Fire in Kansas

That was quite the show put on this weekend in Kansas. Between the Nationwide race on Saturday and the Sprint Cup race on Sunday, Kansas Motor Speedway has certainly made “The Monster Mile” look like a cool Sunday drive. With this new surface and now new tire, the two races this past weekend were as crazy as crazy gets.

Starting with practices, top tier drivers were spinning out left and right all on their own with no warning, and most weren’t able to save themselves. Thankfully, Brad Keselowski was not one of those drivers. He kept the Blue Deuce in one piece Friday and Saturday. Practice results are as followed: Practice 1-5th, Practice 2-22nd, Final Practice-3rd. Qualifying 4th, Brad put the No.2 Miller Lite Ford in an excellent position to start off the race.

NATIONWIDE: KYLE STRIKES

Saturday’s Nationwide race was surprisingly eventful. The past few have not been much to cheer about. With drivers spinning out all on their own, there was always something going on. Brad kept the Double Deuce up front all afternoon, and was in solid position to pull of a sixth win this season. With Matt Kenseth sitting in first but suspected to be short on fuel, Brad was in prime position to steal one. That was until Kyle Busch pulled a fast one on him, and took him out of the race on the last lap. Brad was hooked into the outside wall on the straight away on the final lap, thus ending the day with a DNF and a very upset Keselowski.

We haven’t seen this type of fire from Brad in a while (and most haven’t seen me lose my cool like I did on Twitter Saturday afternoon, either).

We haven’t seen this type of fire from Brad in a while (and most haven’t seen me lose my cool like I did on Twitter Saturday afternoon, either). It was nice to see his passion burst through, but not on these terms. Brad does not like to be disrespected. He likes hard clean racing, and that is not what he endured on the last lap of Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300. He expressed his displeasure post-race (only after sprinting it from his wrecked race car all the way to the infield care center, which probably was a cool down method considering he had nothing to run after) in an interview, stating he wouldn’t stand for being treated this way any longer.

“I got wrecked by a dirty driver,” said Braid. “There’s no other way of putting it. He’s cool with that. I’ve raced him really cool over the last year, to be respectful to him and try to repair our relationship. I’ve watched him wreck my trucks and cost them from winning races. He put me in the fence at Chicago in the truck race, and in Nationwide races he’s been pulling this crap. You know, it’s not going to last I can tell you that and I feel bad for the guys next to me because their going to have to fix his *stuff*, if that’s going to be part of racing then their going to have to deal with it.”

Brad sadly is not in the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup this season, but Kyle Busch is. Sitting in third in the points going into Sundays race — Brad stated that he has absolutely nothing to lose and Kyle has everything to lose.

“We were good,” Keselowski said. “We’ve had a solid year of racing each other and now we’ve got war. He started it and he can have fun with the results.”

We all know how Brad Keselowski operates. He files these incidents away, and remembers them at the perfect times. I’m glad we have a smart driver who makes strategic decisions. It shows how classy he is while also standing up for what he believes is right.

CUP: SO CLOSE

Continuing with the intense weekend, Brad decided to speak up during the drivers’ meeting Sunday morning. He asked a legitimate question about intentional wrecking, obviously an attempt at getting into someone’s head. Whether that worked or not, you can be the judge!

With Brad starting in the top 5 for Sundays Hollywood Casino 400, it was safe to say the 2 was going to be strong. With an edgy start to the race with a caution on the first lap, Brad come over the radio and said, “It’s gonna be one of those type of races, Joe!” to Spotter Joey Meier. He right about that!

Staying up front from the start of the race, Brad randomly came to pit road before green flag pit stops had set in because of a vibration. Assuming it was an issue with the tire, Paul told Brad the tires looked completely fine. (He seemed to only have a problem with a vibration before a pit stop was needed as this vibration was felt one or two other times throughout the race). Right after this unplanned pit stop, a caution was brought out, setting the Miller Lite Ford back to around 30th, laps down. Many thought being set back that far (right where Kyle Busch was running) would make things interesting. But Brad’s cool was kept and with some hard work, and Paul Wolfe’s amazing, gutsy pit strategy the Blue Deuce was back up front in first place in no time. Running back in the pack was certainly not where the 2 wanted to be. Brad had come over the radio while running back there and said, “Dude, I’m tellin ya, I have no straightaway speed. It’s ridiculous”. So when the Deuce was back out front, it was a completely different car, thank goodness! On different strategy than everyone else, Brad was looking pretty stout.

Then smoke was spotted — but it wasn’t a blown engine. Joey came over the radio and told Brad, “You’re going to see smoke up here, but just ignore it it’s coming from outside the track.” The cameras finally caught where the smoke was coming from: someone had set a bush on fire. A caution was finally called because of visibility issues, putting Brad in one of many restart scenarios. Up against Kevin Harvick (eventual race winner and possibly the strongest car all day) Brad was able to take off with ease on every restart. Out front after quite a few restarts with a hefty lead,(And just when I was feeling goosebumps, that this could possibly be the day) Kevin was slowly reeling the 2 car in, and all of a sudden, the 29 just flew by Brad. He was sadly out of gas: a gutsy call that didn’t pan out like the team had wanted. This set the pace for the rest of the race for Brad and the team. Brad came over the radio to the team and praised their hard work, and said it just wasn’t meant to be this time. Although he did make up spots from where running out of fuel set him back to, Brad finished the race in 17th. It wasn’t the day the Miller Lite team wanted, but what can you do? Move onto Charlotte and hope for better!.

I think it’s safe to say the last races of the season, be it Cup, Nationwide or Trucks, will be ones to watch with the fire we seen from Brad this weekend.