Kes Races Draw-Tite F-150 to Third In Charlotte

Brad Keselowski was fighting for his first Camping World Truck Series win against a familiar foe in Sprint Cup rival Kyle Busch in Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200

But BK and his No. 19 Draw-Tite Ford F-150 just didn’t quite have enough to edge Busch into victory lane in Charlotte.

Busch and his No. 51 Toyota led 130 of the 134 laps in the race and although BK came close to challenging him in the closing laps, several late cautions made that difficult and forced the No. 19 team to settle for a third-place finish.

“It would have been a great race if Kyle wasn’t here,” Brad joked. “We were hoping for a win with our Draw-Tite Ford F-150 but a decent night for sure. Kyle had the faster truck. … We need to find just a little more speed to run with the No. 51.”

Kes took that third-place finish from a third-place start on a thrilling night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. With a qualifying time of 29.586 seconds and speed of 182.519 mph, BK started in P3 behind Matt Crafton and Busch—mirroring their 1-2-3 finish.

BK managed to hang in contention through several near-wrecks over the course of the night.

The first came shortly after a Lap 73 restart with Brad running third behind Ron Hornaday Jr. and Busch. On Lap 74, Hornaday spun coming off Turn 4 and nearly collected Brad in a wreck that would’ve ended his night early. But BK was somehow able to get on his brakes hard enough to avoid much contact with Hornaday’s No. 30 machine, which had turned sideways in front of the No. 19.

Through in-car communication Michael Waltrip of the Fox Sports 1 announce team expressed shock to BK that he was able to avoid running through Hornaday as the No. 30 spun and complimented Brad’s driving to which Kes responded “Thanks Michael, me neither.”

“Yeah we got into him but I don’t think it did any significant damage,” BK said of Hornaday’s spin after the race. “It got our attention and made us worry. I think that didn’t have much of an effect on us but it was really cool looking.”    

Soon after, Kes again avoided a major disaster while running not far behind his Team BKR partner Ryan Blaney. Blaney, in Brad’s No. 29 Cooper Standard Careers for Veterans F-150, made a move to the inside to pass several cars near the front of the pack. But just as Blaney was making his move, John Wes Townley cut to the bottom of the track, knocking Blaney into the grass, which sent him back up into the outer wall.

When Blaney, who finished 22nd as a result of his accident, hit the grass, it sprayed Brad’s blue No. 19 with grass and mud, prompting crew chief Doug Randolph to call him back down pit road. While it was bad news for Blaney, the wreck allowed BK an opportunity to prepare to race for the win.

“Towards the end of the race when Ryan had his accident and went through the grass it covered our grill up with grass and mud,” Randolph said. “We were at that point where we knew tires would mean something at the end of the race. The grass on the grill actually helped make that decision for us. It just made sense to come down pit road and clean the grill and put on four tires.”

After the strategy call by the No. 19 team, Kes restarted in eighth and began to chase down Busch. Fitted with fresh tires, his Ford finally had the speed to challenge the race’s leader.

However, several cautions came out over the race’s final laps, leaving Brad with too few green flag laps to make his way to the front because he simply couldn’t match Busch’s short-run speed. As a result, Busch had little issue heading to victory lane, while BK settled for third.

After notching his fourth Top 10 finish in his last five truck starts, Kes was happy with the overall effort of his team. In the end, he said, he just needs to find a bit more speed to consistently race for truck wins.

“We tried to snooker ’em a little bit with tires there at the end but there were just so many yellows by the time we could get going there weren’t enough laps,” Kes said. “We had a good effort by everyone on the No. 19 BKR truck. We’ve just got to keep working and find some more speed in our trucks so we can run with anyone. I’m proud of my group but we’ve got more work to do.”

Brad’s No. 19 currently sits fifth in the NCWTS owner’s points standings, while the No. 29 is 14th.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Keselowski still a work in progress in trucks (NASCAR, May 16, 2014)
• Busch wins another NASCAR trucks race (MotorSportsTalk, May 16, 2014)
• Busch wins another Truck Series race at Charlotte (SportingNews, May 17, 2014)
• Busch takes fourth consecutive Truck Series win (Racer.com, May 17, 2014)
• Busch wins truck race at Charlotte (Charlotte Observer, May 16, 2014)