5-HOUR ENERGY 301

For the second straight week, Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion were the class of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field, but once again they fell short of victory; this time finishing as the runner-up to Kyle Busch at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

BK led a race-high 100 laps, but an untimely caution with just 49 laps to go set him behind Kyle Busch, and he was left unable to pass the No. 18 Toyota over the closing stages, settling for a runner-up finish.

After a tough result in the 5-Hour Energy 301, Brad left Loudon disappointed that he hadn’t parked the White Lite in Victory Lane, but he was ultimately encouraged by the strength shown by his team consecutive weeks.

“We had a really strong Miller Lite Ford today,” Brad said after the race. “That was definitely a fun car to drive. We just didn’t quite have enough to catch the 18 (Kyle Busch) there at the end with just two tires. The team did a great job of executing in the pits and I am proud of the effort.”

That speed was apparent all weekend. Kes started with a fifth-place run in the first practice session, and he followed that up by earning his 12th Top 10 start of the year.

After starting the race in the 10th position on the outside, he quickly began climbing the ladder, passing Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and David Ragan. The Miller Machine was making a move for Matt Kenseth in fifth when the first caution temporarily halted Brad’s plans at lap 22.

Here, crew chief Paul Wolfe called Brad down pit road, while the leaders stayed out. As the first car to head down pit road, the 2 Crew changed right-side tires flawlessly and had Kes out to ninth for the restart. He was briefly shuffled back to his starting position after the restart on lap 27, but he knew that he wasn’t just the 10th-fastest car, and over the next 40 laps, he showed the fans and the rest of the field just that.

By lap 67, Kes had pulled ahead of Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch to take the lead for the first of three times in the race. Brad spent the next 10 laps extending his lead over Kyle Busch, before he headed down pit road under green for service at lap 88.

Once again showing that they had moved on since their rough outing at Kentucky, the 2 Crew had Brad back on course in good time, where he passed Busch back to second place, behind only A.J. Allmendinger, who was yet to pit. Just before Allmendinger pitted under green, the No. 7 car of Alex Bowman caught fire on pit road, bringing out caution No. 2 at lap 97.

It took some time for NASCAR officials to clean pit road, so Brad didn’t inherit the lead again until Allmendinger was able to pit at lap 104. He roasted both Busch brothers on the ensuing restart, but the run didn’t last long, as debris brought out the third caution at lap 117. Here, BK stayed out and remained in the lead, and he again topped Kyle and Kurt to stay on point.

On this run, he was reporting a loose condition, allowing Kyle to cut into the lead. However, from the cockpit, Kes made some adjustments to his brakes—which plagued several other drivers throughout the day—and those tweaks allowed him to extend his lead to nearly three seconds at the halfway point.

Kevin Harvick joined Brad and Busch in the conversation for the victory, but BK remained in the lead until stopping under green once again at lap 179. The 2 Crew made a few more adjustments, but Harvick, who pitted a few laps before Brad, came out just in front of the No. 2; though it took just four laps for Kes to pass him back.

Kes was running in fifth and set to cycle back to the lead, once the four drivers ahead of him pitted under green, but an untimely caution came at lap 187 for debris. Excluding the final-lap caution, five of the six yellow flags flew for either debris or oil on the track, and late in the race, they impeded the charge of the White Lite, which was the best in the field on long runs, but weaker in short-run situations.

“It seemed like (cautions) were always coming out at the wrong time for us and, obviously, lapped traffic at certain times, it didn’t seem like they were really working with us well and that can be frustrating,” Wolfe said after the race.

This caution hurt Brad immediately. He lost the lead on the restart, falling to third behind Harvick and Busch, before passing Busch back to second shortly thereafter. But before he could reel in Harvick, yet another caution came out for debris at lap 200.

On the following reset, BK had a fantastic run on Harvick’s No. 4, but the defending Cup champion pinched him down to the bottom of the track to keep the lead. Around lap 220, he caught back up to Harvick and was hounding him for the lead as the two tried to navigate lapped traffic. Both drivers struggled through the slower cars, and Kes was ultimately not able to regain the top spot.

Around lap 235, Brad, Harvick, Busch and others were all reporting possible blown tires, but they soon understood that the culprit was oil on the track. NASCAR kept the race green, and eventually Busch elected to go down pit road and change four tires. Soon after rejoining the race, he made an aggressive move between Brad, Harvick and some lapped traffic to get back on the lead lap—a move that brought damage to the right-front of the No. 2 and caused contact between Kes and Harvick.

Just after Busch had made it back on the lead lap NASCAR brought out the yellow flag to clear the track of oil. This allowed Busch to remain on the track and inherit the lead, while Brad and the rest of the field headed to the pits. He and Wolfe elected to take two tires in hopes of taking the best possible track position.

He was the first car off pit road, but he restarted second to Busch. Only 44 laps remained, but Brad quickly radioed to Wolfe, doubting his car’s ability to catch Busch’s No. 18 on four fresh tires. Nonetheless, BK kept battling, shaving the Toyota driver’s lead to just half a second with six laps to go, but once again lapped traffic was an obstacle for the No. 2 Ford. Kes was right on Busch’s tail over the closing laps, running the wheels off the White Lite, but unfortunately, Kes ran out of time, and when the yellow flag flew shortly after the white flag, the race was over, and he and settled for a runner-up finish.

Brad immediately climbed out of the No. 2 and headed to the media center, where he talked only briefly about his rough day. Afterward, Wolfe also told the media about his frustrated driver’s outlook after missing out on a victory for the second week in a row.

“I guess being in there driving it can be more frustrating for him,” Wolfe said. “It just shows how bad we want to win and how hard we work, and we had some struggles over the last couple months, and to come out the past couple weeks as strong as we have and not to be able to get it done it’s tough.”

But although win No. 2 is yet to come for the 2 Crew, Brad is still be satisfied in knowing he has one of the fastest machines in NASCAR right now, and his prospects as the Chase for the Sprint Cup approaches just keep getting better.

“We’ve got really fast cars,” Brad said after the race. “You know, that’s the backbone of performance in this sport, is having really fast cars, and we had an exceptionally fast car here today, and I’m just really proud to have another one here.”

NEXT UP

The NSCS now heads to one of the most iconic venues in racing—Indianapolis Motor Speedway—for the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard presented by Crown Royal.

One of the biggest events of the year, the Brickyard 400 has been troublesome for Brad over his career. The 2.5-mile rectangular oval is one of just two tracks, the other being the road course at Sonoma Raceway, where BK still lacks a Top 5 finish for his career.

In five starts, his best finish is ninth, which he attained in both 2011 and 2012. He crossed in 21st and 12th in the last two years—something he and the No. 2 team are looking to improve upon this weekend.

BK will also run on dirt for the first time his career this Wednesday night, when he pilots his Brad Keselowski Racing No. 29 Ford F-150 at Eldora Speedway in Ohio for the 1-800-CarCash Mudsummer Classic. That race is set to air on Fox Sports 1 at 9 p.m. ET.

The Cup event in Indy is set for a 3:49 p.m. ET green flag on Sunday, and the broadcast will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on the NBC Sports Network.