Keselowski gears up for first Cup trip to Dover

DOVER, Del. (May 29, 2009) -- Brad Keselowski has gotten on a recent roll during his rookie season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, scoring top-10 finishes in his last two outings. Today, the 25-year-old hopes to keep that momentum going when he attempts to qualify the No. 25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports at Dover International Speedway. Qualifying will air live on SPEED at 3 p.m. ET. On Sunday, the green flag will drop in the 400-mile event at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX. Keselowski has qualified for four Cup races this season and performed especially well in his most recent outings. In his first Cup event at each track, he picked up a win at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on April 22 and then notched a seventh-place finish at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on May 9. Dover’s concrete mile will mark the third new Cup track for Keselowski. “I enjoyed my first Cup race at Darlington a few weeks ago, and we were fortunate to come away with a solid top-10 finish,” Keselowski said. “I feel like it showed the win at Talladega wasn’t just a one-time thing. It definitely gives me a lot of confidence coming into Dover, even though I’ve never raced there in the Sprint Cup Series.” But Keselowski isn’t a stranger to “The Monster Mile.” Last season, he picked up a pair of top-10 finishes in the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series. Keselowski, who finished third in the Nationwide Series driver standings, notably secured a third-place finish at Dover last September. “Dover is one of the few concrete tracks we run at and, traditionally, I’ve been able to do pretty well on those types of tracks,” Keselowski said. “You go into the corners really fast and get thrown down into the seat, which you need to be prepared for. With the concrete surface, tire management is really important so you can’t go out and burn the tires up at the start of a run, or you’ll end up at the back of the pack by the end of the race.” After this weekend, Keselowski will attempt to qualify for three more Sprint Cup Series events for Hendrick Motorsports in 2009: Chicagoland Speedway on July 11, Michigan International Speedway on August 16 and Kansas Speedway on Oct. 4.