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NASCAR CUP SERIES: FOOD CITY PRESENTS THE SUPERMARKET HEROES 500May 31, 2020Brad KeselowskiBristol, Tennessee THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the race‑winning driver of tonight's Food City Presents Supermarket Heroes 500, and that is Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford for Team Penske. Brad, an eventful final few laps, eventful race. Walk us through it from your perspective. BRAD KESELOWSKI: Just wild, wild day. One of those days that you look at and you think of going back, being a part of Bristol lore for a long time to come. Glad we were able to win it. So much beating and banging. Oh my goodness. We have all been cooped up in our houses too long, came to Bristol and took out some aggression I guess. I don't know. Early on in the race everybody was hitting each other. It carried in all the way to the end. Some people ran me over. I probably ran some people over. Everybody is mad at everybody going into Atlanta next week. Just a really eventful day for us. We started up front on the pole, led a bunch of laps. Lost the lead. Then we made some adjustments to the car and got really good in the second stage. Got the lead, then lost the lead on pit road. I could not hit the restarts after that. I kept falling back. Fell all the way to eighth or ninth or something like that. Just started to get really frustrated, started losing handling on the car, the track kept changing. I was pushing really hard, got a pit road penalty. It was just, wow, I am digging a hole. About 40 some something, I think we were running 14th, 15th, 48 or 49 to go, somebody has a stat on that, we came in, put left side tires on, came off of pit road in a spot to compete. I think we came off pit road maybe 12th. Just kept cycling forward. They'd drop the green, go five laps, wreck, drop the green, go five laps, they'd wreck. Next thing I knew, I was restarting fourth. This is perfect. Cleared for third on the restart there, the last restart. I watched Joey and Chase going at it. The next thing I knew, they were wrecking. Here we found ourselves in Victory Lane. Just really crazy how it all came together. I tell you, I'm super proud to be here and to get a second win in the season. That's for me my fifth year with multiple wins in a row, which is really good. Really happy and proud of that. Trying to put ourselves in a position to make a real run at a championship. Hopefully we can do just that. I feel like we're coming together as a team. This is a new team this year. Same number, same car, all that, but new team. They're really starting to gel, so I'm very happy for them. THE MODERATOR: We'll open the floor up for questions. Q. You talked about the aggression early. We saw Chase and Logano have their incident, Chase taking blame for it. Jimmie made a mistake at Darlington, Kyle Busch as well. Is there anything wrong with us seeing you guys make mistakes or is there a reason for it? BRAD KESELOWSKI: Well, mistakes make for great racing. When you watch rookies run at some of these tracks, it's a lot of fun. I think you look at the lower tiered series, they're some of the most fun races to watch because the drivers make a lot of mistakes, that creates a lot of action. I think sometimes you get to the Cup level, whether it's the setup, drivers' experience, you don't see a lot of mistakes. People misinterpret that as the cars are really easy to drive. It's really just the opposite of that. These guys are pros, really good. For whatever reason, whether it's not having a chance to work on the cars, practice, the drivers not getting those experiences, we're seeing more mistakes with this format, this style of racing, the no‑practice type stuff. I don't think that's a bad thing. I think that makes for better racing in a lot of different ways. So I hope we keep it up. I said earlier this week that I feel like NASCAR struck gold with these formats. I stand by that. These are great formats. We've seen some of the best racing we've ever seen in NASCAR accordingly. I'm not just saying that because I'm in Victory Lane. I think a lot of people would say this was a tremendous race, and I hope they enjoyed it. Q. You talk about this team, a potential championship team. Do you feel like you need to get your contract situation settled sooner than later in order for you to do that or can you keep the two separate? BRAD KESELOWSKI: I mean, I haven't thought of it that way. I haven't put that much thought into anything other than competing and winning and wanting to be in a spot to compete and win for a long time. I don't let it be a distraction. I can't always speak for others. The experience I've had with the team, they're not either. Q. What do you make of winning two races in the fashion that you have? Is it being in the right place at the right time? BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, there's definitely a lot of that. We had good speed today. I think maybe the 9 car might have been the fastest car. Only by a little bit. I might have been just as fast as he was. We just got behind. I made a couple mistakes. Dug ourselves in a little bit of a hole. I think on equal tires, we were as good or better than anybody else out there, probably equal to the 9. It just didn't really play out that way for us to show that in the middle part of the race. In the beginning it did. I think if you look at a couple other races this year, I felt like we were probably the second or third best car at Phoenix. Kind of had the opposite of today happen where all the yellows came against us, bad lanes on restarts, all that kind of stuff. It's nice to catch some of those breaks. The Coke 600, I don't know if we were as good as the 9. I don't think we were. I thought we were the second best car again. You run like this, you put yourself in position with good cars, running up in the top five, allow good things to happen to yourself, be in position. I think that's what we're doing really well right now. Q. You said after the 600 you lost a lot of races in a lot of different ways. Have you ever won two in a row like this? BRAD KESELOWSKI: Maybe in '18 we won three races in a row. I don't think we were the fastest car in any one of those three races but we put ourselves in position and good things happened to us. It feels really cool when it goes that way, feels really bad when it goes against you. You really kind of have to ride the rollercoaster, enjoy the good parts and try to shrug off the bad parts. Q. You touched on your last pit stop. Can you take me through what the strategy was? Was the thinking to put two tires on, if something happens in front, you have a chance of racing past everybody? BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, I think with 41 to go, I was quite honestly just hoping to get a top 10. Once we broke in the top 10 I thought, I have a real shot at the top five. Next thing I know we're running fifth. I think the 11 car got turned around, something happened there. Now we're running fourth. Now we have the preferred lane on the restart. Then the restart we clear and get third. I'm watching Chase and Joey. This is not going to be good. It was just such a turn of events. Felt like I was sitting in Vegas, playing poker, and I got all the turns. They call it the river. All the turns went my way. Went from having a bad hand to having a full house real quick. Q. Was that your call or was that your crew chief's call to take the two tires? BRAD KESELOWSKI: It was Jeremy's. Jeremy called a really good race. I'm super proud of him and this team, the way they've come together, and keep coming together. It's a special group. I feel like we're all trying to find each other's full potential. We're just starting to do that. We were getting real close to that before the pandemic happened. Kind of slowed us down. Now we're really pushing each other hard and that's a very good thing. Q. A lot of people have given Hendrick kudos for the way they've come out of the box. You feel like Team Penske is absolutely right there? BRAD KESELOWSKI: We're just a touch behind. I think the mile‑and‑a‑half's, I would say Hendrick is definitely a little better. On the short tracks, I think we're really, really close. Q. Is the difference this year for Chevrolet the fact that they have a new Camaro and they were able to take it and redesign it with a rules package they already had? BRAD KESELOWSKI: I couldn't speak to that. I don't know enough details. I mean, certainly it doesn't hurt. I think everybody would admit to that. I thought they had a pretty good car before, to be honest with you. I know they've done a couple things, made some really nice upgrades. It looks like that's probably paying off. But I couldn't tell you which one it is. Q. After the race you talked about how your team kind of melded into a never‑give‑up team. Can you talk about how important a quality that is to have as the season goes on and you want to be a legitimate contender for a championship? BRAD KESELOWSKI: It's really big. We're probably a little bit in the honeymoon phase. That makes it a lot of fun and easier to do. The key is how do you keep that. How do you keep that fresh conversation and dialogue going, keep the positive attitudes going. I'm thinking through that and trying to be the best I can. I know they are, too. We're all just really happy for each other's success. We're there to pick each other up when things aren't going our way and somebody is having a bad day. I think that's what great teams do. This is turning into a great team. I'm super, super proud of them. I'm proud to be a part of it. I'm driving my butt off. Sometimes I think I might be driving a little bit too hard. So far it's been paying off. Q. From behind the wheel, could you tell any difference in the change to the short track rules package? BRAD KESELOWSKI: Oh, without a doubt. The cars are significantly harder to drive, significantly slower. They're significantly more racy. I think we saw a better race accordingly. Q. You get a week off before heading to Atlanta. You won at Atlanta last year. Do you think with the success you have had so far that you're right there with Hendrick going to Atlanta? What are your expectations there? BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, I don't know if I have a great answer for that. Atlanta is not like any other mile‑and‑a‑half we go to. The cars are so fast at the beginning of the run and so slow at the end of the run. It's such a big delta there. It's hard to say who is going to be good, who is not, especially without having a lot of practice and all those things. I suspect if I was to take a blind guess that the 9 car and 88 will be very, very strong and tough to beat. We're going to do our best to keep them honest. Q. With the full week off, do you expect to have more communication with Jeremy than over the last two weeks? BRAD KESELOWSKI: I hope so. There's all kinds of Zoom meetings and all that, but there's nothing like being face‑to‑face. We're still not obviously there. Wish we were. Hope we get there really soon to where we can do that, everybody feels safe and comfortable. But it's certainly different. It's a different way of living and communicating. THE MODERATOR: Brad, congratulations on the win. Enjoy a day off. We'll see you at Atlanta Motor Speedway. BRAD KESELOWSKI: Thank you. Appreciate everybody. Have a great day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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