Brad Keselowski didn’t get the homecoming win he hoped for, but the Rochester Hills, Mich. native didn’t disappoint the hometown crowd.
The No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion driver led 10 laps and finished fourth in the FireKeepers Casino 400. BK had a look at passing race winner Joey Logano late in the afternoon at Michigan International Speedway, but he couldn’t quite clear the Team Penske No. 22, forcing him to settle for his seventh straight Top 10 finish.
“Frustrated. I thought we had a shot at winning this one. We had a really fast Miller Lite Ford and just couldn’t quite get the push I needed on the restart there to clear Joey,” Brad said afterward. ” I’m glad a Team Penske car won. Of course I wish it was our team. But in our hometown, to get a win for Ford, that’s really good too.”
Rolling to the green from the 15th starting position, Kes knew that sticking in the middle of the pack while driving a new, reduced downforce package could spell disaster. Swallowed up in the opening lap rush, the Deuce dropped a position to 16th before reeling the competition back in.
Lap eight saw him get around the Roush Fenway cars of Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Two laps later, Brad also managed to get by Jamie McMurray, and then on lap 31, he made quick work of Ryan Newman. Running idle on lap 32, activity was soon to begin on pit road as the crew chiefs formulated their race strategies.
By lap 42, all of the leaders made their way to pit road—except for Keselowski, allowing him to lead seven laps. Crew chief mastermind Paul Wolfe put the efficiency of his car to the test as he left it on the track longer than any others. Right as he crossed the stripe on the 46th lap, Brad reported that his fuel pressure instantaneously dropped to zero. The freak occurrence startled the driver, but he miraculously kept on motoring. Seconds later, and without a moment to spare, Martin Truex Jr. lost the handle of his No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota and spun out. The loop around sparked the first yellow flag of the day, and allowed Wolfe & Co. to service their machine, fitting it with four tires and a full tank of Sunoco racing fuel.
BK restarted the race on lap 51 from the 10th position, and remained there for the next three circuits until Kyle Busch’s motor detonated on the backstretch. During the cleanup period, Wolfe radioed to Brad, reminding him that the best time to earn positions is on restarts—not when the field is strung out. And Brad took that advice to heart, jumping up to fifth place on the following restart before an untimely tap from Chris Buescher to Dale Earnhardt Jr. took out both the fan favorite, and former Penske driver A.J. Allmendinger.
From there, Brad held strong in the Top 5 for most of the remainder of the race. He led three more laps during a green-flag pit cycle and later roared past rookie Chase Elliott into second on a restart with 47 laps to go. A Brian Scott spin one lap later set the stage for the most critical restart of the race for Brad.
At lap 160, Brad went back to green alongside Logano, who led a race-high 138 laps, and the teammates entered turn one side-by-side. Someone had to lift, and it was Brad. He got loose as even more downforce was sucked off his No. 2 car, causing him to bobble and drop back to fifth.
“Got kind of swallowed in the pack trying to make sure I didn’t wreck him. That’s the way it goes,” Brad said. “I think you saw that you have to really drive these cars. They are hard to drive and that causes accidents. I don’t think that is a bad thing. It just means everybody is on the edge. You could really see that today.”
Two laps later, another caution from both Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Blaney brushing the wall flew, setting BK up for a lap 167 restart. The next to last restart of the day proved to be chaotic like the rest. With the hometown driver starting on the less than preferred bottom line, it didn’t take him long to suffer the consequence. He slid back as far as 12th before holding off Matt Kenseth to regain 11th. Resilient as always, Kes began charging back through the pack, passing Stenhouse, Austin Dillon and Truex to eighth before the final yellow stint of the afternoon.
Going green the final time with seven laps to go from eighth, Brad advanced up two spots when they returned to the stripe. In the closing laps he made it past Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick to claim fourth. Kes reflected on the new experimental aero package as it was on display for the first time. The No. 2 driver saw it as a step in the right direction, but also sees more room for improvement going forward.
“The cars are a handful, but that’s what we all asked for. Mission accomplished,” BK said. “Wish we would’ve been able to race a little bit closer than we were in the end. It didn’t seem like it was as much of a difference as we were hoping for, but still, in general, a step in the right direction as far as putting the cars in the hands of the drivers. A lot to give them credit for there.”
Brad is one of five drivers with 10 or more Top 10 finishes through 15 races. He’s also tied for third in the Cup series with six Top 5s on the year. That puts him at second on the Chase Grid behind the year’s only three-time winner, Kyle Busch. Brad is third in points at 480 behind Harvick (526) and Kurt Busch (496) going into the Father’s Day off weekend.
Logano became the 10th different driver to win this season, while Brad remains one of four drivers with two or more wins. Logano gave the shop its third win on the year, in a milestone win for both Team Penske and Ford Performance. This marks the 50th time Penske and Ford have reached the Winner’s Circle together—10 of those trips courtesy of Brad. Additionally, it was the 100th win for Roush Yates Engines with Ford, something certainly exciting for the entire Ford family, and Doug Yates. Both Yates and Edsel Ford II were on hand to celebrate the monumental win.
“It’s just a special day. To achieve that at Michigan, just couldn’t happen at a better place, and really all the credit goes to Ford Motor Company and all the great employees at Roush Yates and what Raj
Brad and the rest of the Ford family of drivers will look to continue their success two weeks from now at Sonoma Raceway for the first of two road races of the year. The Toyota/SaveMart 350 will be broadcast live on FOX Sports 1, Sunday, June 26 at 3 p.m. ET.
Team BKR Claims Two Top 10’s in Texas
Though the Rattlesnake 400 at Texas Motor Speedway didn’t deliver the elusive first win of the 2016 season, both Brad Keselowski Racing drivers brought home respectable Top 10 finishes.
Tyler Reddick and his No. 29 team led the way for BKR, starting and finishing fifth. The early stages of the Rattlesnake 400 went smoothly for the California native, up until being the cause of the second caution on lap 51 as his truck spun.
“I ran over a piece of metal on the entry to Turn 3 running high. I didn’t have enough time to react to miss it and I ran over it,” Reddick recalled. “I continued to get looser and looser after that, and we ended up having a flat right-rear tire.”
Limping back to pit road and entering for service prior to the green light, Tyler lost a lap and restarted the race from P24. When the next yellow flew on lap 96 from the 20 minute clock, he advanced himself back up to 17th.
It wasn’t until lap 119 that he caught a big break from John Wes Townley spinning – providing the No. 29 a free pass and a chance to join the leaders on pace again. He used it to his advantage, driving from 16th to fifth in the last part of the race.
“Everyone on the Cooper Standard team did a heck of a job. We had to overcome a lot of adversity and no one ever gave up,” Tyler said. “The last couple of races, we’ve been able to pull out top five finishes. That says a lot about our team, the effort they put forward and their never-give-up mentality.”
Starting third with one of the fastest machines on the track, Daniel Hemric’s No. 19 appeared to be the truck to beat.
“We did a lot of work on our BULLDOG Ford F-150 after Charlotte, and it paid off in speed once the green flag waved. We were a little tight at the beginning of the race, but we were headed in the right direction and had a truck that could have won the race,” he said.
Assisted by a lap 16 restart, Hemric saw a familiar sight: the race lead. Taking command of the top spot put on a reminiscent performance from that of Charlotte only three weeks prior. The promising performance unraveled as on lap 95, Daniel reported a slow leak in his right rear tire. After nursing the truck around the 1.5-mile Texas track for a lap until the clock yellow deployed, he then brought the No. 19 in to the attention of his crew.
Restarting 16th at the end of the longest line, crew chief Chad Kendrick told his driver the additional stop was to repair a damaged right rear quarter panel brace. Even after the extra pit stop, the speed of the No. 19 showed, as Hemric scraped together his sixth Top 10 finish in seven races for Team BKR—putting him alongside points leader and two-time series champion Matt Crafton as the only drivers with six Top 10s.
“I’m not sure what happened to our brace, but I’m sure that once we get our truck back to the shop, we will figure it out,” Daniel said. “It says a lot that we were able to get back to 10th when you consider how far back we were on that last restart.”
Most of all, both drivers overcame the tough Texas heat. With nighttime temperatures still in excess of 90 degrees, Reddick even surprised himself by making the finish.
“Thankfully I’ve been trying to stay in shape or I’d have probably fallen out of the seat,” Reddick said.
Though winless, the strong results now place both drivers in the ever important eight-driver Chase grid. Hemric sits sixth with a 26 point gap, and Reddick is seventh on an 11 point margin over Ben Kennedy. William Byron claimed his second Camping World Truck Series win of the season, removing the chance for another driver to punch their ticket to the playoffs.
The Team BKR crew will try to end the winless drought Saturday night when they take on Iowa Speedway. Catch the Speediatrics 200 live on FOX Sports 1 at 8:30 p.m. ET.