A trip to a familiar and fruitful track last weekend saw Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 crew put together their best effort so far this summer and left them just a few pit road hiccups from the Winner’s Circle at Kentucky. Now the Sprint Cup Series heads to another venue where the the Deuce has a track record of success and where he’ll be hoping to head back to Victory Lane.
On this very weekend last year, BK and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion team showed that they were in championship form with a dominating effort at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on the way to Victory Lane, where he raised the traditional victory lobster for the first time in the Cup Series.
Last year’s win at NHMS was Brad’s third of the season, and came just two weeks after the team also won at Kentucky. This time Brad won’t be riding the momentum of a win at Kentucky, but his strong performance in the sixth-place finish last weekend still showed that the White Lite team is one to be reckoned with as the season rolls along and they’ve got lobster on their mind heading into this Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 301.
“We’ve been making progress in our development through the middle part of the season and this weekend will be another good chance for us to benchmark that process,” Brad said. “This team is hungry right now which I think is a good thing. We’re ready to get back to victory lane.”
BRAD BOASTS 13 TOP 10S, EIGHT TOP 5S AND THREE WINS BETWEEN NSCS AND NXS IN LOUDON.
So far, through 18 races with just eight to go before the Chase begins, BK has one win this year, which he notched at Auto Club Speedway in March. That victory started a streak of three straight Top 5 finishes, but the Deuce hasn’t finished in the Top 5 since. Last week, Kes seemed destined to break that streak at Kentucky. He led 62 laps and the Miller Lite Ford was the best car on the track for most of the night at Kentucky Speedway, but after a couple of mishaps on pit road, the No. 2 crew came up just shy of both a win and a Top 5 finish.
The No. 2 team is anxious to put that performance behind them and this weekend offers the opportunity to just that at another one of BK’s best tracks at New Hampshire.
In 11 NSCS starts at The Magic Mile, Brad boasts seven Top 10s, four Top 5s and one victory. That win came last year as part of a Sprint Cup-XFINITY sweep, one of two on the year for Brad. The NXS win also added to BK’s remarkable XFINITY Series record at Loudon, where he has finished in the Top 10 in all six starts, and has won two straight races.
Perhaps that’s the reason he will once again pilot the No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang this weekend, vying for his second sweep in as many years.
“Loudon is one of the tracks where our Miller Lite Ford has performed well,” Brad said. “Last year was special as we are the only team to sweep both races at New Hampshire to date and that is something we can all feel good about.”
On the NSCS front, Team Penske dominated Loudon last year. After Brad won the summer race, Joey Logano came back and captured a victory in the fall run as a part of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
BK’s performances mirrored one another at Loudon last year. He started seventh and won last summer, then turned around and qualified first and finished seventh in the fall. He boasts three NSCS poles at Loudon and has started seventh or better five times. On the NXS side, he has started on the pole in four consecutive races, and owns an incredible average start of 3.3.
So far he’s continued his remarkable string of success on Fast Friday at Loudon. In the day’s lone Cup practice session, Kes and the White Lite were strong, posting the fifth-fastest time on the track at 28.552 seconds. Two XFINITY Series sessions followed and saw Brad run first and sixth respectively. Next up on a busy day for BK is Cup qualifying at 4:45 p.m. ET. The Cup series will run two more practice sessions at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Saturday before XFINITY Series qualifying and then the Lakes Region 200 to wrap the day in New Hampshire.
Sunday is then reserved for the main event of the weekend at The Magic Mile, the 5-Hour Energy 301. Coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network and race is set to go green at around 1:45 p.m. ET.