BRAD COLEMAN, No. 18 CARINO’S ITALIAN GRILL CHEVROLET: WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS ENTERING THIS WEEKEND? “We’ve had a great two weeks. The Joe Gibbs team and Carino’s Italian Grill have been behind me 100 percent. We’ve been doing a good job and I’m excited about this weekend at Michigan. I raced two ARCA races here last year and finished fifth in both of them so I’m looking for some good things.” WILL YOUR ARCA EXPERIENCE HERE HELP YOU THIS WEEKEND? “I definitely think it does. It definitely helps learning the track and learning where you can run and where the grooves are and bumps and all that. I mean, the spoiler is a little smaller here on the Busch cars and a little less horsepower so we’ll see what happens.” YOU RAN WELL IN EACH OF THE LAST TWO RACES. ARE YOU PLEASED THAT YOU HAD A CHANCE TO WIN OR ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED THAT YOU DIDN’T WIN? “I would have loved to win ‘em but I’m very pleased with our results, especially after Montreal. With like three laps to go we got caught up in that wreck and we came back from 15th to eighth so I’m happy with that. I’m really excited about this weekend because it’s the Kentucky car that we finished second with. We know it’s a really good car and it’s really fast and we’re looking to run pretty good.” DO YOU LEAN ON DENNY HAMLIN AND TONY STEWART FOR ADVICE? “I do but I haven’t had a chance to learn on them about Michigan. They’re kind of hard to find [smiles].” WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD WEEKEND FOR YOU? “Top-15 or top-10 would definitely be good because this is like a mini Cup race here.” DO YOU LEARN A LOT RACING THE CUP GUYS? “Oh definitely. You learn tons. It’s basically like being in a Cup race. You learn so much being around them. Sure, you don’t run as good as if you ran against just the Busch regulars every weekend but you get a lot more experience and you learn a lot quicker so you’re ready for NEXTEL Cup.” YOU WON A POLE EARLIER THIS SEASON. DO YOU THINK YOU CAN WIN A RACE? “I think we can. This is a really good car from Kentucky. It’s really aerodynamically balanced and it’s fast so we’ll see how we can do with it.”

Raybestos Rookie Brad Keselowski enters Saturday’s CARFAX 250 fresh off a 10th-place finish in his most recent Busch Series start. Keselowski is a native of Rochester Hills, Michigan.

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 88 U.S. NAVY CHEVROLET: HOW SPECIAL IS IT TO COME BACK TO YOUR HOME TRACK WITH ARGUABLY THE BEST OPPORTUNITY OF YOUR CAREER? “I wouldn’t say arguably, I’d say definitely the best opportunity I’ve ever had here at Michigan. It’s a great car, got a lot of good people working on it and hopefully we’ll be able to get it up front.” HOW DIFFICULT HAS IT BEEN TO STEP OUT OF THE CAR THE LAST COUPLE OF RACES? “You know, I have mixed feelings on that, mixed emotions. I got a chance to regroup mentally. Everything that’s happened over the last month and a half, I haven’t really been able to focus on it to see how lucky I was to get the opportunities I have. It’s good for me to sit back and think about some things and regroup. The racetracks that I missed aren’t really tracks that would affect me for this week as far as momentum goes, two road course races so the things you would learn in those two weeks wouldn’t apply to here anyway. So that really didn’t hurt me too much as a driver but still, when there’s a race you want to be in it.” THIS TRACK LOOKS PRETTY SIMPLE. “I think it’s probably one of the easiest tracks to qualify on for the Busch Series other than Daytona and Talladega but when you get to racing it’s one of the more difficult ones trying to find the right lane, trying to figure out how to make a pass here is very difficult.” YOUR BROTHER, BRAD, IS HERE ATTEMPTING TO QUALIFY THIS WEEKEND. “Yeah it’s going to be really good. We kind of have different goals. He’s here trying to get approved for some bigger tracks and advance his career where obviously I’m here trying to go for the win. So it’s going to be great to race with him here on the home track with a bunch of family here.” YOU HAVE PRESERVERED FOR YEARS WITH UNDERFUNDED TEAMS AND NOW HAVE A GOOD OPPORTUNITY WITH A COMPETITIVE TEAM. “You know, I think I’m an example as far as my career goes to the people that want to do this that if you show the desire to be that you can do this. You just have to never give up and keep working at it. You’re not going to get a quality ride hiding or not being here or not showing that you want it.” HOW DIFFICULT IS IT COMPETING IN THIS SERIES VERSUS THE CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES? “I was thinking about that a little bit this week. To run up front in the trucks is probably a little easier, not much, just a little bit, but there’s a little more depth, I think, to the truck field, believe it or not. I don’t know. It’s kind of 50-50. When the Cup drivers are here, the Busch deal is definitely a little easier than the truck side. But it’s cool to run with the Cup guys. I learned a lot more running with them just because they’re just that good. It’s cool either way. I like both series.” WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD WEEKEND FOR YOU? “My goals are just to get better every week. We ran 10th at IRP so anything better than that would be a good weekend.” IS THERE A LOT OF PRESSURE ON YOU? “There was pressure on me even when it was new. Dale has been really cool about not putting any pressure on me. But it wouldn’t matter what he said, I still would feel like there’s pressure on me. If there’s not pressure from him there’s pressure to other race car drivers just like me to show them that it can be done. So yeah I definitely feel some pressure but I’ve got what it takes to defeat that, car-wise. Hopefully I can just get it done.” DO SITUATIONS LIKE QUALIFYING WITH NO GUARANTEED STARTING SPOTS PREPARE YOU FOR SITUATIONS LIKE THIS? “It’s tough having to make the show like I had to with the other car I was in every week. It builds your stomach up, makes you a little tougher. At the end of the day I always felt like people wouldn’t really judge me and I never felt really bad about it because I was in lesser quality equipment. Now that I am in higher quality equipment I think I feel more pressure than I did in that situation.”