No. 2 Loses Hood But Gains Points Lead at Bristol

The Food City 500 on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway threw a little bit of everything at Brad Keselowski and the Miller Lite Ford Team.

Unfortunately the elements — both natural and unnatural — including plenty of rain, some smoke and fire, and plenty of malfunctions, proved to be too daunting for the No. 2 crew to make a return trip to Victory Lane. But after salvaging a Top 15 finish despite involvement in a late race wreck, Brad and his team left Bristol with something important: the lead in the Sprint Cup points standings.

Brad 14th place finish earned him 31 championship points, moving BK ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. into first place in the standings after four races. He leads Earnhardt Jr. by 10 points heading into this week’s race at Fontana.

“Our worst finish of the season was good enough to get the No. 2 Team Penske Ford into the points lead,” Brad said afterward.

The weekend started out about as well as it possibly could have for Team Penkse. On Friday, both Brad and Joey Logano continued their string of strong showings in the new elimination qualifying format. Logano posted the fastest lap in Round 1 and Brad also advanced to the final round with relative ease.

In the final round, BK turned a lap that would’ve set a new track record at Bristol. However, Denny Hamlin had broken the old track record moments earlier in his No. 11 car, and Kes and the No. 2 came up just .003 short of Hamlin’s time. Still Brad’s runner-up qualifying finish put him on the front row for a third consecutive race and he had Logano right behind him in fourth position.

Heavy rain delayed the start of the Food City 500 by nearly two hours, but once the race got going, BK used his front row position to his advantage and overtook Hamlin for the lead on the second lap of the race.

By lap 15, the No. 2 car had already begun lapping the back of the field, showing its speed. However, Kes reported turning issues while weaving through traffic that would later slow him down. He managed to keep the lead for 40 laps, before ceding it to Logano on Lap 42, after which he fell back to fourth.

NASCAR’s mandated competition caution at lap 50 allowed the pit crew to make a small chassis adjustment and switch out all four tires. Brad restarted in sixth position and maintained his presence in the top 10 despite persistent problems with the No. 2’s turning.

Rain once again began to fall on the track on Lap 117, bringing out the third caution of the day. Under this caution, the Miller Lite Ford crew had perhaps their best pit stop of the day as Brad left the pits in third position after coming in running in sixth.

The rain began to fall more steadily after the pit stops, forcing NASCAR to red flag the race on Lap 125. The ensuing downpour created a second delay in the race that lasted three hours and 18 minutes.

The race resumed under the lights with Kes running third, but by lap 180 the Miller Lite Ford Fusion began experiencing vibrations and dropped back a few positions. A second competition caution allowed for further adjustments to the chassis and Kes stayed in the middle of the lead pack, but couldn’t advance.

“We had a good car today. Our Ford Fusion didn’t have the speed today that it had in practice the last couple of days, but we were working on it and making steady gains,” he said. “I felt as though we would have been able to challenge for a top-three.”

Kes was running in sixth position with less than 50 laps to go when his opportunity to challenge for a fourth straight top three finish quite literally slipped away.

Just in front of him, Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 began to smoke and dropped some oil as it slammed into the wall. Jamie McMurray, who was running fifth right in front of BK slowed his No. 1 car to avoid contact with Harvick’s car. With his tires covered in oil from Harvick’s leak, Brad wasn’t able to do the same and wound up hitting the wall, and then McMurray.

“Our night took a serious turn for the worse when (Kevin) Harvick’s car started smoking and then it put down a lot of fluid, which caused both (Jamie) McMurray and I to get into the wall and then I hit McMurray too,” BK said.  “It was a shame as I was doing my best to go where the fluid wasn’t, but we just didn’t get there.”

That sequence ended the race for Harvick and McMurray, but fortunately, it did not spell the end of Brad’s day. Thanks to diligent work from his pit crew, not only did Brad get to finish the race, he remained on the lead lap while making four trips down pit road under caution.

“The Miller Lite crew did a terrific job of keeping me on the lead lap,” Brad said.

Remaining on the lead lap kept BK in the Top 15, ahead of dozens of previously lapped cars, including that of points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. and BK managed to maintain his place on the lead lap and was running 14th when NASCAR accidentally signaled for a caution on Lap 500.

The race went on to end under caution after 503 laps. Afterward, BK recapped the aggravating finish to a day that began with promise.

“It is frustrating to make it that far in the race, especially after the rain delays, to end up 14th,” he said. “We’ll figure how we can use what happened tonight to make us better and move on.”

FORD FINDS ITS WAY

Though the night didn’t go as planned for the No. 2 team it was another encouraging step forward for Ford Racing as a whole.

Sunday’s win by Carl Edwards in the No. 99 Ford Fusion was the second consecutive win for Ford, following up on Brad’s win at Las Vegas last week, a great start to the 2014 season. Last year Ford went to Victory Lane just six of the 36 races and Brad noted this week that some late changes in the 2013 rules package put Ford teams in a tough spot last season.

“When Ford came out with their

[new] car two years ago, they were the first ones out the door, and there was a little bit different understanding as to what the rules were at that time than what they were at the start of the 2013 season,” BK told USA Today. “We can point to probably a half-dozen races where that had a severe negative effect for the Ford performance.”

Now Ford is on level ground and it’s showing in the results on the track. Ford cars have exhibited speed in qualifying, as evidenced by the back-to-back front row sweeps by Team Penske at Phoenix and Las Vegas, as well as Brad’s front row spot at Bristol.

Fords are also running well on race day. At Bristol, four of the Top 5 finishers including all of the Top 3 were Ford. The previous week at Las Vegas, Brad led three Fords in the Top 5. At Phoenix, Team Penske’s Fords finished third and fourth respectively and at Daytona, Ford had three cars in the Top 8, led again by BK in third. Kes credited the updates Ford was allowed to make coming into the 2014 season were a significant step forward for Ford Racing, allowing Ford drivers to compete with their Chevy and Toyota counterparts.

“That’s probably the biggest [thing] that stands out is kind of getting back on an even playing field with that front fascia, but then again, there’s more to it,” he said. “There are a lot of small things that add up – the Roush Yates Engines shop has made some gains this year, which we’re proud of, and Team Penske has made some gains on the car side. I felt like we finished 2013 very strong, and, with those small improvements, we’re even better yet for 2014.”

Brad is certainly better yet so far in 2014, which is why he leads the Sprint Cup standings by 10 points after four races. Sunday’s run at Bristol was his lowest finish of the season, but with one victory and three top-three finishes already under his belt in 2014, this has been BK’s best start to a Sprint Cup season in his career.

NEXT UP

The Sprint Cup Series heads back out West this weekend for Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California next Sunday.

Fontana is not a track that has been kind to BK in the past. In five career Sprint Cup runs at Auto Club Speedway, BK has never finished higher than 18th. Last year Kes had a great qualifying run at Fontana, but was forced to the rear of the field after the No. 2 team had to change out the car’s engine in the lead up to the race. Then with BK running in fifth place late in the race, the Blue Deuce began to overheat, forcing Brad to settle for a 23rd place finish.

He’ll hope to have better luck this weekend at Fontana, when he debuts the Red No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion. Wurth is entering its third year as a partner with Team Penske and will serve as the primary sponsor on the No. 2 car for four races this season.

The weekend at Fontana begins with the first practice session on Friday at 3 p.m. ET. Qualifying follows at 7:30 p.m. ET. Both can be seen on Fox Sports 1.

Morning practice at Fontana on Saturday begins at 12:30 ET and final practice follows at 3:30 p.m. ET. Both those session can also be seen on Fox Sports 1.

They’ll set the stage for Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Race coverage begins Sunday afternoon at 2:30 ET on FOX, with the green flag slated to fly shortly after 3 p.m. ET.

RELATED LINKS

• Ford speeding to catch up in NASCAR’s elite series (USA Today, March 17, 2014)
• Carl Edwards beats rain, field at Bristol (NASCAR.com, March 16. 2014)
• Carl Edwards wins at bizarro Bristol (ESPN.com, March 17, 2014)
• Nothing goes as expected at Bristol, including Carl Edwards winning (Charlotte Observer, March 17, 2014)
• Carl Edwards Wins at Bristol After Long Rain Delay (The Sporting News, March 16, 2014)