Brad Takes Second in Truck at Kentucky

The 2013 UNOH 225 brought a familiar result for Brad Keselowski and his Camping World Truck Series team, now Brad hopes the rest of his race weekend at Kentucky will continue along a similar path.

For the second straight year, BK raced the No. 19 F-150 to a second place finish in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway. After last year’s second in the Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky he went on to finish seventh in the Nationwide, but took the top spot in the Sprint Cup race. A repeat performance would suit Brad just fine.

But on Thursday night, his focus was on the truck race alone and though the second place finish — his fourth in the only NASCAR series he’s never won in — was frustrating, he had a deep appreciation for the effort that went into it.

“We had an interesting night for sure, had a couple ups and downs. It just didn’t come together,” he said afterward. “We still had a shot at it and I think that just goes to show how everyone on this team is fighting hard to get a win. It would mean a lot to me. We’ve got a lot of these second

[place]’s but we don’t have a win. It’s coming soon. I just appreciate everybody’s hard work.”

The No. 19 Reese Towpower / Advance Auto Parts team had to rally back from early race adversity just to get into contention for the victory. Early on, he experienced a tire issue that caused him to drop back in the field after starting 12th.

“The truck wasn’t drivable early on,” he said. “I thought something was wrong and thought I might have screwed it up, but when I came in and put new tires on it, then it was okay. I don’t know if we had a bad set of tires or something.”

After the issue was corrected in the pits, Brad was able to run in the top 20 and eventually climb to within a spot of the lead thanks to a pit strategy that saw them take only two tires instead of four, but events throughout the race kept Brad from ever being able to take the lead.

“We drove back through a little bit, got our track position back and had something happen to our gas guy on the last stop,” Brad said. “He got fuel in his eyes, had to go to the care center and we didn’t get fuel in the truck. Just kind of one of those days. But we put on a great effort. We were really fast in practice, just came up a little bit short to [race winner Ty Dillon], who did a great job. I made one or two bad moves that hurt us, and we needed to be just a little bit better in a couple of other areas.”

Overall, however it was a good night for Brad Keselowski Racing. Along with Brad’s second place finish in the No. 19, Ryan Blaney drove the BKR No. 29 Cooper Standard F-150 to a fifth place finish, making for a historic mark for BKR.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Dillon Edges Keselowski, Busch at Kentucky truck race (USA Today, June 27, 2013)
• Dillon holds off Keselowski to win Trucks race (Lexington Herald, June 27, 2013) 
• Dillon outruns Keselowski, Busch for Kentucky truck win (The Sports Network, June 27, 2013) 
• Ty Dillon wins at Kentucky (ESPN, June 27, 2013) 
• Sweep Hopes End For Keselowski, Busch (NASCAR.com, June 27, 2013)