The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is turning back time for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, and Brad Keselowski will lead the field to green from the pole position, behind the wheel of one of the most storied paint schemes during the NSCS throwback weekend.
After a week off, the Sprint Cup Series resumes with the annual Labor Day Weekend event, and as part of the Team Penske and MillerCoors “Cheers to 25 Years” celebration, Brad and the No. 2 team are paying homage to NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison all weekend. The No. 2 Ford Fusion has taken on a special white and red Miller High Life paint scheme, strikingly similar to that of the 22 car driven by Allison during his 1983 NASCAR championship season.
“The No. 2 Miller High Life Ford is a classic without a doubt,” Brad said. “Team Penske and Miller did an excellent job of recreating that retro feel and style. Driving this car that represents Miller High Life and Ford, brands that each have over a hundred years of heritage at a place that is one of NASCAR’s most historically prominent tracks is an honor.”
Brad got the special weekend off to a phenomenal start when he claimed his first pole award of the season in qualifying for the Southern 500 on Saturday afternoon at Darlington. After the Deuce was fastest in Friday’s final practice session, the No. 2 crew knew they had something good brewing, and the High Life Ford kept rising to the top of the chart on Saturday.
Kes was plenty fast enough in the first round of qualifying, where his lone lap resulted in the seventh fastest time of the board, allowing him to advance to the second round. There, the No. 2 Ford Fusion was even better, posting the only lap to top 179 mph and drop below 27.5 seconds. That booked Brad a spot in the final round of qualifying and the Deuce was the first one out on the track to post a lap in the last round. BK cruised around the track in 27.492 seconds at an average speed of 178.874 miles per hour, then went back to pit road to see if it would hold up. It did and then some, as the No. 2’s time was again the only one in the field under 27.5 seconds and his speed was the only one over 178 mph this time.
That gave BK his first pole win of the season, the ninth of his career and one that holds a special place of the year given the setting.
“This is probably the biggest pole I have ever had as far as what the track means,” Brad said. “I have always thought of Darlington as being one of the elite tracks in NASCAR…you look at Daytona, probably Bristol, Charlotte and Darlington as definitely in the top-five, maybe top-two or three to our sport and what it means. When I think of that, I think that any success you have on those tracks is just a ‘whoa’ moment. It is huge. So in that sense this is a great accomplishment to me personally and it means a lot.”
Now, as he starts the race from the front, Brad has sets on finishing the weekend there, with a win that would prove even more meaningful both to his season and to his career.
To get there, BK and the No. 2 will look to draw off the magic in the Miller High Life machine; Allison is a four-time Southern 500 winner and boasts five wins at the track Too Tough To Tame, including a 1975 sweep, and he won the Cup championship in 1983 in High Life colors.
Nearly every car in the field will be sporting a throwback paint scheme as a nod to the rich tradition at the 1.366-mile South Carolina track, dubbed The Lady in Black, which began fielding Cup races in 1950.
The track has lived up to its Too Tough To Tame moniker for Brad over his career, but the Southern 500 stands as one of BK’s Bucket List wins. Kes’ best finish at Darlington was in 2011, when he finished third, but since then, he hasn’t cracked the Top 10, and he has led just four laps all time on The Lady in Black.
Those four laps led came just last year. Kes ran strong and in the Top 10 for much of the night, even through a brief meeting with the wall. However, he was swallowed up during a string of late restarts.
“We didn’t get the finish we wanted, that is for sure. We ran a lot better than where we finished,” Brad said after the 2014 race. “The track was slick but it is the same for everybody, so that is part of the unique challenge of Darlington that we all love.”
That result as well as his pole position for Sunday’s race set up a perfect test for BK’s current hot streak.
Brad will take a run of seven consecutive Top 10 finishes to Darlington, where another Top 10 would make this the longest such streak of his career. Still, the Deuce hasn’t won a race since March 22 and BK would like nothing more than to win it while driving the Miller High Life Ford Fusion.
“I feel good about our team’s level of preparation for Darlington,” Brad said. “We tested there a while back, and we think that we are well positioned to make the most of this weekend.”
Though he’s starting his pursuit from an enviable spot, BK expects that completing it will be an even bigger challenge. While practice sessions have help the 2 Crew get the Miller High Life Ford dialed in, the conditions will be much different Sunday.
As Brad alluded to after last year’s race, the surface at Darlington is incredibly slick, and cars often kiss the walls at the track, known as “earning stripes.” That condition will only grow more difficult as Sunday night’s race wares on: the track will become progressively looser as the sun sets. And as Brad experienced on Friday and Saturday, the tire fall-off at Darlington is stark, and requires quick adjustments and execution in every phase from he and his crew.
“The track was changing and the car was falling off as the tires were falling off and it is hot so the track was hard to get ahold of, but the car is fast and my team did a great job,” Brad said Saturday. “We just executed when it counted. The number one pit stall will be big because there will be a lot of pit stops with the tires wearing off so much. I think it will be about clean air and holding track position as long as you can. This is a track position race and the new rules will make the cars hard to get ahold of and keep off the wall. You have to keep it off the wall….This track is so challenging. You make one little mistake, and you can take a fast race car and make it a wall of wrecked metal.”
Brad will try to avoid that fate Sunday night and turn his first pole of the year into his second win. The Bojangles’ Southern 500 is set for a green flag shortly after 7 p.m. ET and will air nationally on NBC.