No. 2 Crew Eyes Two Straight At Daytona

As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to The World Center of Racing, Daytona International Speedway for this weekend’s Coke Zero 400, marking the unofficial halfway point of the 2014 season, Brad Keselowski heads in brimming with confidence.

Last week at Kentucky, Brad became the series’ sixth multiple-race winner this season and locked his No. 2 Ford Fusion into the Chase for the Championship with the season’s most dominant performance. He led 199 of 267 laps, earned a perfect driver rating in the process and jumped to third in the Chase grid (fourth in points).

The No. 2 team carries momentum of different varieties into the Independence Day weekend at Daytona, and the 2012 Sprint Cup champion is anxious to return to the place where the 2014 season started, Daytona. 

“We’re glad to be in Daytona. This is a big race for us,” Brad said. “It’s Daytona. It’s that simple. What this track stands for in our sport is unparalleled. We’ve been really close to getting a win here, but always seem to come up a little bit short there at the end. But I think we’ll have a shot at it again. Daytona, especially the 500 weekend, is one of those weekends where winning is kind of like winning a championship. That’s forever. You get introduced by it, you get remembered by it, so I sure would like to join that club.”

Crew chief Paul Wolfe believes the team’s recent success combined with their familiarity with and preparation for Daytona could create a perfect storm of circumstances to lift Brad’s confidence to an all-time high.

“We ran well at Daytona back in February and on the heels of our recent performance, it is encouraging to be heading to Daytona this weekend,” he said. “We should be alright there and we are well positioned to keep our momentum going.”

The last time Sprint Cup was on the Florida coast, BK competed for a win in February’s Daytona 500. That too gives BK confidence this weekend, and if the No. 2 team’s speedway cars are any indicator, Kes has great odds to join Jimmie Johnson as the only drivers to hit Victory Lane three times in 2014.

“This team builds incredible speedway cars,” Brad said. “We ran strong here back in February.”

Indeed, the No. 2 was one of the best cars in the field for the season opening Daytona 500. BK was a strong green-white checkered flag restart away from starting the year in Victory Lane, and though had to settle for third place, that in itself was his best-ever result at Daytona and the second top-five result of his career at DIS.

Wolfe noted that Team Penske’s speedway program has continued to grow over the last few years and now ranks as one of the elite groups in the sport.

“Since I’ve come to Cup, our speedway cars are probably the strongest part of our program,” Paul said. “We truly do have cars that are capable of winning at the speedways. I know everyone thinks they can win at them, but we actually do have great speedway cars.”

That success continued in Thursday’s opening practice session as BK and the No. 2 team were fourth fastest with a best lap time of 44.605 seconds at an average speed of 201.771 miles per hour. After laying down that fast lap, Brad noted the importance of doing so with rain threatening both the second practice session on Thursday and Friday’s qualifying session.

“The car is really fast and we put up a good lap in case qualifying gets rained out tomorrow,” Kes said. “Everybody is just trying to put down a really big number and I was shocked we ran that fast a time to be quite honest, but that’s what it’s going to take in case

[qualifying] gets rained out tomorrow to start up front. We have a really good qualifying average going and I didn’t want to blow it here at Daytona.”

This year, Team Penske has had fast cars everywhere, especially in qualifying where Brad has doubled his career total in Sprint Cup poles this season. He entered the 2014 season with three poles, but is up to six after acing the new knockout qualifying format at Phoenix, Dover and Kentucky. Kes also has established a single-season best and series-high with nine front-row starts so far.

Team Penske’s manpower has pushed the Deuce to four top-three finishes in the past five races, the only blemish coming at Sonoma’s troublesome road course.

“The No. 2 Team Penske crew has been consistently executing at a high level, as our recent results show,” Brad said. “All of these factors bode well for us this weekend in the Alliance Truck Parts Ford at Daytona.”

As BK noted, he and the Deuce will don the bright yellow of sponsor Alliance Truck Parts at Daytona. This marks the third of eight races for Alliance as the lead sponsor, in its first year as a lead sponsor on the Deuce. The previous appearances coming in Brad’s third place finish at Phoenix and at Sonoma.

No matter what colors Kes sports, red won’t be one of them this weekend.

The well-publicized cut he suffered while opening a champagne bottle in celebration of his Quaker State 400 win hasn’t affected Brad’s ability to drive. He was able to test the hand in testing this week at the Milwaukee Mile and came away now worse for wear. The stitches may even come out pending a final pre-race examination. Despite being right-hand dominant, Kes assured afterward that the injury won’t affect his performance.

“My hand is a little sore, but it’s not too bad. Ideally, the stitches will come out before the race,” BK said. “In terms of it affecting my ability to drive, it won’t bother me at all. While I am right handed, I drive left handed, if that makes sense. On top of that, Daytona is probably the easiest place that we go in terms of the amount of load on the driver’s hands. It’s never fun getting hurt or getting stitches for that matter, but with the right perspective it can serve as a motivator. We saw that back when I hurt my ankle a couple years back.”

A positive result at Daytona with eight races remaining before the Chase could prove key for Kes. After clinching a spot in the Chase, he’s more focused than ever on how he’s going to finish the season, looking to recapture the big prize he won two years ago.

“I turned 30, and I’m going through a bit of a midlife crisis,” he said at Kentucky. “I want to win another championship. I don’t want to win just one … the urgency is now.”

Despite being one of the rare Sprint Cup champs to miss out on the Chase the following year, a second championship in three years would wipe that from the collective racing memory.

“I don’t want to be a guy that contends for a championship every three or four years. I want to do it each and every year and I know that opportunity is here, it’s present and I want to make the most of it.”

Brad will be out and about in Daytona before Saturday night’s race. Thursday he’ll don his service hat by bartending at a few spots for Miller Lite on the Ocean Walk. Starting at 9:30 p.m. ET, BK will make appearances at Wing House, Sloppy Joe’s and Mai Tai’s.

The quest for the early track position begins with qualifying Friday at 5 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.

TNT’s coverage of Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 kicks off with Countdown to Green at 6:30 p.m. ET. and the green flag is slated for 7:50 p.m. ET.