Already locked into the Chase for the Sprint Cup and hungry for his second win of the season, Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion team made a gamble late in the Irwin Tools Night Race that gave them a sniff of clean air for the final green flag run—but unfortunately, that gamble didn’t pay off the way they hoped.
BK knew that the White Lite needed clean air to win, but his decision not to pit with roughly 70 laps to go left him on older tires. With the rest of the field running on fresh rubber, Brad slid back throughout the final run, and he settled for a sixth-place finish while Team Penske’s Joey Logano claimed the checkered flag at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“We had some speed, but not any at all in traffic,” Brad explained afterward. “I think we were a little bit faster than Joey, to be honest, but only in clean air. Once we got in traffic I just wasn’t good enough. But Joey drove a heck of a race and I’m happy for my teammate.”
The 2 Crew has been close to victory in each race for nearly two straight months, as evidenced by Brad’s seventh consecutive Top 10 finish, which ties his personal best set during his 2012 Sprint Cup championship season.
BK led four laps, but he finished right where he qualified in position six at Thunder Valley. However, navigating through traffic on The World’s Fastest Half-Mile was treacherous, and Brad found himself going backward in the running order early.
On the opening run, Kes reported tightness in the center and poor drive exiting the turns of 0.533-mile Tennessee short track. He pitted from ninth place after the race’s first caution at lap 52, and the 2 Crew had him off pit road still in ninth. However, that put him on the bottom line for the restart—and that precarious position caused him to drop to 11th on the following run.
He continued to battle with the handling of his Miller Machine, but retained that 11th position before caution No. 2 at lap 126. After pitting from 11th, the No. 2 team put together a great four-tire stop and had Brad off in 10th, where he could enjoy a top-line position on the restart. However, when Kevin Harvick was penalized on pit road, it was up to ninth, and back down to the bottom line.
This time, though, the No. 2 driver was ready. Kes had a fantastic restart and worked the inside line much better, rocketing up to steal sixth place from David Ragan before the run settled in. However, the give-and-take nature of short-track racing continued.
Another caution flag came at lap 147, and on this run, the White Lite continued to struggle. Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. both bested Brad shortly after the restart, and he fell to 13th before caution No. 4 signaled the end of the run at lap 250.
With the halfway point came some hope for the 2 Crew. On the ensuing run, Brad cracked the Top 10 and moved all the way back to eighth before Kyle Larson brought out the fifth yellow flag at lap 360.
Yet another strong stop by the 2 Crew had Brad off pit road in seventh place, and just two laps into the consequent run, Kes had a major close call. BK was on the bottom battling Jeff Gordon for sixth place, when in front of them, contact between Jimmie Johnson and Ragan sent Ragan’s No. 55 Toyota spinning. The spinning No. 55 was then hit by Clint Bowyer, and quick action by Brad, as well as help from spotter Joey Meier, helped keep the No. 2 clean through it all.
When the dust from that wreck settled, Brad was restarting in fifth place on lap 380. On the ensuing restart, he was battling hard with Johnson and had just edged his No. 48 Chevrolet for fourth place, when the phrase “cautions breed cautions” was confirmed by a spinning Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Kes restarted fourth at lap 390 on the preferred inside position behind the leader, Logano. On this reset, Brad resumed his prior battle with Gordon, and finally in some clean air, he edged out the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet to take second place with 107 laps to go, behind only his teammate.
He remained there until the eighth and final caution flag came out with 71 laps left. Here, BK and his crew were faced with a tough decision: to pit, or not to pit? In no need of fuel, Brad ultimately chose clean air over fresh tires, and he elected to stay out and inherit the lead.
Unfortunately, the fresh tires won out. Within seconds of the restart, Brad had been passed by Logano, Denny Hamlin, Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Johnson and Clint Bowyer back to seventh place. Before the run was over Kes gained one spot back from Junior, but he couldn’t gain anymore while Logano went on to hold off Harvick through lapped traffic and bring home a win for Team Penske.
The 2 Crew wasn’t happy to miss out on a victory once again, but Kes succeeded in matching his career-best Top 10 streak. Incidentally, that streak in 2012 ended at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was also part of a run of 17 Top 10 finishes in the final 20 races of the season, culminating with BK being crowned the NSCS champion.
Additionally, the win and 39 points gained vaulted Brad to fourth in the NSCS points standings, one point ahead of Johnson in fifth place. His 16th Top 10 finishes on the year match that of Johnson and Truex and trail only the 21 and 18 recorded by Harvick and Logano, respectively.
NEXT UP
The Cup Series takes the final weekend of August off before returning in two weeks at Darlington Raceway for the annual Southern 500 on Labor Day Weekend.
The Track Too Tough To Tame has lived up to its moniker for Brad in recent years. In five career Cup Series runs at Darlington, BK has finished in the Top 10 twice, with his highest finish being a third place run in 2011.
However, he hasn’t finished in the Top 10 since, with his best run in the last three years being a 15th place finish during his 2012 championship season. Last year he finished the race in 17th. He’ll need a much better result this year to keep his Top 10 streak intact.
Kes will run a special throwback Miller High Life paint scheme at Darlington. Several other drivers will also sport throwback looks for the event.
The Southern 500 is scheduled to begin shortly after 7:20 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 6 and will be broadcast on NBC.