Brad Seals 2nd Straight 22 Team Owners Title

All season long, Brad Keselowski and the five-driver squadron that is the No. 22 Discount Tire/Hertz team laid the groundwork for a dominant championship run, so when the final race came, it was a low-pressure affair for Brad.

The Double Deuce entered the race with a 29-point lead in its quest for a second consecutive owner’s crown, and Brad brought the No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang across in eighth place to secure the title for Roger Penske.

“There are a lot of people at Team Penske that have been a big part of that,” No. 22 crew chief Jeremy Bullins said after BK clicnhed the crown on Saturday. “With everyone that drove the car, everybody played a role in it, whether it was one race or 10. I am really grateful for the opportunity and for everything Roger has given us to be successful. I am glad we were able to finish it off tonight.”

The five-man team of Brad, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Alex Tagliani and Michael McDowell racked up six victories, 10 poles, 25 top-five and 31 top-10 finishes in 33 races. Brad captured five of those wins, four poles, 10 top fives and 11 top 10s in his 11 starts this season.

“It is an honor to be a part of this team and be able to drive this car,” Brad said. “This No. 22 Hertz Ford team has done a remarkable job of preparing this Mustang all year long. The pit crew has been solid all season long. We’ve had five different drivers in this car – that is impressive in itself.”

Brad got the final day of the 2014 Nationwide Series season off to a solid start when he posted a qualifying time of 32.455 seconds and claimed pole No. 10 by edging out several other Sprint Cup Series regulars, including Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth, and of course, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch, who piloted the only other car within reach of the owner’s title.

Kes led the first five laps of the Ford EcoBoost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but the No. 22 Hertz Ford became extremely loose, causing him to slide back. At lap 33, the team’s championship hopes faced a grave threat, when Brad reported that the car’s voltage had dropped considerably.

BK was able to manage the issue by flipping the car off on non-vital loads. This, as well as the loose handling in the machine, caused him to fall nearly out of the top 20, but the work done by crew chief Jeremy Bullins and the No. 22 team helped him to carve his way back to the top 10 by lap 86.

Bullins called for major chassis and tire pressure adjustments throughout the race, and as both the track and car conditions changed, the yellow and black No. 22 improved. However, the Double Deuce didn’t quite have the dominant speed that led it to the top of the standings.

But Brad was able to make the best of it by making some impressive moves over the closing stages of the race.

Several late cautions set up a green-white-checkered finish. In overtime of the race that was scheduled for 200 laps, Brad restarted P10 but picked up two more spots in the final two laps to finish eighth.

Busch in the No. 54 JGR Toyota finished second, but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome the 29-point deficit, and Brad and the No. 22 team won their second straight owner’s crown by a 23-point margin.

The No. 22 and No. 54 teams were far and away the most dominant programs in the Nationwide series, creating a class of their own.

Finishing third in the owner’s race was Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 9 Chevrolet, piloted by driver’s points champion Chase Elliott. However, that machine finished 111 points behind the No. 54 and 134 points behind the No. 22. After the triumph, Bullins talked about that utter dominance, his respect for the No. 54 team, and how his No. 22 team came to be back-to-back champions.

“I think the things we have talked about this week that gets lost a little with the owners championship is it is a team championship,” Bullins explained. “No matter who drove, who worked on the car, if you look at the Nationwide Series the last two years the 22 and 54 have separated themselves from the rest of the teams and have two teams that are 100 points ahead of everyone else for two years in a row, those are two teams that have a lot to be proud of.

When Brad joined Team Penske, he pleaded to Roger that he wanted to see the team field a successful Nationwide program, and that it would be instrumental to the team’s Cup success.

That theory has proven to be true at many levels. Brad and Logano were two of the most consistent and overall dominant drivers in the Cup Series, finishing first and second with 17 and 16 top-five finishes respectively. They also led the series in wins with six and five respectively, putting them ahead of any other NSCS two drivers.

Additionally, the NNS has been a great source of development for the team’s young driver, Ryan Blaney. Blaney was the only other No. 22 driver to post a win, and was a consistent force all year long. He drove the team’s No. 12 Discount Tire machine to a fourth-place finish on Sunday at Homestead.

Blaney also drove the Brad Keselowski Racing No. 29 Ford F-150 to a second-place driver’s points finish in the Camping World Truck Series. His efforts with Team Penske and BKR also earned him a part-time NSCS ride with Wood Brothers Racing next season.

From top to bottom, Brad has been thrilled with the way the No. 22 team has performed, and the positive impact that has had within Roger Penske’s organization.

“The Team Penske Nationwide program has been an integral part of the success of this organization both in the Nationwide and Cup series,” he said. “I am happy to be a part of this team and proud that we were able to give Roger another Owners’ title.”