Double Deuce Settles For Second After Costly Pit Road Violation

Brad Keselowski and the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang team did just about everything right in the Nationwide Series John R. Elliot HERO Campaign 300. But one mistake by BK late in the race cost him a shot to win the annual Nationwide run at Kentucky Speedway for the second consecutive year.

Running his first Nationwide Series race in over a month, BK led 138 of the race’s 200 laps, 100 more than the next best driver, earning a higher driver rating (144.9) than race-winner Kevin Harvick.

But a pit road speeding penalty during a green flag stop with about 50 laps remaining proved to be the Achilles heel in an otherwise well-executed race for the No. 22 team, and despite spending nearly three-quarters of the day in front of the field, Brad had to come from behind to secure the runner-up spot. 

Afterward, he summed up the day succinctly, but with disappointment in his voice.

“Great night all around,” Brad said. “Qualifying on the pole, lead a lot of laps, just one spot short of where we want to finish with this Discount Tire Ford.”

Then Brad hit Twitter to take ownership of the mistake that briefly knocked him out of the top 20.

Bummer night, Speeding penalty= driver error I hate being the weak link. Fun having fast @Team_Penske cars today @KySpeedway

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) June 28, 2014

There was no doubt after qualifying whether Brad would be a factor in his fifth Nationwide race of 2014.

He posted the fifth and second-best times in the first two rounds, respectively, then won his second pole of the season with a lap time of 30.802 seconds, 175.313 mph. Hours later the Rochester Hills native broke the track record in Sprint Cup qualifying in 28.603 seconds, 188.791 mph, for his second pole of the weekend.

In a true testament to the season BK is having, the qualifying result was something of a “slump” buster.

#NASCAR … Brad Keselowski’s pole ends 3-race “drought” where he failed to start on front row – longest “drought” of year. #AskMRN @MRNRadio

— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) June 27, 2014

As the Series John R. Elliot HERO Campaign 300 got going under the Friday night lights of Kentucky Speedway, the No. 22 looked dominant and BK led the first 43 laps of the race before the race’s first caution brought the leaders down pit road.

Paul Menard’s No. 33 car won the race off pit road and Menard led the next four laps, but one lap after the restart, Kes drove the No. 22 by Menard to re-take the lead. He went on to hold the lead through to the next caution on Lap 83, which brought the leaders down pit road once again.

This time Brad was fourth off pit road as Elliot Sadler in the No. 11, Regan Smith in the No. 7 and Brendan Gaughan in the No. 62 all elected to take two tires each while BK and the No. 22 crew opted for four fresh ones. Smith bested Sadler on the restart and BK followed the No. 7 through to second place. Smith managed to hold off Brad to lead for two laps, but on Lap 90, BK made the pass for the lead.

BK went on to lead for the next 58 laps and seemed to be well on his way to a dominant win at Kentucky for the second straight year.

But it all came apart in a matter of second for the No. 22 team when BK came down for his final pit stop of the night, his first green flag stop, on Lap 148. Sensing some urgency after a 13-second stop, Brad peeled out of his front pit stall and hit the gas too hard exiting pit road. He was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to serve a pass through penalty that put him a lap down.

“I just made a little mistake, but the Discount Tire team did a great job,” Brad said. “It’s just part of the job,” Brad said. “It’s a high-stress environment inside of a race car and it’s our job to deal with it if you’re going to be a professional and win races and be competitive. I’ve gone through some adversity before and that’s certainly not the worst thing in the world that can happen to you.”

When the caution flag flew shortly after BK’s pass through, Harvick and the rest of the leaders were able to make final pit stops of the night under yellow while Kes had to take the wave around onto the lead lap.

The 2010 Nationwide Series Champion did his best behind a dominant machine to make up the lost progress. The No. 22 restarted on Row 9 with 39 laps to go. But from there, Brad got to show off the speed of his Discount Tire Ford Mustang, slicing through the field with ease and moving from 18th place to 7th in just five turns around the track.

Cautions started to fall more frequently in the final 50 laps, each doing Brad a favor and helping him move up the running order.

After a caution on Lap 170, he restarted in 7th and quickly managed to move into fifth. Another caution came out on Lap 176 with BK running fifth. He lost a spot on the subsequent restart to fall back to sixth. It took him just regain the fifth position and he went about chasing down the four-car lead pack with 18 laps to go.

#NASCAR … Keselowski told on radio: “We’re not getting beat tonight.” Kez responds: “I feel ya.” #AskMRN @MRNRadio

— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) June 28, 2014

Kes managed to pass Gaughan for fourth before the final caution flag waved with 10 laps to go. The last yellow set up a thrilling end to the race. Kes restarted on the outside of the second row, which allowed him to pull ahead of Menard for third.

He then set out to take away second from Kyle Busch, but Busch wouldn’t let him have it without a fight, and the side-by-side between the two allowed Kevin Harvick to pull away. By the time Brad finally got around Busch, Harvick had opened up a lead that was just too big to make up in three laps, and Kes settled for second.

“(The penalty) put us a bit behind, but you have to give credit to Kevin (Harvick) and his team,” Brad said. “They were really fast there at the end, and I wasn’t gaining on them. We needed a little bit more, I think. Had I been able to stay in the lead I might have been able to use the clean air, but he was a little bit faster in the end, so they deserve credit.”

Though his was the dominant car for much of the race, BK downplayed the idea that the No. 22 might have taken the checkered flag with a few more laps to possibly pass Harvick. He noted that once the daylight faded, his advantage over Harvick and Busch did as well.

“We weren’t really gaining on him. He looked pretty good. They gave me a really fast car and just didn’t quite capitalize on it there at the end. We got through

[the penalty] the best we could and obviously not quite good enough with finishing second, but still pretty well,” BK said. “But I thought Kevin at the end was just as fast, if not a touch faster, so we had a really good, and like you said, a dominant daytime car but the race obviously finished under night and we were all probably pretty equal then.”

Friday night’s result nudges the second-place No. 22 Discount Tire Ford team two points closer to the No. 54 of Joe Gibbs Racing in the Owner’s Point Standings after 15 races. 

It also means Brad’s gone five-for-five in top-five finishes with the No. 22 car this year. His utter dominance of the Kentucky Speedway remains intact. He’s never finished lower than seventh in seven Nationwide races there.