Fuel Gamble Falls Short in Hollywood Casino 400

Brad Keselowski entered Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 hoping that his luck would finally turn and present an opportunity for his first win of the season.

Instead, another gamble by the No. 2 crew backfired and a difficult season continued for the Miller Lite Ford team.

Kansas Speedway had been the site of much success for BK the in the past — as recently as earlier this season when he finished sixth there — seemed the perfect place to turn around the bad beats that had been coming the way of the Blue Deuce crew.

For a while on Sunday, it appeared that just that would happen as Brad led the field with less than 50 laps to go in the Hollywood Casino 400. However, the cards again flipped against BK’s favor when he ran low on fuel on lap 224, forcing him to pit and ending his hopes at victory.

Despite losing two laps in the pits, BK rallied his way back to the lead lap and a 17th place finish, but that was not enough to deflect from the fact that another promising race turned into disappointment for the No. 2 team.

“We had a lot of gremlins here this weekend,” Brad said. “We had a decent Miller Lite Ford Fusion. You know, it was a difficult up and down weekend. Unfortunately, we ended it on a negative note with running out of fuel and not having the gas we needed to finish the race.”

The No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion showed speed all weekend at Kansas, resulting in an excellent qualifying run that had BK situated in fourth position at the start of the Hollywood Casino 400.

However, the Blue Deuce didn’t have the same handling under the cold and cloudly conditions on Sunday afternoon as it did under the sun earlier in the weekend. The poor grip was a concern for all 43 drivers on the track, resulting in numerous wrecks and spins for a total of 15 caution flags throughout the day.

Though Brad managed to avoid early wrecks, the handling of his car — which was getting looser with each lap — wasn’t a promising sign that would remain the case. As he put more laps on the first set of tires, Kes could feel his right-rear rubber wearing down and elected to make a pit stop ahead of the leaders at lap 38 to get four fresh tires and fuel. But shortly after his stop and before the leaders had pitted, a caution came out leaving him a lap down.

BK was able to take a wave around and prevent from losing a lap, but was sent back to the rear of the field. He began to work his way back through the field but still didn’t have optimal feeling on the rough Kansas surface, particularly in long runs. Crew chief Paul Wolfe and company made several track bar and air pressure tweaks throughout the race to adapt to the treacherous surface.

“We couldn’t get in a rhythm out there for sure,” BK said. “There were so many wrecks and so many yellows that we could never really get going out there. It was just a tough day for sure. The track was just really treacherous at times.”

Having become all too familiar with adversity, the Blue Deuce crew made the best of the bad situation and eventually, things started to look up. The numerous cautions allowed Brad and his team to make adjustments and find some of the speed they needed in the No. 2. That allowed BK to climb through the field and he took the lead when Wolfe elected not to put during a caution on lap 171.

Over the next 53 laps, Brad held off numerous competitors through several restarts, keeping the lead for all but one of those laps. He was often dueling with eventual winner Kevin Harvick, who briefly took his lead away at lap 199, though BK gained it right back on the next lap.

The Blue Deuce was comfortably ahead of Harvick’s 29 when it ran out of fuel on lap 224. As BK slid back, his tank empty, Harvick jumped into the lead and never looked back. Brad coasted down pit road with his engine dead and after filling up and completing the stop, it took several seconds to re-fire the Blue Deuce, causing BK to fall behind two laps.

To add insult to injury, the caution flag that would have allowed Brad to refuel without losing the top spot came out four laps later. BK took the wave around on that yellow and another caution at lap 244 allowed him to get the Lucky Dog and get back on to the lead lap. He mounted a late charge from there to 17th place, allowing him to remain at 15th in the Sprint Cup Standings.

BK praised Wolfe and his team for working hard to take the lead, but was ultimately disappointed by the unfortunate result.

“The 29 and 48 (cars) were probably the class of the field. One of them won, so I guess it worked out the way it was supposed to work,” Brad said. “But we were still able to put ourselves in a great position with the call to stay out and take the lead. If we hadn’t run out of fuel I think we could’ve been there at the end.”

NEXT UP

With just six races remaining, the Sprint Cup Series will head to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500 on Saturday night.

A late race wreck kept Brad from finishing the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May when he steeled for a 36th place finish. However, Brad turned in finishes of 11th and 5th at Charlotte in 2012. He also notched a Nationwide Series win at the track last season.

The Bank of America 500 will go green at 6:30 p.m. EDT Saturday and will air on ABC.