Deuce Rebounds From Trouble For Top 10 Finish

Brad Keselowski took the lead for the first time late in the Pure Michigan 400, only to see his tire blow and his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion grind along the outer wall of his home track.

Despite the unfortunate issue, the No. 2 Crew never gave up, and with some hard work, they got BK back out on the track still on the lead lap, which allowed him to rebound for a solid eighth place finish. Afterward, Brad was extremely proud of his team, whose swift action turned a seemingly imminent poor finish into a Top 10 result.

“That was a good finish to come home eighth after hitting the wall,” Kes said. “We had some pretty good adversity there with the blown tire. I am not sure why that happened…It is hard to say but the team did a hell of a job to overcome that and get an eighth-place finish out of what should have been probably a 25th-or 30th-place finish.”

After another solid qualifying session on Friday, Brad started from P5 on Sunday. It marked his fifth consecutive Top 10 start and his 18th start from P9 or higher this season.He remained right around that top five standing for the better part of the first 100 laps of the 200-lap trek around MIS.

As the race got underway, BK quickly started making moves and passed fellow Ford Racing driver Carl Edwards for fourth place at lap nine. He remained in fourth for the competition caution at lap 21, called for by NASCAR due to overnight rain.

When he pulled down pit road for his first stop under that caution, the No. 2 crew elected to make it a fuel only stop and BK won the race off pit road, but since Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson elected not to pit, Brad landed in P3. On the ensuing restart, Danica Patrick spun out, sparking a large wreck which brought out another yellow flag. After a brief cleanup, the race resumed at lap 31.

Before the race, Brad identified restarts as one of the keys to victory, but they ended up as one of his undoings throughout the afternoon. On that lap 31 restart, he was stuck on the inside and fell back from third to fifth. Another yellow came a few laps later, and on the subsequent restart, BK was caught on the inside yet again behind Kevin Harvick and when Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet had a poor restart, it caused the Miller Lite Ford to lose ground, dropping the No. 2 from third to seventh. Despite the trouble on restarts, the No. 2 found its groove during long runs and during the green flag run after that Lap 41 restart, Kes fought his way back up to the fifth spot he started the race from.

After taking that fifth spot, BK started the next pit cycle under green at lap 61, and took four tires and fuel. Kes also reported that the White Lite was tight through the center of corners and loose exiting. Crew chief Paul Wolfe called for consistent air pressure changes to perfect the No. 2’s handling.

Brad came out of the green-flag cycle after a lap 141 stop in 10th place. Following another air pressure tweak on that stop, he reported that the Deuce was running as well as it had all day, allowing him to charge his way to fifth by lap 165.

During the next green-flag cycle Brad claimed the lead at lap 166, but he only held it for two laps. At lap 168, his right-front tire blew, sending him into the wall. Fortunately, the damage was only moderate, and the No. 2 crew was able to make a few rapid repairs and avoid going a lap down.

“I am not sure why that happened,” Kes said of the blown tire. “We didn’t have any indication of it and there was no real reason to. I was about the least aggressive you could be and did a run before that where I was more aggressive and didn’t even come close to showing signs of an issue. I don’t know. I think we just got a bad tire.”

Kes was, however, forced to restart at the back of the lead lap in 17th place as a penalty for entering pit road too soon. Two more caution flags flew over the closing 25 laps, but on the final run, BK piloted the patched-up Deuce past several competitors to finish eighth.

Following the blown tire, it looked like Brad’s day would be over, and a third straight finish outside of the Top 10 seemed unavoidable. However, the outstanding work by the 2 Crew helped it to claim its 11th Top 10 finish of the season. Brad earned a driver rating of 108.5—the fourth highest in the field.

Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon went on to win the race for his third victory of the season. Gordon joined Brad, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson as the fourth driver with three wins on the year. After earning 37 points at Michigan, Brad sits in third in both the Chase Grid and the overall Sprint Cup Standings behind first-place Gordon and Earnhardt Jr.

NEXT UP

Next week, the Sprint Cup circuit heads to Bristol, Tennessee for the second time this season.

Brad finished 14th in the spring run at Bristol Motor Speedway after qualifying second. BMS has been one of BK’s best tracks and could provide a much-needed opportunity for the 2 Crew to regain momentum with just three events remaining until the Chase for the Championship.

In nine runs at Bristol, Kes has three Top 5 finishes and two wins. BK could make BMS his first three-win track this weekend, while simultaneously becoming the only Cup driver with four wins on the year.

Kes will qualify at 5:40 p.m. Friday, and the Irwin Tools Night Race will go green around 7:30 p.m. Saturday as the first of three consecutive events under the lights.