AAA 400

Brad Keselowski had a rough go of it on Sunday afternoon at Dover International Speedway, but he and the No. 2 crew still managed to do just enough to advance in The Chase for the Sprint Cup.

The No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion never had the speed to compete for a win, or even a Top 10 finish in Sunday’s AAA 400. However, BK did what he could with what he had, keeping the Deuce as clean as possible and holding on for a 16th place finish. That result was just good enough to allow Brad to move on into the Contender Round of the Chase.

BK ended the Challenger Round tied for seventh in points with Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon —all three at 2,100 — just two points above the cutline of 2,098. But because his eighth place finish at Chicago was his best of the round, Brad was behind most of his fellow competitors in all tie-breaking scenarios.

Both Busch and Gordon held better Challenger Round finishes than Brad, so he ended up ninth in points at the end of the round. That left him just two points above Jamie McMurray, who was the last driver eliminated from the Chase. So if the Deuce had finished 18th or worse, BK would have been eliminated on Sunday.

Instead, McMurray, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer and six-time Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson were eliminated, narrowing the field to 12 for the upcoming contender round.

“I was not very aware of the points situation at the end,” Brad said after the race. “The guys told me we were ok, and it looks like it was really, really close. That’s part of the game.”

BK and the No. 2 crew entered the weekend with some optimism, but that was quickly dampened by rain, which cancelled Friday’s practice and the race qualifying session.

That locked Kes into a P8 start based on Owner Points. The weather cleared enough for the Cup Series to get both practices in on Saturday, and the Wurth Ford Fusion was sixth quickest in both sessions, giving the team some renewed hope that they could compete for a win at Dover, as Team Penske engineer Brian Wilson revealed before the race.

However, when Sunday’s race began, the speed the Deuce had shown in practice was gone and a precipitous drop began at the outset of the race. After starting on the outside line in P8, Brad quickly fell to ninth after the race went green. An early caution for the spinning No. 23 car of Jeb Burton put the No. 2 on the inside line at P9 for the ensuing restart and when that line faltered on the restart, Kes fell all the way back to 12th.

By lap 10, the Wurth Ford had also been passed by Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 car and the No. 18 of Kyle Busch, dropping back to 14th. Both of those drivers were behind Brad in points entering Sunday and their move toward the front while the Deuce dropped back, creating some nervous moments for the No. 2 team.

BK lost another spot to Kyle Larson a few laps later, but found some speed late in the first long green flag run of the day to pass fellow Chase drivers Ryan Newman in the No. 31 and Dale Jr. in the No. 88. He sat in 13th when the competition caution came out at Lap 41, preceding his first pit stop of the day.

On that trip down pit road, the No. 2 crew opted to strap four fresh tires on the Deuce while also performing air pressure and wedge adjustments. The crew got him back out in the same position he entered, P13 and BK caught a break when Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 were both flagged for speeding on pit road. This allowed Brad to rise back to P11 for the Lap 45 restart, putting the Wurth Ford Fusion just outside the Top 10 for the first time since the early stages of the race.

However, that restart led to another setback for the No. 2 team on a day full of them. Though he was running in P11, that was far enough back traffic that room to maneuver was hard to come by when the race went back green. He got stuck on the inside line while several cars zoomed past on the outside, dropping the Deuce all the way back to 16th. To make matters worse, as BK tried to find a way to get out of his predicament, he noticed the temperature gauges on his dashboard rising to the point that they pegged.

Brad radioed to his spotter to see if there was debris on his grille causing the spike by Joey Meier reported back that the car was clean, raising the concern level of the No. 2 crew about the Wurth Ford running hot. A mechanical failure at that stage of the race likely would’ve been curtains for Brad in the Chase. Fortunately, as the run went on, the temps leveled off and weren’t an issue for the rest of the day, allowing the team to avert disaster. Still, with Brad running in the middle of the pack, points were starting to become an issue.

He managed to get back into the Top 10 at Lap 88, but just before the quarter point of the race he reported that the car was running very tight through the center of turns, making it difficult for him to gain any ground, and he radioed that the team needed plan another adjustment at their next stop. However, that stop was still a long ways off and as the green flag run wore on, the speed that came later in the first longer run of the day was not there and he ended up falling all the way back to 18th at Lap 102.

He got a spot back when Jimmie Johnson was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop, but quickly lost that gained ground to the No. 16 of Greg Biffle one lap later. To make matters worse, race leader Kevin Harvick was dominating the field and coming for Brad, who sat in 18th as the last car on the lead lap. Fortunately, just before Harvick arrived at his back bumper, a caution came out for debris, saving Brad his lead lap spot and getting him a much-needed pit stop so the No. 2 crew could make adjustments.

As he got set to make his stop, Brad told crew chief Paul Wolfe that the car remained far too tight in the center of turns, even after the adjustments made on the first stop of the day, and described the feeling at the center of turns as “numb.” The No. 2 crew made another adjustment and strapped four tires on the Wurth machine, and with one of their best stops of the day, Kes gained a spot on pit road, allowing him to restart at P17 on Lap 118.

Despite starting on the bottom again, Brad was able to hold his position this time and settled into a groove at P17. From there, he started to methodically gain ground on the cars in front of him. He moved by the No. 16 of Greg Biffle into P16 at Lap 131 and 20 laps later the Deuce got by the No. 3 of Austin Dillon up to 15th. When Clint Bowyer had to pit off schedule, BK assumed 14th place, however, Dale Jr. in the No. 88 quickly took that spot away, dropping the Wurth Ford Fusion back to 15th and the fringe of the lead lap.

Two laps later, Harvick arrived at Brad’s bumper and with no caution in sight to save him this time, the No. 2 was put a lap down by the No. 4. BK continued there for the duration of the longest green flag run of the day. The fourth caution of the day finally arrived at Lap 193, brought out again by an incident involving the No. 23 of Burton. The No. 2 crew went to work with more adjustments on the lapped Wurth machine on another four-tire stop, including a grille-cleaning to ensure the temps stayed controlled, but nothing seemed to take.

On the Lap 206 restart, BK was running 16th as the second car one lap down behind only Biffle. Despite Brad’s best efforts to find a way around the No. 16 and become the first car a lap down, in position for “the lucky dog” at the next caution, he was mired behind Biffle’s machine and when the next caution came out for debris at Lap 232, the No. 16 car got the free pass to the lead lap.

Brad went in for another pit stop during that caution period, reporting that the previous adjustments hadn’t improved the car’s conditions. The No. 2 crew continued to work on it and got the Deuce off pit road as the second car one lap down behind only the No. 11 of Hamlin. However, Hamlin was flagged for speeding on pit road again, giving Brad the lucky dog spot as the first car one lap down (P16) on the restart.

All BK needed was another quick caution to get back on the lead lap. But instead, the field went for another 75 lap green flag run. During that run, Kes tried valiantly to fight off the hard charging No. 15 car of Clint Bowyer, but the 15 was able to run the bottom groove with much more success than the Deuce. As a result, Bowyer passed Brad at Lap 252.

At that point, BK radioed to Wolfe expressing his frustration with how things were going.

“Nothing’s working here, Paul,” he told his crew chief. “I don’t know what to tell you. I wouldn’t say it’s worse, but definitely no better.”

Brad held P17, behind only Bowyer among lap down cars, for the rest of the run, but the 2 had nothing for the 15 over the long run and when the sixth caution came at lap 312, Bowyer took the free pass to the lead lap.

On the ensuing pit stop, Brad bested Hamlin to the line, to maintain his standing as the first car a lap down, then held off Hamlin on the restart to settle back into P17. This time the hard work of he and his team was rewarded. When Brett Moffitt’s No. 34 car hit the wall with 47 laps to go, bringing out the eight caution of the day, the Deuce was finally in the Lucky Dog position at the right time and got the free pass to the lead lap.

After another four-tire stop, the Wurth Ford Fusion took the wave around as the last car on the lead lap. But because the wave still forced him to restart behind several cars that were a lap behind him, and he had to work his way up through lapped traffic to get to the rest of the lead lap cars.

His progress in doing so was stalled when the final caution of the day came out with 29 laps to go after the No. 40 car of Landon Cassill blew its engine, leaving some oil on the track. BK made his final pit stop from P17 and drove off in P16 as Kurt Busch kept his No. 41 in for an extended stop to fix an issue. The ensuing restart was Brad’s best of the day and he moved all the way up to P13 within the first lap after. However, the positive momentum didn’t last and he was passed back to P16 in short order.

He was running there as the laps ticked off toward the finish, giving him just a two-point cushion from being eliminated from the Chase. To maintain that cushion, he had to hold off Busch’s No. 41 over the final few laps, and did so successfully to cross in P16, safely into the next round of the Chase.

After Top 10 finishes in 10 consecutive races through the first race of the Chase at Chicagoland, the No. 2 Ford has now placed outside the Top 10 in each of the past two races, trending in the wrong direction. However, the slate is now clear for the Contender Round, putting all 12 Chase drivers back on equal footing as the Cup Series heads to Charlotte next week. Brad believes that’s as good a place as any to turn things back around.

“Our approach now is to win Charlotte,” Brad said. “I feel like we have the cars and the team to do it. We didn’t showcase it today, but we are better than we did today.”

NEXT UP

The Contender Round begins under the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway next Saturday night.

In 12 career races at CMS, Brad has logged four Top 10s. All of those have come in the last four years, including a win in this race back in 2013. In last year’s Chase race at Charlotte, BK started in P17 and finished 16th, complicating his Contender Round standing to the point that he had to win the next week at Talladega — which he did — in order to advance.

However, the No. 2 crew does have some recent success at Charlotte Motor Speedway to draw from. The Deuce has started and finished inside the Top 10 in each of the last two spring races at CMS. Back in May, Brad started the Coca-Cola 600 from P7 and finished sixth. If the team can find that speed again, they could set themselves up for a strong Contender Round with a solid finish at Charlotte.

The weekend begins on Thursday with a 1:30 p.m. ET practice. Qualifying follows under the lights at 7:20 p.m. ET. After determining their starting spot, the No. 2 crew will have two more chances to tune up the Deuce on Saturday afternoon, with practices at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. ET. All four sessions can be seen on NBC Sports Network.

Coverage of the Bank of America 500 begins on Saturday at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Network and the green flag is scheduled to fly at 7:15 p.m. ET.