Chase Starts Anew for 2 Crew at Kansas

With the slate wiped clean going into the Contender Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the 12 remaining teams have been put on notice: Succeed at Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega, or your championship chances are gone.

Brad Keselowski was in a unique position in the Challenger Round, as he was able to race pressure-free at Loudon and Dover after conquering Chicago in the postseason’s first race.

But as the Contender Round begins, that win at Chicago and the rest of his series-best five wins this season are of little consolation to BK. Now he and the other 11 contending drivers are facing the same heavy odds. And although it may seem unfair that BK doesn’t get any advantage from his success through the first 29 races of the season, his team knows the challenge that faces them and they’re determined to meet it with their signature vigor.

“I knew the rules going in. It’s different. It’s much, much harder to get a foothold on the Chase this year as far as a foothold on the top,” Brad said this week. “I feel like we’ve got great cars, we’ve got a great team. If we go out there and perform, we control as much of our own destiny, considering the races in the next bracket. It’s up to us to do it, and we’re more than capable.”

With stops at Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega scheduled as the second round of the NASCAR playoffs rolls along all 12 drivers will endure equal Contender Round stress and Kes noted this week that of the remaining rounds in the Chase, the Contender bracket has as much potential to break hearts as any.

“Two of the three races are as much of a wild card as you can get in NASCAR racing these days,” he said. “One of the great teams that has a shot at winning this will probably be left at home after this series of events, because you don’t control your destiny as much as you do the other races of the season.”

Fortunately for Brad, the Contender Round begins at a familiar track in Kansas Speedway—where he won his first ever race in the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion.

In just his 13th race piloting the Blue Deuce, Kes made a pass with just nine laps left in the spring run at Kansas in 2011 to take the checkered flag. The 2011 STP 400 was just the second victory of Brad’s Cup series career and although he’s won 13 cup series races since, including five this season, racing at Kansas still holds a special meaning for BK and the No. 2 team, as they recall that spring day.

“I won my first race as the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite car at Kansas back in 2011 and that makes this track kind of special to the team and me,” Brad said this week.

Though the paint scheme is different, BK will be back in the Miller Lite No. 2 car this week looking to replicate that result after driving the No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion to a second-place finish last week at The Monster Mile.

Additionally, he and the 2 Crew will be out to make up for a mediocore finish at Kansas this past spring. Brad started May’s 5-Hour Energy 400 from P3 but got caught on pit road at the wrong time, putting him a lap down. He managed to rebound and make his way back to 13th before the checkered flag, but the result left him wanting more the second time around.

“We didn’t run as well as we would’ve liked to in the spring race earlier this year so that gives us added determination to improve our performance this weekend,” BK said. “The team has been working diligently on enhancing our platform for this race, and we should be good this weekend.”

In addition to the 2011 win, Brad has four Top 10s and two Top 5 results at Kansas, and while racing at Kansas has been largely hit-or-miss for Kes, he has finished outside of the top 20 just once, back in 2010.

The track was repaved in 2012, and ever since, the No. 2 team has been working to calibrate their machines for the changed surface. It has been a long process so far for the team, but crew chief Paul Wolfe believes the work his group has put in should continue to show at the 1.5-mile tri-oval.

“This track does provide new challenges since it was reconfigured and repaved a while back,” Wolfe says. “It has taken us some time to catch up with it so to speak. We have put a fair amount of effort into the set-ups for this track based on what we learned there earlier this year.”

While the track will certainly provide a challenge, little has been able to slow down Brad and his team lately. BK has finished in the Top 10 in six of the last seven races, a streak of consistency that includes two victories and two second-place finishes. BK has also led multiple laps in each of the last seven events.

As Wolfe said this week, if the No. 2 team can continue to race with type of consistency, they will be in excellent shape going forward.

“It becomes even more important to run well here with the new Chase format,” Wolfe said. “The team has been building great cars, and we’ve been executing well at the track. As long as we keep our steady progression of refinement and improvement both on and off of the track, we should be alright.”

That process, as always, will weigh heavily on practice and qualifying. Brad was just 18th quickest in opening practice on Friday afternoon, with a best lap time of 27.756 at an average speed of 194.553 miles per hour. But while its mock qualifying runs left something to be desired, the Deuce was outstanding in race trim with the best five-lap average in the field at 28.47 seconds.

Next up on Friday is qualifying and Kes has been fantastic in that regard this season. He has captured a career-high five Coors Light Pole Awards and has the best average start of any other driver at 6.9, as well as the most front-row starts with 13.

He’ll look to add to those numbers at 5:30 p.m. ET, when the session airs live on ESPN2. 

After Brad carves out his spot in the field, the 2 Crew will have two more practice sessions on Saturday to tweak their setup. The first of those sessions is at 11 a.m. and will air on Fox Sports 1. Then comes Happy Hour final practice— the last chance to fine-tune the White Lite— at 2 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 2.

Coverage of the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway begins with NASCAR Countdown on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. on ESPN. The green flag for the first race in the Contender round is scheduled to wave at 2:18 p.m. ET.