BRAD KESELOWSKI: “We just worked and worked and gave up on this car and it showed up. It’s good to see that showed up there at the end and bring home a seventh-place. I wish we could have got a top-five but it is what it is and still very happy with that. I’m looking forward to more races and running better every week.” WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE 29 CAR? “He checked-up a little bit off the corner and I got under him and he saw it and at the last second kind of pulled down. I reacted and pulled down. About the time we got to the corner there just wasn’t no room. I ended up coming up on him because my angle for the corner was so bad from being run down. I tried to pull back and let him in but I just couldn’t fall back fast enough for the run I had. I’m sorry that it happened. I hate to see that happen.” YOU RAN WELL TODAY AT A DEMANDING TRACK. THAT MUST GIVE YOU A BOOST OF CONFIDENCE. “Yeah, that’s funny, two sevenths at Dover and Bristol. I think if you’d have told me that coming into it I’d have been really happy with that. That’s great, that’s a great way to end the concrete tracks.” YOU WERE NOT FAST WHEN PRACTICE BEGAN HERE FRIDAY MORNING. YOU HAD TO MAKE YOUR CAR BETTER. “No, it wasn’t easy this weekend, that’s for sure. We fought hard all weekend and made a lot of changes in the heat and came back in the morning and made a lot more changes. I’m just really glad that it paid dividends for the U.S. NAVY Chevrolet.” DID THE RAIN SHOWER EARIER TODAY CHANGE THE TRACK? “No, not really. That’s just part of the deal. What’s hurting us more than anything is just time to work together. We haven’t got going yet there working together.”

WES WARD, CREW CHIEF, U.S. NAVY CHEVROLET: “We’re pretty happy. We made some mistakes today, on pit road, and Brad made a couple mistakes. We’ve got to work on that a little bit. He got a little aggressive there with the 29 and he’s sorry about that for sure. That messed the fender up on the right front and then we got pretty tight. The pit crew there, I guess it was the second stop, we dropped a lug there on the right rear and it really cost us big. All in all, to come out of here with a seventh-place finish, we’re pretty happy about that.” HOW DID YOU GET TRACK POSITION LATE IN THE RACE? “Well, it’s kind of a miscommunication really. You kind of do opposite of what they do but I wanted to pit and we probably would have just took two tires and ended up coming out in front of ‘em. But we didn’t have any laps on our tires and we stayed out on the racetrack and got a little too tight there at the end. But if we would have pitted we would have had to drove back to seventh. I don’t know if we could’ve. We ended up falling back to seventh so all in all for the NAVY Chevrolet that was good.” DO TIRES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE HERE? “It’s not all about tire wear. The tires weren’t wearing. Cool tires for the first 10,15 laps is really big.”

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 59 KINGSFORD FORD: “I just feel bad for crashing that car in qualifying. We didn’t have a backup car that was suited for this track and we hit the ground all day. We tried everything and couldn’t keep it off the deck. We’re just happy with finished.” WHAT HAPPENED IN QUALIFYING? “I don’t know. I just ran out of talent, I think. I got a little loose through one and two and kept digging. I kept the throttle down and cleaned it up for me and I thought beautiful. As I came out of the hole it just got light. Obviously the rear wheels were still sliding somewhat and I just couldn’t catch it.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI PRESS CONFERENCE
“We struggled most all day yesterday and got a little better in qualifying. We threw a completely different setup at it and come race time was a lot better. I’m really proud of all the guys on the U.S. NAVY Chevrolet for working that hard and making it better. We made some progress in the race and got up to somewhere around eighth on our second pit stop there. Some guys stayed out and some didn’t. We lost a little bit of track position and struggled to get that back. Eventually we dug hard and got into it with the 29 there with 60 to go or somewhere around there. It was one of those racing deal and I’m real sorry for Scott that that happened. Just dug hard all day and probably had about a fifth to 10th-place car, approximately, and got some track position and got a seventh out of it and can’t really complain about that. I’m just really proud of everyone on the team and looking forward to more runs like this.” YOU WERE RUNNING THIRD LATE IN THE RACE. WHAT HAPPENED? “I feel like we had a good car. When I got into the 29 I damaged the right front fender and it took away a little bit of front downforce out of it and put the car out of balance. Again, that was one of those racing deals and not really anything on my team’s fault. Eventually over time that’s going to show up but we just had a strong car. I felt like we probably could have got a fifth-place finish out of that, maybe a little better if I hadn’t torn up the fender with the 29. I’m real proud of the No. 88 U.S. NAVY Chevrolet team.” HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS TRACK? “I think to come out of Bristol and Dover with a pair of seventh-place finishes, a Raybestos Rookie with a team that I’ve only been with now for seven races or right around there, you’ve got to love that. I mean, how can you not like a track where you tie your best finish in the Busch Series? These are my type of tracks: aggressive, mean, kind of in your face and that’s cool. I like it a lot and I think the fans like it a lot.”