Dodge Motorsports Notes & Quotes – Keys for Success – Chicagoland Speedway

Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011

Geico 400

Chicagoland Speedway

Dodge Motorsports PR

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

KEYS FOR SUCCESS: Geico 400

JOLIET, Ill., (Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011) – Each race weekend, selected Dodge Motorsports engineers, Penske Racing engineers and crew chiefs, drivers or engine specialists give their insight on the ‘Keys for Success’ for the upcoming race. This week, Travis Geisler, Director of Competition, Penske Racing, provides the keys for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race.

Track: Chicagoland Speedway (Race 27 of 36 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)

Race: Geico 400 (267 laps / 400.5 miles)

Trivia Question: What three Dodge drivers have won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship? (Answer Below)

TRAVIS GEISLER (Penske Racing)

Watch out for the bumps! “The bumps have continued to get worse here. Brad (Keselowski) said that the track was rougher than Kentucky (Speedway). It seems like the bumps are building and building every year that we come back. That’s OK. It’s part of the character of the race track. The bumps just make it hard for the front end of the car to turn. When you’re as stiffly sprung as we are in the front of the car, you can’t absorb the bumps very well. What happens is that you just bounce across the bumps and push up the track. In response, you try to free the car up so that it will keep turning through the bumps and as a result, the car is freed-up on exit and that’s always tricky. It’s a balancing act right now.”

Wither the weather: The weather will be a factor because it was so cold yesterday for practice. It was overcast all day. Not that it’s going to be warm on Sunday, but guys are going to have to adapt to the changing track conditions.”

Intermediate action: “It’s so hard to pass on these 1.5-mile tracks that track position is key again. You have to be so much better than other cars to pass that it makes it tough. So many cars are equal that pit strategy, pit stops, any way that you can gain spots is critical.”

Trivia Question Answer: David Pearson (1966), Bobby Isaac (1970) and Richard Petty (1974 & 1975).