Brad's Championship Bid Ends at Phoenix - BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com

For Brad Keselowski and No. 2 Miller Lite Ford crew, all their hard work was on the line for the second time this season as they rolled up to the grid for the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Speedway, a go or go home setting for each member of the Eliminator Eight.

Brad had faced a similar situation just three weeks earlier at Talladega, where he raced to victory to clinch a spot in the Eliminator Round. It was one of a slew of obstacles BK and his team overcame over the course of an incredible season just to get to Phoenix with a chance. But the No. 2 crew ran out of magic and despite a solid fourth place finish on Sunday, BK was ousted for the Chase one race short of the Championship.

In the end, it was the 31st place finish at Martinsville in the opening race of the Eliminator Round that proved too much to overcome as the Deuce came up seven points short of making the quartet that advanced to next weekend’s Championship Race at Homestead. Kes lamented that moment in his season and the fact that it was a fluky broken part, not a tactical error that ultimately cost he and his team a chance at the championship.

“We just couldn’t overcome the Martinsville hurdle. We had a decent day, but we needed a win to overcome the week we had at Martinsville where we broke the gear,” Brad said afterward. “We broke down twice at Kansas and Martinsville, and neither one of those were anything I know what to do any different. That makes it feel like it wasn’t meant to be.”

Kes bounced back from that setback at Martinsville to notch a top-five finish last week at Texas, putting him just five points outside of the Top 4 entering Sunday’s race. But thanks to strong finishes by every other member of the Eliminator Eight, BK was left on the outside looking in, and finished the Eliminator Round in seventh place despite back-to-back Top 5 results.

“We knew we needed to have a winning day to guarantee our fate. I thought a top-two or three might get us in there, but I knew it was going to be doubtful,” he said. “We were a little bit short. I’m obviously a little disappointed. I’m not disappointed with the effort, just disappointed it didn’t work out.”

Instead it was Sunday’s race-winner Kevin Harvick along with Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Brad’s Penske teammate Joey Logano who moved on to the Championship Round. Whichever of those four finishes highest at Homestead will be crowned 2014 Sprint Cup Champion. None of those four men have won a Sprint Cup title, setting up an epic finish to an eventful season.

Great effort through the chase for the #2crew Just needed 1 more win today to make it… Will be cool to see first time champion next week.

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) November 9, 2014

THE RACE

The weekend got off to a great start for the No. 2 ream as Brad ran third fastest in Friday’s first practice session, then posted an excellent qualifying effort of 25.338 seconds that left him six one-thousandths of a second from sweeping the pole awards at Phoenix after he won the pole for March’s race.

The time was however good enough for the second spot, which put him on the front row to start for the 13th time this season. It also marked his 27th start from the Top 10.

But despite that great starting position and speed shown all weekend by the Deuce, the car struggled to get going early in the race and dropped back to P4 early on. Brad reported poor handling in the Miller Lite Ford in the opening laps, but managed to maintain a Top 5 spot. He ran in the Top 5 for most of the day despite myriad obstacles.

He was running fifth when the first caution of the day came out at Lap 30 and on the No. 2 crew’s first pit stop of the afternoon, crew chief Paul Wolfe called for air pressure and chassis adjustments to tighten up the handling of the White Lite.

The Miller Lite Ford crew was on point all day, constantly making adjustments to combat the changing conditions of the desert race track. Their work allowed Brad to maintain a spot in the Top 10 from wire-to-wire and he spent most of the afternoon running in the Top 5. They also had the Deuce at its best on long green flag runs.

Unfortunately, those were few and far between as the yellow flag flew on 12 different occasions throughout the race and of the 312 laps run at Phoenix, 58 were run under yellow. There was even a four-minute red flag period late in the race.

Shortly after that red flag at Lap 216 and another short green flag run, the ninth caution of the day came out at Lap 238 and the No. 2 crew opted for a strategy play they hoped would pay dividends later in the race. While many of his fellow competitors took two tires on their pit stop under yellow, Brad and Wolfe decided to put four fresh Goodyear tires on the Deuce.

Though the call cost them spots in the short term — briefly sending Brad back to P10 for the restart — with much fresher tires, he gained three spots in three laps before another caution flag came out. After acting the subsequent restart, BK was able to move all the way up to third during the 41-lap green flag run that followed.

As the race came down to the wire, Brad ran close to the leaders but could tell that he would need some luck to get the win he needed at that point to advance, due to the strong performance of his fellow Chase competitors.

He was running third when another yellow came out at Lap 289 and restarted right behind second place Jeff Gordon, but Gordon had a slow restart and Matt Kenseth followed Harvick to grab third from BK.

One final caution came out at Lap with the Deuce running fourth allowing Brad to restart behind Harvick with 12 laps to go. But the No. 2 just did not have the speed to keep up with the No. 4 car, which dominated the race, leading 264 of 312 laps on the way to the win.

“All we could do was hang in the top five there and you never know what happens at the end. We did that,” Wolfe said. “We had a decent car, had enough speed to run second but just nothing to challenge for a win today.”

BK had to settle into fourth from there and did not have an opportunity to challenge for the victory, or even a Top 3 result over the final 10 laps.

“We weren’t the best car today,” Brad said afterward. “Kevin was really, really strong all day long. We just weren’t strong enough to win. We were strong enough to run second or third, and ended up fourth. A lot to be proud of, just not enough.”

The elimination stings for BK, as it comes at the end of arguably the best season of his career, in which he led the series with six victories and re-established himself as a perennial Cup contender after an off year in 2013.

“Overall, disappointing not to get to race for a championship, but we’ve had a great season — something to be proud of. We’ve had fast cars and been a contender every week,” Wolfe said. “To have a season like we did

[in 2013] that really sets you back, you’ve got to look in the mirror and see what you can do differently — each individual person and as a team. We did that and everyone came out really focused this year and were able to adapt well to the new rules package, which is important. On a consistent basis, we were one of the cars to beat every week, and that’s probably stronger than we were when we won our championship in 2012.

Though he’d likely trade those six victories for a chance to win the Cup at Homestead next week, Brad said he and his team feel good about their achievements over the course of the 2014 season.

“It’s been a good effort. It’s been a great year. It’s nothing to hang our head on. We controlled the things we could control for the most part and that’s just how this deal works,” Brad said. “It doesn’t feel good to have won the most races and not being in it at Homestead. But it still feels like it has been a great season, winning six races. Nobody is going to win any more than that, and that’s something we’re proud of.”

NEXT UP

Brad will get one more chance to add to his win tally for the season next Sunday in Miami as he runs the Ford EcoBoost 400 in pursuit of a series best seventh win of the season.

BK has only one Top 10 in six career at Homestead and that came last year when he finished sixth to mark an upbeat end to a disappointing 2013 campaign. Prior to that, his only Top 20 finishes at Homestead-Miami were a 15th place result to finish his 2012 championship season and a 13th place result in 2010 at the end of his first full season in the Cup Series.

“There are quite a few challenges to this race, but I think that is a good thing as this team does its best work while facing challenges,” No. 2 crew chief Paul Wolfe said. The Miller Lite Ford team is hungry. We want to end the season with another win.”

The weekend at Homestead begins on Friday with practice at 12:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. Qualifying follows at 6:15 p.m. ET Friday evening on ESPN 2.

Saturday will be a jam-packed day for Brad, who will also be driving the No. 22 Team Penske Hertz Ford Mustang in the Nationwide Series race this weekend in an effort to lock up a second consecutive NNS Owner’s Points title for Roger Penske.

In addition to his Nationwide responsibilities on Saturday, BK will have two Cup Series practice sessions in the White Lite. The first will begin at Noon ET and be broadcast on FS1, and the second directly precedes the NNS race, at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday and will air on Fox Sports 2.

The No. 2 team will also be doing all they can all weekend to help teammate Joey Logano be in the best position to secure the Sprint Cup Championship and Brad hopes both he and Logano can end Sunday’s race victorious.

“We will look to use this weekend as a chance to end the year on a high note,” BK said. “The other part of this is that Team Penske is in the Chase so our team will support Joey and the No. 22 Ford team to the best of our ability.”

Coverage of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship Race, the Ford EcoBoost 400 begins with NASCAR Countdown at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN. The green flag for the final race of the season is scheduled for 3:16 p.m. ET.

2017-18 Offseason

Ford EcoBoost 400

HONORING BRUCE

Keselowski Gets Stylish Partner in Epoch Eyewear™