Dodge team does well in Kobalt Tools 500

By Rick Minter

For the AJC

The pre-season hopes for the Dodge contingent on the Sprint Cup circuit were measured at best. The manufacturer was down to one team, Penske Racing, which has one veteran driver Kurt Busch, and two relative newcomers, Brad Keselowski and Sam Hornish Jr.

But for much of Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, all three Dodges were among the top 10 on the scoreboard.

Busch wound up winning the race, running Dodge’s AMS win streak to three. Keselowski was poised for a top-five finish before contact by Carl Edwards sent him sailing into the catchfence.

Upon exiting the infield hospital, Keselowski seemed to want to talk more about his team’s effort than the crash.

“First off, Penske Racing had some phenomenal cars today,” he said. “I’m really proud of the 12 team….a lot to be proud of back at the shop.”

Hornish, who ran between fifth and 10th for much of the race, fell off the pace with mechanical issues and finished 28th.

“We really had something for everybody on the long runs,” he said.  “After about 20 or 25 laps, we could run as fast or faster than anybody out there. Compared to our normal Atlanta stuff, this is a big improvement.”

Busch said he was particularly pleased to deliver a win for his manufacturer just four races into the new season.

“Overall win for Dodge early in the year means a lot to us, means a lot to the people up in Detroit,” he said.

Busch said he feels a sense of forward progress at his Penske team, even though Penske and Dodge won’t be part of a Goodyear tire test this week at Darlington. Teams that participate in the test typically learn things they can use in upcoming races. It will be even more advantageous this time because there will likely be conventional spoilers instead of wings on the rear decks of the cars the next time they run on a super speedway.

“As a whole, I see us gaining strength, gaining momentum,” he said. “We now have to get through the short track portion of our season with Martinsville, Bristol and Phoenix coming up.

“But, hey, we feel like we had a good package. Now we have the real spoiler coming on to the car. We'll have to adjust to that as well. Not going to Darlington, I'm sure they're going to test with spoilers. We don't have a Dodge there representing our brand. That's kind of a tough cookies type of deal.”

“Darlington has been a struggle for me the last few years. Hopefully [crew chief] Steve [Addington] will work up some magic. I'll lean on him to help get us through that weekend.”