Brad Keselowski had his No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang in contention all day at Phoenix International Raceway, but he just couldn’t quite catch his longtime rival Kyle Busch.
The 22 Crew had a fantastic day and helped push Brad out to the lead twice for a total of seven laps on point, but the No. 22 Ford just couldn’t compete with the dominant No. 54 car driven by Busch—and Brad settled for a second-place finish.
“We needed lot more of everything, but we had a great effort. We had a great day on pit road. The Discount Tire Ford guys on the pit crew did a great job there. We gained spots, so that was really cool and real fun, but we just needed a lot more speed to run with the 54. Either way, it was a pretty solid day.”
Brad started the DAV 200 in the fourth position, and it took him just two laps to drive up to second place behind Busch, whose No. 54 sat on the pole and led 190 laps.
Kes reported that the Discount Double Deuce was loose on exit of Phoenix’s low-banked turns in the early going and settled into a tight condition through the center late. Crew chief Greg Irwin made adjustments throughout the afternoon, but the No. 22 couldn’t keep pace with the 54.
The race’s first caution came 17 laps into the day, but Brad stayed out from second place and retained that position for the ensuing run. Another yellow flag flew at lap 59 when Dylan Kwasniewski made hard contact with the wall. This time BK took his machine down pit road, and a stellar stop from the 22 Crew put him off pit road in second, behind only Elliott Sadler, who took just two tires.
With four new shoes on the 22, Brad easily bested Sadler to take the lead for the first time, but it was short-lived. Busch powered past to reclaim the top position, and that is where the race stood until the third and final caution flag came around lap 114. Another tremendous stop from the No. 22 team gave Brad the lead for six yellow-flag laps, but once again, Brad didn’t have anything for Busch on the restart.
The race went green the rest of the way, and BK never had a shot to repeat last year’s events. A year ago, Brad made a marvelous last-lap pass of Busch to steal the win, but it didn’t happen this time, and Busch claimed victory by a three-second margin.
The final result didn’t change anything. With a win last week at Texas Motor Speedway, Brad clinched Roger Penske’s third consecutive XFINITY Series Owners’ Points title. The result did however give Brad his 21st consecutive Top 10 finish in NXS competition. This was his ninth Top 10 finish in nine starts this year and his seventh straight finish of third or better. The last time he failed to finish in the Top 10 was Nov. 9, 2013 at Phoenix.