QUIKTRIP FOLDS OF HONOR 500

For a few brief moments on Saturday, Brad Keselowski believed he’d be starting from the pole for his first Camping World Truck Series of the 2015 season, the Hyundai Construction Equipment 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But adversity often strikes when it’s least expected.

While serving as a color commentator for Fox Sports 1’s coverage of the NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Atlanta on Saturday afternoon, Brad received word that, after further review, NASCAR ruled that BK’s No. 29 truck didn’t cross the start/finish line to begin the lap that wound up being the fastest before the end of the session. Instead he’ll start 10th.

While the starting spot is a bit of a setback for the No. 29 team, it will do little to deter Team BKR owner/driver Brad K, or his other driver, Tyler Reddick, who will start the Team BKR No. 19 right behind Brad in 11th. That’s because, despite the qualifying confusion in Atlanta, everyone involved in the two Brad Keselowski Racing Camping World Truck Series teams is thinking title in 2015 coming off a fantastic opening weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

At Daytona last Friday night, the 19-year-old Reddick gave BK his first ever win at Daytona in any capacity, in any series, when he drove the No. 19 Draw-Tite Ford F-150 to Victory Lane in the NextEra Energy 250. Right behind Reddick’s No. 19 in fourth place was the No. 29 of Austin Theriault, who had a strong run, with the No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford and was running second, competing with Reddick for a win right down to the final lap in a thrilling start to the season for both crews.

Reddick’s win got the No. 19 team off to an incredible start in their road toward the Camping World Truck Series driver’s title, and Theriault, who will split time with Brad, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney in the No. 29 has put that team in a solid position to start their run at earning Brad and Team BKR their first ever owner’s points championship.

“I feel good about where our program is going,” Brad said of his truck team. ” We’re making a lot of investments with the team and the company to be competitive and to be a top notch high caliber team that can win the championship year in and year out.  After Tyler’s win at Daytona it looks like it’s paying off right away.”

Now as the NCWTS circuit heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the first time in three years, Brad is already ready to lend his hand toward one of those goals as he will pilot that No. 29 for the Hyundai Construction Equipment 200, and look to give Team BKR a back-to-back to open the season.

After 61 unsuccessful tries over 10 seasons, Kes notched his first career Camping World Truck Series victory last season at Bristol Motor Speedway, and he hasn’t appeared in the series since. As he looks for truck victory No. 2, he’ll also be looking to capture his first victory in any series at Atlanta.

In three truck starts at the ATL track for his career, Brad’s best finish is 19th, which came in his last run at the 1.54-mile Hampton, Ga. intermediate track in 2007. He has six XFINITY Series starts at Atlanta, and he has logged four top-10 results, the best also coming in his last NXS start there in 2012. He has two top 10s in six starts in the Sprint Cup Series at AMS, but he finished 39th and 35th in his last two starts, leaving him thirsty for some success in Georgia.

This week, BK noted the unique challenges AMS will present to the No. 29 team.

I like the fact that Atlanta is a very slick racetrack and it’s just a fun place to race,” BK said. “You come in to put tires on and you are almost three seconds a lap faster.  A guy that will come in and pit one lap earlier than you do will gain almost half a straightaway on you. That puts pit strategy into focus and I have a lot of confidence in Chad Kendrick and everyone on the Cooper Standard team.”

Chad Kendrick, the crew chief of the No. 29 team, hasn’t paired up with Brad on the truck side since 2013, when Brad piloted the Draw-Tite Ford five times and tallied three top-10 results. Kendrick spent last season as the crew boss of the No. 29 team with Ryan Blaney as the full-time driver. The duo won once and finished in the Top 10 17 times in 22 races on the way to a second place finish in the NCWTS driver’s points standings.

Kendrick has served as a NCWTS crew chief three times at Atlanta, and his best result came in his most recent: a fourth-place finish in 2012. While Brad expressed his confidence in Kendrick’s abilities in the pit box, Kendrick also talked about how happy he is to have an experienced driver like Kes behind the wheel on a track like Atlanta.

“Tire management is important at Atlanta,” Kendrick says. “Brad knows how to manage his tires, how much to use at the front of a run to save towards the end of the run.  It’ll be up to us to manage wisely and not put all of our tires on too early and try to save a set for the end of the race and let Brad take advantage because he can make a lot happen.”

A lot has happened for the No. 29 already at Atlanta. BK turned 51 laps in the lone Camping World Truck Series practice session on Friday afternoon, including the fastest of 31.025 seconds at 178.695 miles per hour. He also had the fourth best 10 consecutive lap average, right behind Reddick who was third. Then in the final round of qualifying, Brad again turned a lead lap of 31.314 seconds at 177.045 mph, which he appeared to get in just before the session’s clock struck zero. But when NASCAR reviewed the tape, it showed that he was just inches short of the start-finish line when the clock struck zero and that lap was disallowed. Still Kes is confident in the speed of the No. 29 and looking forward to a great race.

“My expectation is it’s going to be a great race,” Brad said of the truck race during the XFINITY Series race coverage. “The trucks here really draft a lot and you’re going to see some dicing and all that great stuff that you see with the draft to try to get to the bottom or to the top, wherever the clear air is, and then the draft down the straightaways. I think you’re going to see a heck of a race. I’m a little bit nervous though because usually when you have two races in one day, if the first race is a little bit calm, the second race is a complete disaster. So hopefully we’ll get through all that.”

The 130-lap, 200.2-mile Hyundai Construction Equipment 200 will go green at 5:30 p.m. ET Saturday night under the lights at Atlanta Motor Speedway and all the action can be seen on Fox Sports 1.