we’ve been in contention and then we just keep having crazy things happen.  Today is a perfect example.  I have a car that could run in the top three or top five and then have a flat right-rear tire right before the end of stage two.  Those things just eventually they’re not gonna happen and eventually we’re gonna have good fortune go our way and it will show – the speed and everything that we have will all come together hopefully at the right time and we’ll go on a tear.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BODYARMOR Ford Fusion – WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LAST PIT STOP?  “We were running fourth or fifth there and green flag stops came and I missed my box.  I went to the wrong box.  I went to the 22 box like I was in the XFINITY race and missed mine.  The bad thing was they were both set up the exact same in each race.  The 12 was before the 22, so I had to come around the 12 in the XFINITY race and I just had a brain fart and cost us a bunch of time.  That was dumb on  my part, but I thought we had a fourth or fifth-place car today, and you never know how it would have played out at the end.  It stinks, but it’s cool that Penske got one car to win here.  That’s cool for that team, but we’ll put all this behind us and go to Vegas.  That should be a pretty good track for us.”

HOW ARE YOU ON SPEED GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS?  DO YOU HAVE A REALISTIC CHANCE?  “We’d like to think so.  A lot of circumstances kind of played into the last two wins for them.  I’m not gonna lie, they’ve done a really good job to put themselves in that spot, but today I don’t think they were the best car, they just played a good strategy and got where they needed to be.  Hopefully, we’re closing in on it.  There’s only one way to find out and that’s next week.”

THOUGHTS ON 650 MILES OF RACING TODAY?  “It’s fine.  I could do it again.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – “We just weren’t very good from the get-go.  We swung at everything we could swing at and just kept shooting ourselves in the foot all day.”

THE PLAYOFFS START NOW.  “Yeah.  We just have to get going, that’s all.  The Playoffs are about to start and hopefully we’ll do better than that.”

THE SPEED HAS BEEN COMING FOR YOU GUYS.  ARE YOU IN A GOOD SPOT TO COMPETE FOR A TITLE?  “As long as we’re not racing at Indy I hope so.  The last couple of weeks have been all right. Today was really rough for us, so congratulations to Brad.  That’s really cool.  Two big races in a row.  That’s badass.  We were good last week, so we’ll hang our hat on that.  We won’t think too much about today, hopefully.

KURT BUSCH, No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion – “We have to stick with our strengths and that is consistency.  We’ve qualified well all year.  We’ve had good pit strategy and we just have to make sure we don’t make any mistakes that hurt us and we lose a lot of track position.  Today, we had one bad pit stop and it’s like, ‘You know what, the car is fast.’  We just have to take our time getting back up there, instead of trying to blitz through there.  Sometimes when you do that you get caught up in some wrecks, so, right now, it’s the Playoffs and we’ll just work our way through and advance through the rounds.”

DO THE BIG THREE HAVE ANY BEARING WITH THINGS BEING RESET?  “They’ll be strong.  You can never count them out.  There’s a group of us that’s from fourth to I’d say 16th.  I mean, everybody that’s in the Playoffs has a chance, but those big three have bonus points that will help them advance.”

WHAT TRACK ARE YOU MOST COMFORTABLE ABOUT IN THE FIRST ROUND?  “My hometown Vegas has been tough on me over the years.  The Roval is gonna be terribly exciting (laughing).  We’re gonna go with Richmond.  I think Richmond is our strongest track in that first round.  We have the best driver rating there from the spring race, we just didn’t execute to finish the race, so we’ll see how it all plays out.  That first round is all new tracks for the first time.”

WHAT DO YOU WORRY MOST ABOUT?  “The Roval you could say, but I think if we do our job and make sure that we execute as a team we’ll get through that.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 6 Wyndham Rewards Ford Fusion – “We were fairly competitive.  I felt like we had a top five to seven car.  It’s hard to tell exactly because we weren’t always on the same tires, but we kept putting ourselves behind with the way the cautions fell and the way we did our strategy.  And then the car fell off the jack when we were running fourth or whatever.  That was pretty much the end of our day.”

IS THIS SIGNS OF PROGRESS?  “Yeah, we had a lot more speed in our car.  This is the first truly competitive car I’ve had since I’ve been there, so that’s a positive sign.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Race for Riley Ford Fusion -- "That was a good day for us. A top-20 at Indy is always a good day. I was really happy to get those last few spots at the end. We beat the cars we needed to beat to get into that top 25 in points. I'm really proud of everybody. We made good adjustments and got it good there at the end when we needed it. Happy to have a good run for John Andretti and Race for Riley. It was special to have them on the car."

We know you've been a little busy the last couple hours.  Just quickly maybe an opening statement just on what it means to win here at Indy, obviously very special to Team Penske for your team owner Roger Penske, but then you also mentioned that it was your first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win for your sponsor Discount Tire, just what it means to be able to have all those things come together today.

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Yeah, today was obviously a big day, but for us, a number of reasons why, and I know most of you know that, but I'll just go ahead and repeat them.  With Roger Penske getting his first Cup win here and myself getting the first Cup win here, at such a historic racetrack that means so much to all of motorsports, so for us to have our name on that win list sure does mean a lot to me.  I can tell you that. And then you look at some of the other things we have going on, about to enter the playoffs, of course having those few extra playoff bonus points, you never know when you're going to need those.  You just can't ever predict it.  Having five more of those sure does make us feel good about the next 10 weeks ahead. And then finally, like you said, our sponsors, Discount Tire, they've been with me since 2010, and I don't know if I would be here in my career without them.  But this is the first time they've been with us at the Cup level, and this is their first win.  What a great first win to have, and I'm really happy for them, as well. Just a terrific day all the way around, and I'm really, really happy, really just very much thrilled.  Today was not an easy day.  We certainly didn't go out and just dominate the whole race, but my team executed everything perfectly, caught a little bit of break, but we put ourselves in position for that break and then executed before and after it.  Just very much thrilled to be here and thrilled to be a Brickyard 400 winner.”

Obviously came down to that final restart and you ended up getting a lead from Denny.  Can you recap the last restart with you and the 11 car?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Yeah, I knew we'd have a shot to run with Denny, and on the last restart the inside line just had incredible grip, and we drove from third to second entering Turn 1, and then I knew it was just a matter of settling in.  I was extremely loose, and so I was kind of nervous about that being so loose and around Denny because I knew I was going to have to pass him on the inside, and when you pass somebody on the inside, you get even looser.  I had almost spun out right before the yellow came out before that.  I got a little bit of a run on him off of Turn 4 with 2 to go and got right up behind him through 1 and 2 and eventually as able to just barely take a peek underneath him off of 2 and try to get a run.  We held each other pretty tight entering 3, and I knew going into Turn 3 underneath him that with no air on the right side of the car, I was just going to wreck us both.  I had to let him go and try to make another run at him for Turn 4, and that's what we were able to do.  I was able to just get in there and kind of dig position into Turn 4, and it stuck.  I was able to clear him, and gosh, that was one of the best things I ever heard in my life was clear off of Turn 4 at Brickyard coming to the white flag.  To me, what a day, it was a great finish, and like I said, we weren't good enough to beat him straight up, and we didn't.  But we put ourselves in position to do it with great strategy and timing all the moves right on pit road and on the racetrack.  I'm really thrilled for that.”

For as great as this moment is, how tough was it a year ago, and what was the difference in terms of the restarts?  I know you were in different lanes, but it was kind of in some sense a similar situation.

          

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Well, yeah, there was a lot going on here today.  But certainly to your point, victories like this are sweeter when you've had failures beforehand, and I feel like I've had a car capable of winning this race two or three times in the past.  Today was probably not even in the top 3 for cars that I've had here.  With that in mind, either I didn't execute or we didn't execute as a team, and so you try to learn from that, and you try to be better, and apply yourself in the best way possible, and today we executed across the board.  I executed the passes I needed to execute.  I executed the long run there.  I executed the strategy on the team's end and the pit stop on the team's end, and that's why we're here today. With that in mind, that's part of the ebbs and flows and part of what makes this victory taste so sweet.”

Denny obviously was a little bit upset that lapped cars kind of wrecked and ended up bringing the field back.  How random or how much was it ‑‑ is luck the right word?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Yeah, I mean, Indy has always been this way.  Before I came here this weekend, I sat down and watched the 1994 Indy 500, and the announcers were talking towards the closing stages how Indy always changes right at the end, and that's always been how this race seems to play out.  There's always something that happens with 20 to go that completely shakes everything up. I don't know why that is.  That particular race, Emerson Fittipaldi was going to win it hands down, and he got caught up in lap traffic, spun out in a wreck and Little Al did.  But with that in mind, that's been the story of this race forever, and it's burned us, and today it probably worked in our favor. So like I said, you've got to take the ups with the downs, and appreciate when you're on the upswing and put yourself in position to be on the up swing but know sometimes those things aren't going to work out.  Today it did, and we're very proud of that and thankful for it.”

With McMurray at the end, were you wondering what type of moves he might try to pull considering ‑‑

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Jamie is a pretty solid and smart racer, and quite honestly, we had such a great car there at the end with the new tires that I felt pretty confident we'd be able to make the most of it.”

Have you had a chance to speak with Roger yet, and if so, what was that conversation like?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Yes, I did.  It was a very brief conversation.  He unfortunately couldn't be here today.  He's on a secret mission somewhere.  If you know Roger Penske, that makes perfect sense.  But with that in mind, I very much wish I was here, and I'm thinking about him.  Gosh, just such a big day for Team Penske.  It's such a shame he isn't here.”

The first one you had said earlier that getting the all‑clear was like a big matter of relief.  Did you expect a little bit more resistance from Denny because you were kind of the aggressor?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Well, I knew I was really loose through Turn 4 and I bobbled trying to get by him and make the pass, and I couldn't quite carry the run, and I thought he might still be there.  I knew if I was still there off of 4 that the race was over, I wasn't going to win.”

Secondly, it feels like maybe you'll disagree, but it feels like this race more than any other is so strategy dependent that having a guy like Paul who can make those right calls is very vital.  I never feel like there's ever a moment when you ever question one of his calls.  How much is it a value to have a guy that you're on the same page with?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Well, I'm glad you feel that way.  It's kind of like mom and dad arguing.  Mom and dad should never argue in front of their kids.  I'm not going to say that Paul and I always agree on everything, but I sure did agree with that last call.  We try to stay on the same page as much as possible, but these races are so dynamic, you come into them with a plan and then yellows come out and things happen, and next thing you know your plan is garbage, and that's tough to deal with sometimes, but that's part of racing.  But Paul is a smart guy and made the most of the strategy when it counted.”

Inaudible question

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI: “ I think so.  Strategy is so important here because cars struggle so much with the aerodynamics behind each other that you could have a much faster race car and not be able to pass.  Getting all that right is very critical.”

Two wins in a row heading into the playoffs; that's got to be a huge confidence boost and momentum boost.  What can you do to keep that rolling over the next few weeks?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Yeah, you know, trying to look at the next 10 weeks, the next 10 weeks are races upon their own.  There's a lot of conversation based around momentum, and today is certainly great, but there's not a lot we're going to really take from it from Vegas other than the five bonus points and the money, with that in mind. We're proud of this win for sure, but it's no guarantee for any success in the playoffs.  We have to go out and earn it each and every lap of each and every race.”

Obviously anything can happen in the playoffs; you understand that, you've been around.  But with the advantage that at least Kyle and Kevin have in terms of playoff points, do you almost view it as everybody else is racing for two spots at Homestead, or do you almost feel like it's one spot with Truex?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Yeah, you know, it's tough.  You can have one really bad race and lose 50 points pretty quick.  And honestly, they don't have 50 on me, I think they have 35 on me, if that's right, roughly.  It's close, right?  Nobody is going to audit it; it's somewhere around there.  It's 31?  Okay.  So I mean, yeah, that's ‑‑ a good race in the playoffs is a 40‑ to 45‑point race.  So that in mind, a bad race in the playoffs is like a three‑ or a five‑point race.  That's within that window pretty quickly.  There's no guarantees ‑‑ I would want to be in the 50s or 60s to feel like I was going to have a lock to Homestead.  So they're close to that but not there. You know, and then of course those last three races you have three different winners that aren't them, and that means there's only one seat at the table.  We're looking forward to those weeks each one of these rounds the way the schedule has realigned has had a racetrack that I think we can win at, so I'm really optimistic about that.  Probably for us, Homestead is the toughest besides the Roval, track for us.  We're excited and ready to go, but there's a big challenge in front of us but also an incredible opportunity.”

And on pit road, Kyle Busch was asked who's the four among the big three, and he suggested it's you based on the last two weeks.  Are you the fourth?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI: “ I'd love to be the first.  There's no guarantee in any of these things.  I don't know.  That's a long ways from now, and I think you get to looking too far ahead, that's how you get yourself in trouble.  I think you've got to go one week at a time.  And I know that sounds like the old football coach cliché, but that's really the reality here because you can dig a big hole so fast when you get to looking too far ahead.”

There's been some joking over the last few days that maybe this race is just cursed because of all the rain, and I'm curious if you felt from a Penske standpoint whether you guys have been kind of cursed in this race ‑‑

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Yeah, we have felt a little cursed, but honestly, I've felt like I've made some mistakes along the way that kept us from winning, and today was a day where we just didn't make them.  We had great strategy, a little bit of luck on our side and perfect execution.”

Do you think today could be potential for lifting maybe any curse off this race when we talk about ‑‑ who knows what type of aero package you'll have come year a year from now?

           

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Well, I really like the idea of this race being maybe not the cutoff race to the playoffs but towards the fall months.  I think there's a good fit there that makes good sense to me.  I'd really like it if it was like IRP or whatever that track is called now on a Wednesday and then Indy on a Sunday.  I wish we could race twice in this region in the week, so you get a little dose of both.  But you can't complain.  The track is trying really hard to do what they can do, and we're very fortunate to be able to have stock cars here running at this track and thankful for that opportunity.”

After you won last week, you said you expected to run fifth to tenth.  Is that about where you expected to run today?

          

BRAD KESELOWSKI:  “Yeah, it was pretty similar.  We were a little bit worse than that at times, a little bit better than that at times.  Obviously in the end when you do everything right in these types of races you can execute and have a shot at it, and we did just that.”
 

Paul, on the big win today.  This is the team's second victory this season with a win last week at Darlington, followed by the win at Indianapolis.  That's not a bad week.  And then also your 14th top‑10 finish this season. Just give us a few thoughts on the race.  Being able to deliver this win to Mr. Penske, I know, was a big goal for all of you guys.

PAUL WOLFE, crew chief, No. 2 Ford Fusion:  “Yeah, it's hard to believe.  You know, last week was one of those races, as well, that Team Penske hasn't won at since '70 whatever it was, I can't even remember now.  That was such a big win and one on the list to check off. Coming here to Indy this week, this is always a pretty special place for the boss and for the team, as much success as they've had on the open wheel side.  We've just never been able to get it done on the Cup side, and we were close last year, we were on the front row restart towards the end, but weren't able to execute. You know, it was a little bit of an up‑and‑down day for us.  We didn't have a lot of speed in the Discount Tire Ford, but we were kind of hanging in there.  We gained some points in each of the stages with different strategies flipping around, and we knew our opportunity to make something happen was going to be get on a different strategy towards the end, and gosh, it's hard to believe that we did that and we caught the break. Sometimes you've got to have a little luck on your side, and we definitely did when the caution fell, and from there, it was up to Brad just to hit his marks and execute on his end on that last restart.”

How much emphasis does Roger put on the Brickyard coming in, knowing that you guys ‑‑ that Team Penske hadn't gotten a win here yet?

           

PAUL WOLFE:  “I wouldn't say he really puts any more pressure or any more emphasis.  I think everyone just goes without saying, you know, that all the success that they've had here ‑‑ just been close many times, just haven't been able to get it done. You go to every race every weekend putting all the effort you can into it and doing all the things you can, and can't say that Indy is a whole lot different for us.  We didn't prepare any differently.  But it didn't is pretty special and means a lot to be able to kiss the bricks today and get that first win here for Team Penske and for Roger. There's things on the list, the bucket list, right, that you're trying to check off, and this was definitely one of them, and pretty special that we could get it done.  The only thing that could have been better than winning last week at Darlington and then winning again today at the Brickyard was if the boss was here to celebrate with us.  Unfortunately he hasn't been here for either one of the ones, but just really proud of this whole Discount Tire team and Brad just hanging in there.  This sport is so tough, and we've heard this a lot, but the fastest car doesn't always win, and there's a lot more to it than just being fast, and it comes down to execution and pit road and making the right calls. I feel like our team has done a great job of that this year and trying to get all we can, and we've just got to keep working.  We need more speed in our cars, but if we can get a little more speed to go with the execution we've had, I think we're really going to be a contender in the championship.”

Walt Czarnecki.  Thanks for joining us.  Give us a few words on what it means to finally check off that NASCAR win here at Indianapolis.

WALTER CZARNECKI, Team Penske: “Well, yeah, at the risk of sounding a little trite, winning here 17 times with the 500 sets the standard, and this is something we've been trying to do for 25 years.  Been close, I guess we finished second five times, so to be able to do it today with this Discount Tire Ford is really special. On that last call, Paul just made a tremendous call, and that last restart with three laps to go, I really knew that Brad was not going to be denied.  He had fresher tires, but that notwithstanding, I knew he had the desire.  I knew how much he wanted to win the race.  He and I spoke about it before the race, and he assured me that he was going to do everything he could to win the race.  In fact, he did.  My only regret is that Roger is not here.  He really deserves to be here because this race means so much to him.  He was here all day yesterday, and we didn't get a chance to run. He and I have been exchanging texts, so he's thrilled about it.  But again, thanks to everybody at Team Penske, Roger certainly for his vision, his commitment to this team, Tim Cindric and everybody else who made this happen.  Thank you, Paul.”

Paul, obviously you guys have pulled off two great wins back‑to‑back at two great tracks, but as you stated, you haven't had the speed.  You guys have won it through execution.  How much can you do that in the playoffs?  Can you get away with this type of thing, or how much of a concern is it not to have the speed and kind of having ‑‑ it's great that you're maximizing things, but can you do that 10 weeks in a row?

PAUL WOLFE:  “Well, if you asked anyone coming into the last two weeks, they'd probably say we couldn't win either way.  I guess I'd say anything's possible.  But you're right.  Like you say, we want more speed.  We know we're off a little bit there.  But I believe we can get through the first round for sure by just executing and not making mistakes.  As I look at second and third round, there's some great opportunity races there.  We know we can go to Talladega and win, and we know we can go to Martinsville and win.  We have a little bit of work to do on the intermediate tracks to find a little more speed, but winning the last two weeks definitely is a little booster for everyone at Team Penske.  We've just got to find another level, another gear to work in, and I believe we can get there.  And like I said, if we can get just a little more speed with the execution we have right now, I think we're going to be a real threat when it comes down to the end of this.”

When you talk to drivers, they'll tell you that certain tracks, whether it's the short tracks or road courses, those are driver tracks.  Talk to spotters, they feel very invested in the restrictor plate tracks, they feel like they make more of a difference.  Is it a track because of strategy calls challenges you guys on pit boxes more than any other?

PAUL WOLFE:  “It does.  There's some drivers that obviously are better than others here, and it's a unique style racetrack, not like anything else we run at.  But strategy always seems to be a big factor in who wins here.  If you look at obviously last year with Kasey winning, they weren't the fastest car, either.  It's definitely a challenge.  Obviously if you do have the fastest car, it can be frustrating at times when you don't get the win, but when you're off a little bit, you know there's always opportunity. There's a lot of different scenarios that played out today, especially with the stage racing, and as we saw the field get jumbled around as guys were on different strategies.  That was our best shot.  Sometimes you catch a break, and sometimes you don't.  The way it all shuffled after the end of Stage 2, I think we finished sixth or seventh in Stage 2, and we came out after that cycle 14th or 15th, and at that point the difference of maybe getting up to 10th or finishing 18th, I was willing to take the gamble and run long, and that's what we did, and we caught the break when we needed it.  You still have to have a car that's fast enough when you do get that clean air.  Even though you're not the fastest, you still have to be competitive, and we definitely have that, and when we put ourselves in position like we did this week and last week, we're able to get the win.”

Paul, is what has gone well for you guys the last two weeks that hasn't earlier in the season to where you weren't able to get those wins?  I know you've had that struggle with speed all season.  Have you not maximized things as well, or is there something else?  Why are you guys doing it now as opposed to being able to do it earlier?

PAUL WOLFE:  “I can't say in my mind that there's anything really a whole lot different.  You know, we know in this sport sometimes you get good breaks and sometimes you get bad, and I feel like just the beginning of the year we caught a lot of bad breaks, and now maybe it's our turn to catch a couple.  I don't feel like I'm calling the race a whole lot different than I did earlier in the season.  I try to always make the best educated decision I can.  Sometimes obviously they're a bit of a gamble, but we try to use as much data and history and try to understand how the race is going to play out to make some of those decisions.  Sometimes you're just not going to catch the break, and we were able to do that the last couple weeks. The pit crew executed last week when we needed them to.  It's been an up‑and‑down year on pit road for us, and there's been stops where we've been really strong, but there's been some bad ones, too, and we just caught it on the right side of it last week, and then, like I said, this isn't the first time we've done this sort of a strategy, and other races it didn't work out this year, but today it did.”

Walt, now that you've been texting back and forth with Roger a little bit and you've had a little time to think about it, has it set in for the organization that you guys won the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year?

           

WALTER CZARNECKI:  No, and I really hadn't thought about it until you reminded me about it a few minutes ago.  This was so big, I think, in all of our minds to win this race and we were so focused on it that we forgot about the great win that Will had here back in May.  So to do this, again, makes this an extra special year.  Again, I would remind everyone that this also is our 499th Team Penske win.  In a way this morning when I got to the racetrack, I thought, wouldn't it be interesting if we won the Xfinity race for 499 and won the Brickyard 400 for our 500th win.  That little wishful thinking, half of it came through.  But no, it really means a lot. I want to thank, too, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation, the Hulman George family and Doug Boles and everybody.  I know they had a tough weekend here having to deal with the weather that we all had to deal with, but I know as a track operator myself, I know the challenges that it brings.  I want to congratulate them for the great job that they did here this weekend.”

Looking ahead next week to Las Vegas, I know you talk about looking at history and things like that.  Obviously it's a new date for that race.  The temperature is going to be hotter than it's ever been for any of the races in the spring.  Obviously you can take some data from the spring, but what are the challenges in looking ahead to that race and trying to put things together for that one?

           

PAUL WOLFE:  Yeah, it's definitely, to your point, it'll be a new one.  We have a lot of history and notes on the spring race, and we've had some good success there and always seem to run well.  But to your point, there will be some new challenges going into ‑‑ being a playoff race, and track conditions change things a lot.  It was pretty cold there from what I recall in the spring, and from what I've seen, it's going to be close to 100 degrees, track temps up.  But with that being said, I think we've got a good enough group that we're going to dig in and try to ride this momentum, and I feel like, like I said, we've had some good success there in the past, and there's no reason we can't go out there this week and have a strong car and put ourselves in position at the end. I look forward to this first round as a pretty good round for us.  We run well at Richmond, and then obviously the Roval is a little bit of an unknown for everyone.  I think if we go do our job and not make any mistakes, we're going to be just fine.”

TOYOTA:

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing

What happened to take you out of the race?

“Left-front brake rotor exploded and went through the hood. I thought I blew a tire initially going into (turn) one there and I was like ‘oh this is going to hurt’, but the car kept turning luckily and I was able to keep it off the wall. Just brake rotor exploded. I don’t know what was going on with the brakes. We had major issues from the start of the race. Obviously, all that kind of compounded into having a major brake issue. It’s unfortunate. The Auto-Owners Toyota was really fast. As hard as it is to pass here, we were getting there making our way to the front. I felt like any time we had clean air, we had really good speed. Wish we could have raced all day and seen what we could have done with them, but hopefully we’ll get this bad luck out of the way before the playoffs start next week.”

With the announcement earlier this week, is the team trying to keep a stiff upper lip?

“We got a great bunch of guys here. A great bunch of hard core racers. Nobody is going to put their heads down and give up, I can promise you that. We’re going to come out swinging in Vegas.”

Any idea what happened?

“I had some brake issues right from the get go – start of the race. I had a really strong car and was making our way from the back to the front and felt like we were going to have something for them today. Unfortunately, lost a brake rotor there and it went through the oil cooler and ended our day. It’s unfortunate, we had a lot of speed today, but hopefully we’ll get this bad luck out of the way before the playoffs and we’ll go get them in Vegas.”

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