For the fifth time in his career, Brad Keselowski enters the Chase for the Sprint Cup at Chicagoland Speedway with hopes of a championship—and he does so on the short list of title favorites.
BK has already put together one of the best seasons of his career, tying defending Cup champion Kyle Busch for a season-high four wins. One victory away from the third five-win season of his career, Brad has had a championship-caliber run, but the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford driver is ready to add even more to the stellar 2016 season.
“I think this year, if we can win another race or two and have the consistency we have had over the last 15 to 20 races, that I will feel like a champion, whether I win it or not,” he said.
Thanks to the four wins, Brad enters the Round of 16 with 12 bonus points—which equates to 12 positions on the race track. Last season, Brad entered the postseason with three bonus point from his single victory, and proved the value of those valuable points. Advancing to the second round by only two points, if Brad didn’t have a regular-season win, he wouldn’t have advanced.
The Round of 16 will go through Chicago, Loudon and Dover. After taking on the Monster Mile, Kes will need to be in the Top 12 in points, or carry a win in order to move on. Fortunately, he has had a wealth of past success at Dover, New Hampshire and Chicago.
In the 2012 Championship season, BK started the Chase title run in Chicago with a victory, and a controversial pass on leader and championship rival Jimmie Johnson. Backing it up two years later with a 2014 victory in the Chase kickoff race, Brad compared that season to a championship run. He finished with more wins than anyone in the Cup Series that year, a career-high six, which made it feel like a championship season, even without the Homestead burnout to cap it off.
“I have had a handful of years now to reflect back on it and I don’t know if I feel like the driver that deserves to win the championship always wins the championship,” he said.
In seven races in the Windy City, Brad has put up some solid numbers. In the 1,869 possible laps in race competition, he’s only missed three lap, logging 1,866 trips around the 1.5-mile tri-oval. Only 144 of those laps have been spent in front of the field, but two of them were important laps: the last ones. Winning in 2012 and 2014, Kes hopes to keep up the even year success trend.
The 2014 Chase opening victory came in spectacular fashion, passing both Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick for the lead after a restart, allowing the Michigan native to drive away and lock himself in the second round.
In his six mile-and-a-half starts of the year, five of those ended in a Top 10 results, while the Texas outlier race was plagued with loose wheels. The most recent cookie cutter oval race at Kentucky Speedway in July ended up as a victory for the No. 2, as well as the 2 Crew’s second intermediate win of the season at Las Vegas.
With five of the 10 Chase tracks being 1.5-mile circuits, getting on the right foot at Chicagoland Speedway is the recipe for Chase success. He’ll do so from a strong starting point. Qualifying was cancelled on Friday, and the field was set on points, with Busch taking the pole and Brad on the outside pole.
Tune into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 on NBC Sports Network at 2:30p.m. ET on Sunday September 18th.
Team BKR Looks to Lock Both Trucks into the Chase
While the field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, tonight’s race in Chicago finalizes the lineup for the inaugural Camping World Truck Series Chase.
Daniel Hemric, driver of the No. 19 Draw-Tite F-150 enters the cutoff race 56 points over the cut line, and with confidence. The Kannapoils, N.C. native is all but guaranteed a spot the playoffs. Making his second career start at the Joliet, Ill. track, he’s shown the potential to run well already this weekend. Posting the fastest lap in Thursday’s final practice session in track record speed, Hemric proved that his team isn’t just going through the motions this week—they still want a victory.
“I don’t have a whole lot of experience at Chicagoland Speedway, since we had an issue so early in the race last year, but I do know it’s a track that a lot of drivers look forward to going to,” he says. “Chicagoland offers such a wide racing surface to work with, that as drivers, we can constantly be searching for grip during the race. It makes you feel like you have a little more in your control as to how your day turns out. Everyone on our Draw-Tite Ford F-150 team is focused on running well and locking down a spot in the Chase this weekend.”
Teammate Tyler Reddick ultimately knows the situation for his crew: win or bust. Entering Chicagoland 39 points outside the eight-driver field, the No. 29 team realistically understands that pointing their way in isn’t a possibility now. Finishing fourth in 2014, and putting themselves in position to win last year, a last-minute win is always possible for BKR. But the 20-year-old isn’t letting the high stakes get to him—he’s focused on what he needs to do to put his truck in Victory Lane.
“Chicagoland is a challenge because you’re never really going straight,” Reddick says. “The back straightaway can throw some people off, but you can make a pass anywhere on the race track. The bottom is still the fast way around the track, but you’ll see people moving around trying to find clean air. You must take advantage of the momentum when you have a run and complete the pass, because you don’t want to stall out and lose positions. The track conditions are constantly changing, so it can be a gamble, setup-wise, to have a good Cooper Standard Ford F-150 at the end of the race.”
Crew chief Doug Randolph emphasizes the necessity to win, but sees the must-win situation as freeing mentally.
“Our goal is to win every race, so that won’t change for us this week,” he says. “I think knowing that we must win makes it a little easier as far as risk versus reward with our decisions and strategy. The biggest thing at Chicagoland is there is room to race.”
See if they can both claim spots in the NCWTS postseason Friday night at 8:30 p.m. ET for the American Ethanol E15 225, live on FOX Sports 1.