The final weekend of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular season takes Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 crew back to the site of one of the most dominant performances of his career, Richmond International Raceway, as he looks for one more win to bolster his résumé for the upcoming Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Brad led 383 of 400 laps en route to a victory in last year’s Federated Auto Parts 400 that made him the No. 1 seed in the Chase. As he drives under the lights at RIR once again, he’ll look to replicate his marvelous night a season ago.
“We had an incredible Miller Lite Ford last year, and the team executed perfectly all night long,” Brad recalled. “That was a kind of cool night as it was the 400th win for Penske Racing.”
BK and the No. 2 Crew head to Richmond coming off a runner-up finish at Darlington Raceway last week, after Brad led 196 laps, the fourth-highest total of his career. Though short of the victory he’d been seeking, the finish was his career-best eighth consecutive Top 10. Looking to keep that momentum going this week, he takes the streak to Richmond, where he has finished in the top 10 four times: the victory a year ago, a fourth-place finish in the spring of 2014, and ninth-and seventh-place finishes in 2012.
Thanks to his incredible performance after winning the pole at RIR last fall, Brad has tallied 648 laps led at the track over his career: more than any other track on the circuit. Of his career 3,307 laps led, 17 percent have come at Richmond. Of the 4,406 laps he has completed at RIR, BK has led over 14 percent of them. While Kes admitted it’s not likely any car leads that many laps this year at the 0.75-mile short track, he feels like his car has a great chance of taking the checkered flag once again.
Brad has just one win so far this season, which came at Auto Club Speedway in March, but the 2 Crew is as strong right now as it has been all season. BK has finished second four times this year, including three times in the last 10 races.
The Miller Lite Ford team has the speed, now it’s all about putting together the perfect winning effort.
“We’ve been capable of winning for most of the summer stretch,” Brad said. “Last weekend at Darlington, we led a bunch and came up just short. The team has been building strong Ford Fusions, and we’ve got the speed to win. We just have to put it all together.”
Brad also put together a relatively impressive performance at Richmond earlier this year. He dropped a cylinder in his Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion midway through the race, but he managed to keep the car up front for much of the race. His short-track aptitude had him on track for a third-place finish, but a series of late restarts left him bottled up and, running below full power, he settled for a 17th-place finish.
That result came amid his roughest stretch of the season: three straight finishes outside of the Top 10. However, the Deuce returns to the track at RIR on an incredible hot streak, giving the No. 2 crew a great shot at capturing their second win of the year.
“This weekend is our opportunity, and we’ll make the most of it,” Brad said.
It’ll all start on Friday in qualifying for the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion driver. He captured his first pole award of the season last week and nearly rode it to victory. Of course, the pole was also key to his win in this race last year. He started first, and the field could hardly pull the lead from Brad’s clutches for the entire night.
He has shown so far this weekend that the White Lite has race-winning speed. He was third in the first practice session with a time of 21.590 seconds, and finished ninth in final practice with a 21.656-second lap. Qualifying is set to start at 5:45 p.m. ET on Friday and will air on NBC Sports Network.
NBCSN will also air the weekend’s main event, the Federated Auto Parts 400, at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night.