No. 2 Forced To Race From Behind Again

Brad Keselowski finds himself in a familiar position on Sunday afternoon as he prepares for the second stage of the Eliminator Round in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase for Cup: Racing from behind.

After another setback last week in the opening race of the Eliminator Round at Martinsville, BK once again likely needs a win in the next two weeks two advance in the Chase. But Brad and the No. 2 crew continue to take the odds stacked against them in stride and show confidence in the work they’ve put in all year to pay off.

“The team is focused on doing the work and this No. 2 team thrives in adversity,” a determined Kes said. “I am looking forward to this weekend.”

Over the course of the 2014 season, BK has solidified his status as an elite Cup Series driver by accumulating a series leading and career-high six wins. Kes has shown consistency and the value of championship experience as he willed himself along in the Sprint Cup postseason.

But as BK gets deeper into the postseason, it’s being proven that in NASCAR’s new playoffs, anything can happen: for better or for worse.

The new format has caused the No. 2 crew some stress this season, but Brad remains on board with the structure of the new format and excitement it brings to the sport and its fans.

“This new format has delivered plenty of excitement so far,” Kes said. “As I’ve mentioned before, the racing and the format ultimately are for the enjoyment of the fans. If our fans are happy with it and if we are gaining new fans because of it, well that’s what is important.”

The postseason couldn’t have started better for the No. 2 crew as they put together a string of dominant performances in the Challenger Round, where Kes finished in the top ten in all three races. That included a victory at Chicagoland Speedway in the first race of the Chase that advanced BK to the Contender Round automatically. At that point, Brad appeared unstoppable.

But the tables turned on him in the Contender Round, where a string of bad luck put him on the chopping block for elimination. But against all odds, Brad pulled off an unbelievable victory at Talladega to thrust himself into the Eliminator Round, which put him one round away from qualifying for the championship race.

However, the Eliminator Round quickly proved it would be a challenge just as big in last week’s first race at Martinsville. Kes was primed to carry the momentum from his Talladega win into a solid finish and ran in or near the Top 10 for most of the day. But when the Deuce broke a rear differential late in the race, it led to a pile up and the damage sustained cost BK dearly as the 2012 champ ended up with a miserable 31st place finish.

That puts BK in another tough position entering Sunday’s AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. He currently sits seventh of eight drivers in the Eliminator Round standings with just two races left to get into the Championship foursome.

At the moment, Matt Kenseth sits in the fourth and final spot, and he’s already 26 points ahead of Kes. With that in mind, the pressure is on the No. 2 crew, and Brad knows very well that winning one of the next two races may be his only shot to contend for the title. The odds look slim for the deuce, but Kes and his crew are no strangers to tough situations like these.

“You always feel like you can get your way out of a jam and in this case it is with a win,” he said this week. “We were able to do that in the last round. I am optimistic we can do that in this round and the reality is it will probably take that. I completely understand that and am ready for that challenge and hope we have the speed to make it happen. (We need) the speed and execution and I hope I don’t screw it up if we do. I am ready for that challenge.”

After several weeks in different shades, Brad will be taking on that challenge in the familiar White Lite base look of the Deuce, the Miller Light Ford Fusion for the first time since Kansas.

“We are running very well and this Miller Lite Ford team is very competitive this year,” BK said. “We’re winning races; our Fusions have great speed.”

That has been especially true at intermediate tracks like Texas. Much of his Sprint Cup Series success has come on such tracks. He won in Las Vegas with 59 laps lead, Chicago with 63 laps lead and Kentucky with a mind-boggling 199 laps lead.
  
But Texas in particular has been a challenge for BK throughout his career. In 12 career Cup Series starts at TMS, Brad’s average finish is just inside the Top 20 (19.5). However, that number may well be deceiving. In the last four races at Texas, BK has three Top 10s including a second place finish during his run to the championship in the 2012 Chase.

He finished ninth and then sixth there in 2013, but in the most recent race at TMS this past April, he finished 15th.

To place better in the final race of the year at Texas, Brad will have to rally from behind. That’s because Friday’s preparations for Sunday’s race didn’t go well. After running 24th in opening practice, Kes failed to get the Deuce into the second round of qualifying on Friday evening. He’ll start Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 from 26th, last among Chase drivers, making his margin for error much smaller than his other Eliminator Round foes.

 

“We weren’t fast today when it counted but I am very optimistic we can be fast on Sunday when it does count,” BK said. “We are working through all those things. We came here and tested and didn’t quite have the speed we wanted in qualifying trim then either, but had decent race speed and hopefully that will be the case come Sunday.”

It didn’t get much better for Kes on Saturday, as he ran 25th in the first practice of the day, though he did improve to 14th in Happy Hour final practice. The bottom-half starting position is less than ideal for the No. 2 Crew, but Brad made it clear that his team is in the middle of a championship run, and can’t afford to let their obstacles develop into shortcomings on the race track.

“This is as a championship-caliber effort at Team Penske,” he said. “This is who we are, and this is what we do. I am going to make the most of this opportunity to win races and to win this championship.”

Coverage of the AAA Texas begins with NASCAR Countdown at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN. The green flag at TMS is scheduled to fly at 3:18 p.m. ET.