February 19, 2012 , DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - KESELOWSKI FINISHES FOURTH IN BUD SHOOTOUT AT DAYTONA

Allmendinger Caught Up In Third Multi-Car Mishap; Finishes 12th

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Dodge Boys elected to go with a bit of strategy Saturday night in the Bud Shootout here at Daytona International Speedway. Brad Keselowski and A.J. Allmendinger elected not to mix it up at the front of the field early in the race, but wait for the closing laps, team up and mount a charge for the win.

Unfortunately, the rest of the field viewed the final laps as a “shootout” too. Although the race had plenty of aggressive driving early that led to nine-car and five-car mishaps, it was calm in comparison to the closing laps.

As Keselowski and Allmendinger attempted to team up with five to go, the rest of the field was shuffling for position too. The Penske Racing duo were separated and had to take advantage of any drafting help and opportunity they could find. The shuffling led to another nine-car mishap as the field exited turn four to take the white flag, bringing out the caution and extending the race for a green-white-checkered finish. Keselowski escaped the mishap, Allmendinger didn’t.

Keselowski’s No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge was clean and in fourth as the field regrouped for the restart. He tried to get position to make a run for the win, but could not find an opening and settled for fourth. Kyle Busch edged Tony Stewart for the win.

“It’s crazy and you just can’t predict what’s going to happen,” said Keselowski. “You just hope that you’re in the right position and it takes a team effort to do that. The Miller Lite Dodge team did that today and came up just a bit short.”

Keselowski’s crew chief, Paul Wolfe, explained the race strategy. “Our plan was to see how the race played out and do the opposite of what the leaders were doing,” he said. “They were dicing it up pretty hard at the beginning and there wasn’t really anything to be gained to get up to the front that early. Our strategy played out like we thought the race was going to run. It eliminated a lot of cars that we didn’t have to race and we were able to keep our car clean.”

Allmendinger’s crew attempted to repair the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger, but the damage to the left rear was extensive. He wasn’t a factor in the two-lap shootout to the checkered flag.

“I think we were about a half-of-a-corner from being perfect,” he said. “I got to the outside and got attached to (Jamie) McMurray, pushing him. I thought man, if we get off (turn) four coming to the white, it’s game over for everybody because we were so clean and had such a run. It’s just one of those things. At times, I thought our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge was really fast and there were other times when I thought it wasn’t very good. That’s just the way this racing is. If you time it right and get the right run, you can pull it off. If we got off four, it would have been between me and the 1 (McMurray) for the win. It’s disappointing. We’ll try it again in the (Daytona) 500.”

Race Results
Bud Shootout
Daytona Int’l Speedway
1. Kyle Busch
2. Tony Stewart
3. Marcos Ambrose
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Greg Biffle
7. Ryan Newman
8. Clint Bowyer
9. Carl Edwards
10. Juan Pablo Montoya
11. Jeff Burton
12. A.J. Allmendinger

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