Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Marshall Gabell

  • Hometown Success Eludes Brad Keselowski Again

    Hometown Success Eludes Brad Keselowski Again

    Brad Keselowski’s schedule always has a circle around his home track, Michigan International Raceway, a venue where victory has continually eluded him, making this weekend’s Quicken Loans 400 a distinctive race, as he yearned for his first win at the track where he grew up as a spectator.

    Though, after 400 grueling miles, Keselowski was unable to seize the trophy and finished a respectable third position behind runner-up Kevin Harvick and the victor, Jimmie Johnson.

    “We just didn’t have the speed really all weekend to be a front runner in the sense of contending to win based on speed,” Keselowski explained in the media center. “We kind of trudged through it and came away with another top three effort, which is good but not great. We want the wins, especially here at Michigan. That would mean a lot.”

    Keselowski, 30, isn’t willing to settle with the podium effort, however, he’s still content with the consistency his organization has possessed through the season.

    “We didn’t run as well as we wanted to, but we certainly didn’t run poorly,” Keselowski expressed. “Like I said, it was a good day, not a great day. Third is nothing to hang your hat on. We have consistency, which is good.

    “Unfortunately it doesn’t mean much right now at this time of the year in the sense of points,” he continued. “But it does mean a lot to us in the sense of overall morale and our ability to really make a push as the fall comes for the Chase. That’s important to us, even if it might not show a tangible result in the short-term.”

    Keselowski, though, is beginning to fret over the dominance that Hendrick Motorsports has shown the past month. Still, despite being behind at this juncture, he is confident his Penske Racing Team will be able to contend.

    “We’ve got work to do to get there,” Keselowski admitted. “Thankfully we’ve got — I can’t remember, 12, 13 weeks until the Chase starts, and I know we’ve got some stuff coming up for that, but I think we’ve got at Penske, I think we’re right there, kind of just maybe a half a nose behind the Hendrick cars or Hendrick-powered cars, whatever you want to call them. But we need just a little bit more, and if we can do that, I really feel like we can kind of have a strong march over the fall and have a shot at running for the championship.”

    Keselowski now prepares for lefts and rights at the challenging Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, a circuit where he’s had his ups and downs.

  • Regan Smith Yearning For More at JR Motorsports

    Regan Smith Yearning For More at JR Motorsports

    Regan Smith, following a seventh place finish in the History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, expressed disappointment with his JR Motorsports organization despite being the NASCAR Nationwide Series points leader entering the summer months.

    Smith, who won earlier this season in the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway, was irritated with his team’s failure to adjust the car’s tight-in condition, which loomed over him all race.

    “Our race today (at Charlotte) was relatively uneventful,” Smith explained during the post-race press conference. “We were tight-in all day long, I don’t think I’ve had a car (that was) tight-in in about five or six years. So, as good as it felt off my tongue to say tight into the corner, I got kind of aggravated with having to say tight-in.”

    Failure to adjust the tight-in problem wasn’t the only circumstance that aggravated Smith; he also was annoyed with the team’s continuous inability to make the car faster.

    “Every time we tried to work on it, it just kept getting the back out of the racetrack on exit and it would slow us down,” Smith added. “So, whatever it was, we’ll have to go back to the shop and look at it and decide what we can do different coming back here in the fall when the speeds are up a little bit more to fix that.”

    Smith, though, did give credit to his team on a solid run; however, he longed to have a better car on short runs as he lost the majority of his positions on fresh tires.

    “But, nonetheless, a solid day, if we could’ve started runs 20 laps in on tires and run from that point on I felt like we were  as good as anybody out there,” Smith further commented.  “We just gave up too much in the first 20-laps and that was pretty much the story of our day.”

    Chase Elliott, victor at Darlington Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway, felt his team (JR Motorsports) made little gains during the weekend, leading Smith to further remarks about his team’s performance.

    “Not really,” Smith said after being asked whether he thought his team gained upon their Charlotte program. “I thought we unloaded pretty good, I just felt like we fought the same stuff all weekend long, (especially) with corner entry.”

    “We struggled with all three cars,” he continued. “It just seemed like we were a bit off with all three cars and that’s rare, our cars have been unbelievable this season (though).”

    Smith ended his media center appearance with positive mentions, explaining the team needed to think about the good rather than the bad from this weekend.

    “I think we need to take the positive from this weekend, which is we know we have to work a little bit harder, we have to change some things up,” Smith said. “We are expanding our database, and I guarantee we won’t come back to (Charlotte) and have the same problem twice.”