BOJANGLES' SOUTHERN 500

Brad Keselowski notched his best finish ever at the Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Sunday night, but it was one spot shy of where BK and the No. 2 Crew hoped to end to the evening.

Late on the holiday at historic Darlington Raceway, Brad appeared primed for his second victory of the season. The throwback No. 2 Miller High Life Ford Fusion was strong all weekend, allowing BK to capture his first pole position of the season, from which he led a race-best 196 of 367 laps, and he was pulling away from the field with 13 laps to go. But a late caution precipitated one more pit stop and Carl Edwards in the No. 19 won the race off pit road by a matter of inches. That crucial exchange put Kes in a bad spot for the final restart, which sealed his fate as the runner-up.

It was Brad’s career-best eighth consecutive Top 10 finish, and he has been extraordinarily close to victory several times during that stretch—but even an exhausting near-win in the longest race ever at The Track Too Tough To Tame couldn’t get the sanguine Team Penske driver down with one race remaining until the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“We have a lot to be proud of,” Brad said afterward. “We were sitting on the pole and leading a lot of laps. Our game is strong, we have a lot of Top 10s, a lot of seconds, thirds, fifths, sixths, tenths, whatever it might be—just want to turn them into wins. We’re right there, we just have to get to one more level to win these races and win this championship, but we’re not far off, and that feels good.”

Though he hasn’t logged a win since March, BK has been scorching his way through the late summer on a run unlike any other in his career thus far. His string of eight straight Top 10s dates back to a sixth-place finish at Kentucky on July 11, and it includes three second-place finishes.

But this performance at The Lady in Black was undoubtedly the most dominant of the bunch.

Sunday’s race at Darlington featured the same low-downforce package that was debuted at that race in Kentucky, and Brad was among a slew of drivers who were again delighted with the racing it produced.

“I loved it,” Brad said of the low-downforce package. “It separates the racecar drivers from the pretends, and that’s the way it should be.”

After coming out 10th in the first practice, Brad topped the chart in the second and final practice session on Friday. Then on Saturday, BK really flexed the muscle of his High Life Ford in qualifying, where he won both the second and final rounds to grab his ninth career pole and first of the 2015 season.

Kes kept that pole position through the first 62 laps, despite two early cautions, the second of which led him to take the Deuce down pit road for his first stop of the night to get some fresh tires. As Brad explained after the race, the slick surface at Darlington and the rapid tire fall-off, as well as the demanding low-downforce package instituted by NASCAR resulted in numerous drivers struggling, not to mention a race-record 18 caution flags.

“The race reminded me of when I was a little kid and my dad wanted me to learn how to drive a car,” Kes explained in his post-race press conference. “The cars, just five or six years ago, were extremely difficult to drive—much like a stick shift when you’re learning how to drive. Then in the last four or five years, they’ve gotten really easy to drive; to the point where, as drivers we’re looking around like, ‘Hey these shouldn’t be that easy to drive.’ So we asked NASCAR to make these cars harder to drive, give us our, metaphorically speaking, stick shift back. And somebody thought it’d be really funny to pick Darlington to do that, which would be like picking the mountains of Virginia to give somebody stick shift back. Metaphorically speaking, there were a lot of people who stalled it out today.”

Brad was able to find his rhythm quickly, holding off Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch to keep the lead going into the third caution of the night at lap 61. Brad pitted from first place and the 2 Crew slapped four fresh tires on their retro Deuce, but BK yielded the lead to Edwards, who elected to forego pit road. Kasey Kahne also took two tires, dropping the No. 2 to third position for the restart.

Brad was bottled up on the ensuing restart, but he moved past Kahne, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch before the end of the run, back to third place. Throughout the night, he reported the same issues with his car on the challenging Darlington surface: strong corner entry, but a loose condition through the center and exit of turns on the treacherous 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval.

After the fourth yellow flag of the night at lap 100, the 2 Crew helped Brad gain a spot on pit road getting the Deuce out of the stall and across the line in second place behind only the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin. BK went to work on the lead of No. 11 car following the Lap 115 restart and eventually, he worked the inside line to retake the lead at lap 118, just before a string of cautions came out, beginning at lap 121.

Seven cautions came through the next 100 laps, and BK held the lead nearly the entire time, holding his ground tremendously on restarts. After the seventh caution, the No. 2 was briefly passed on a lap 139 restart by the No. 4 driven by Kevin Harvick. However, Brad didn’t drop back and instead fought for the position. He passed the No. 4 car right back and did what Harvick couldn’t: made the pass stick.

After a wreck involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at lap 198, Kes was finally usurped from the top spot.

Kurt Busch in the No. 41 bested Brad on a lap 203 restart and kept the No. 2 driver in P2 before a Greg Biffle spinout at lap 207. On the ensuing stop, strategic differences and a bit of a pit road blunder put BK back in traffic for the first time. The 2 crew had Brad off pit road in fifth, but four drivers chose to stay out on the track, which dropped the Deuce to ninth. Stuck in that unfamiliar position in the pack for the first time, he was shuffled back to 11th on the Lap 212 restart.

The High Life No. 2 car didn’t stay in the middle of the pack for long, however. Brad worked to pass Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray, Trevor Bayne and Kyle Larson up to seventh place in just 10 laps. From there, he tried to make a pass to get back into the Top during a battle between Kurt Busch and Joey Logano for that spot. It was there that he nearly saw his night end.

Riding next to the 41, the back end of the No. 2 slid out, and nearly smacked the side of Busch’s car. However, the two veteran drivers both reacted quickly: Busch gave Brad just enough room, and Kes saved the Deuce from spinning out, in what was the save of the night at Darlington.

Shortly thereafter, a caution on lap 229 allowed Brad to get closer to the lead. He pitted from seventh, took four fresh tires and an adjustment, and the No. 2 crew did great work to get him back out in the fifth position. From there, he quickly made up even more ground. Kes drove his throwback themed No. 2 car by Busch’s No. 41 and then Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 for third place at lap 241.

Another caution followed five laps later, wherein the two Team Penske drivers, Logano in the No. 22 and BK in the No. 2, elected to stay on track to claim the top two spots. However, because he was restarting on the inside, Kes had to work for position. He initially fell back and found himself battling Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 78 for the second spot. The two made slight contact, yet Kes rode on to take second place. But before the run was over, the Deuce was passed by the No. 4 of Harvick, who was running on fresher tires and fell to third. However just one lap later, at Lap 265, yet another caution came out.

Brad drove down pit road for another stop during that caution and the No. 2 crew got him away fourth, however, because Kyle Busch kept his No. 18 car on the track, BK was relegated to P5 on the restart, and the dreaded bottom line. He radioed to spotter Joey Meier saying, “this isn’t going to be pretty, just try to get me up (to the top line).”

Meier did just that. Kes got a great run on the restart and Meier immediately sent him in front of Edwards to the outside line. He rode that line past Hamlin and Busch to third place, before praising the job done by Meier in what was the duo’s most impressive restart of the night.

Yet another yellow flag followed, and Brad stayed out to take second place behind Harvick. On the ensuing run, Brad did all he could to chase down Harvick’s fast No. 4, but he lost ground in the center and exit of turns, forcing him to try several different lines on the track.

That search for the proper groove nearly ruined his night on lap 299, when he kissed the wall to cause some minor damage to the right-rear of his Miller Machine.

Fortunately, the damage was minimal, and BK got a break just two laps later when the 16th caution of the night came out. This allowed Kes to take the Deuce down pit road, where the 2 Crew assessed the damage, made a wedge adjustment and fitted the car with four fresh tires. The quick work of the crew allowed Brad to drive off pit road first and take P1 just in time for the closing stage of the event.

The race reset at lap 306, and Brad bested Busch and Harvick to keep first place, but Busch’s No. 41 spun out just one lap later, prompting another caution. Kes stayed on the track and easily beat Harvick on the ensuing restart to keep first, but a tremendous battle followed.

BK’s High Life Ford was better in turns one and two, but Harvick’s Budweiser Chevrolet was the supreme machine in turns three and four, resulting in a thrilling back-and-forth with the No. 4 right on the tail of the No. 2. Harvick nearly made the pass with 45 laps to go but when he got to the door of the Deuce, his No. 4 car slipped, allowing Brad to race away.

Shortly thereafter, Edwards joined the fray and passed Harvick to second place. Soon the No. 19 was challenging Brad and the No. 2 car. Like Harvick before him Edwards tried to make the pass, but Brad again held on. With the final 10 laps approaching, Brad was in control and a win seemed within his grasp.

Then came and untimely 18th caution of the night when Jeb Burton spun out with just 12 laps left on the ticker. Brad was forced to pit from first place for fresh tires. The No. 2 crew did their best, and when the jack dropped and BK sped off from the final box on pit road. But he was edged by Edwards—as the nose of the No. 19 crossed the line before Brad’s No. 2.

Kes’ fate was sealed by those few inches, the chances of taking first on a restart from second place, and the bottom line on the track, falling somewhere between slim and none. But Brad wouldn’t go down without a fight. He tried valiantly to nab the lead spot on the restart, but was instead setback as Hamlin drove his No. 11 car by the No. 2 to take second place. Brad managed to get that spot back on the final turn. But, he had no time left to catch Edwards before the checkered flag, forcing him to settle for second.

“We’re right there in every way. I need to be a little better,” Brad said on radio after the race. “We need to be a little better everywhere. One more spot.”

In addition claiming the Coors Light Pole Award on Saturday and leading more than 50 percent of the laps on Sunday night, BK earned the American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award, the Duralast Brakes “Brake in the Race” Award, and Roush Yates Engines earned the Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race Award for the motor in the No. 2. His driver rating of 137.4 was far and away the best of the night.

Kes now has four runner-up finishes this year, trailing only the points leader Harvick in that category; and his 17 Top 10 finishes trail only Harvick and BK’s Penske teammate Joey Logano.

NASCAR has said that the low-downforce package, which was once again extolled by Brad and other drivers, will not be used in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. But despite that reality, Brad and his team will still be able to take some very important lessons from the night as they head into the postseason.

“There’s a lot to take from tonight from us that extends from the downforce package: restarts, pit road, dialing in some suspension stuff on the race car,” BK explained. “Mile-and-a-halfs are the bread and butter of this sport. Darlington is a little smaller than a mile-and-a-half but as we get into the Chase—you win the mile-and-a-halfs, you win the championship. It might not be with the same downforce, but it’s not that big of a difference and a lot of the same stuff still applies. The engine still applies, the suspension still applies, pit crew, restarts, strategy all that stuff. We can still take that away from it.”

NEXT UP

Brad rides his career best streak of eight consecutive Top 10 finishes into the final race before the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 under the lights at Richmond International Raceway.

It’s a familiar race for Brad and one that he dominated last year, winning from the pole while leading 383 of 400 laps to capture the first victory at Richmond of his career. That win was one of four career Top 10s for BK in 12 starts at RIR. Most recently at Richmond, he finished 17th in April’s Toyota Owners 400.

He’ll look to defend his Federated Auto Parts 400 crown at RIR under the lights on Saturday night. Green flag is set for shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET, and the race will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network.