Dodge Motorsports NSCS Race Advance - Dickies 500
Texas Motor Speedway
Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009
Additional Statistics Attached

HISTORICAL DATA
• First Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win: Lee Petty, 2/1/53, West Palm, Fla., 100 miles, .5-mile track.
• Last Dodge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Win at Texas Motor Speedway: Kasey Kahne, 04/09/2006, Samsung/Radio Shack 500, 137.943 mph avg. speed.

DODGE AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
• Brad Keselowski makes his debut with Penske Racing in the Sprint Cup Series this weekend, driving the No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger.
• Dodge has two wins at TMS (Ryan Newman -2003, Kasey Kahne-2006).
• Dodge drivers (Newman (2), Kahne) started from the pole three consecutive events at TMS (2005-06).
• Kahne is the only driver to win from the pole at TMS (2006).
• Kahne led 148 of 334 laps in the 2004 event before losing to Elliott Sadler who later became Kahne’s teammate.

THE DODGE BOYS
• Busch has scored at least one victory in each of the last eight years (2002-2009). In 85 Sprint Cup races on 1.5-mile tracks, he has three victories and 30 top-10 finishes.
• In 57 Sprint Cup starts at 1.5-mile tracks, Kahne has six poles, six wins and 24 top-10 finishes.
• Dodge has 204 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins.
• Dodge’s most recent win in the Sprint Cup Series was Kahne’s victory at the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Sept. 6).
• Kahne recorded the 200th win by Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series with his victory in the Pocono 500 last year.
• Dodge teams have posted 44 wins since returning to NASCAR’s premier series in 2001 after being out of the sport since 1977.
• Dodge has recorded three wins in 2009; Busch (Atlanta-1), Kahne (Infineon & Atlanta-2).

DODGE IN THE CHASE
• Kurt Busch is currently sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings after his 30th-place finish at Talladega last weekend. He’s finished 6th, 5th, 11th, 8th, 10th, 17th and 30th, respectively, in this year’s Chase races.
• Kasey Kahne is ninth in the Chase standings after finishing runner-up at Talladega. He’s finished 38th, 8th, 6th, 34th, 3rd, 32nd and 2nd, respectively, in this year’s Chase races.
• Two Dodge drivers (Jeremy Mayfield and Ryan Newman) were in the inaugural Chase in 2004.
• In 2005, three Dodge drivers (Mayfield, Newman and Rusty Wallace) made the Chase field with Newman winning the opener at New Hampshire.
• Kahne was the lone Dodge driver in the 2006 Chase field. He finished eighth in the final Chase standings.
• The Chase field was expanded from 10 to 12 drivers in 2007. Busch was the lone Dodge representative; he finished seventh in the final standings.
• There were no Dodges in the 2008 Chase field.

THE CHASE – KURT BUSCH AT TEXAS
• Busch started 40th and finished 41st in last year’s fall event at Texas Motor Speedway.
• In 13 starts at TMS, Busch has one top-five and eight top-10 finishes.
• Busch has lead 94 laps at Texas Motor Speedway.
• Busch’s best finish in the fall event at TMS is fourth which came in his rookie year of 2001 after starting 16th.
• Busch is making his fourth Chase appearance and second driving a Dodge.
• Average start: 18.3 Average finish: 14.8

THE CHASE – KASEY KAHNE AT TEXAS
• Kahne started 28th and finished 24th in last year’s fall event at Texas Motor Speedway.
• In 10 starts at TMS, Kahne has one win and two top-five finishes.
• Kahne has led 213 laps at Texas Motor Speedway
• Kahne’s best finish at Texas was at the spring race in 2006 when he led 63 en route to the event win.
• Kahne’s best start at TMS came in 2006 when he led the field to the green flag from the pole.
• Kahne won six races in 2006 and finished eighth in the final standings in his only other Chase appearance.
• Average start: 12.9 Average Finish: 21.9

DID YOU KNOW:
Texas Motor Speedway is one of three Texas tracks to host a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. The other two were Texas Motor Speedway and Meyer Speedway. Meyer Speedway hosted only one Cup event (1971) while Texas Motor Speedway was the site of eight events (1969-1981).

DODGE QUOTES
“The biggest thing (about a good car at Texas) is the front end. You have to get the left front working. You have to make sure that your front two tires are cutting real well. You need your back (of the car) to be in the track real well. The biggest thing for me is the front tires. That’s usually what we struggle with here; the front tires aren’t working as good as they need to work. The couple times that they have worked really well, we’ve either been first of second. ”
Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge

“We’ve really shown the spark we need on the intermediate tracks so far this season and we hope to continue that at Texas this weekend. We had the big win back in the spring at Atlanta and have run consistently in the top�]10 in most of those tracks. The guys have been putting some great race cars out there, Dave Winston and the engineering department have made so much progress and the new Dodge engines have had plenty of power in those races.”
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge

“I think the biggest hurdle for me is to look around and see how everything works on the No. 12 Penske Dodge team. I need to be very observant and try to understand how we do things. There are a million little things that are going to be different. The most challenging part will be adjusting to how things are done, but I feel we are all up to the task.”
Brad Keselowski, No 12 Penske Racing Dodge

“There isn’t a lot of strategy, we’re just going Texas and run as well as we can. We want to use these final three races to put us in the top 25. We’d like to go even higher if we can. You can really boost your season with a great run or two in these final three races. We’re racing as hard now as we were at the start of the season. There’s still a lot of racing left.”
Reed Sorenson, No. 43 Valvoline Dodge

“Texas is one of my favorite race tracks we visit. I’ve had success there in the past, so that probably helps when picking a favorite track. It’s a fast race track and a lot of fun to really try and race people. Hopefully we can take our top-10 finish from last week and continue to build on that to finish the season out strong.”
Elliott Sadler, No. 19 Stanley Dodge

“The biggest thing that I’ve learned about racing in Texas is that you have to be patient during the first 75% of the race in order to be on the lead lap near the end. Also, you don’t want to go too quick too early as tire wear falls off and you may find yourself racing to stay on the lead lap.”
Sam Hornish Jr., No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge