On a wild day at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where five Sprint Cup Championship hopefuls finished 30th or worse, Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion team stuck to their trend of consistency.
BK remained patient and avoided several wrecks throughout the afternoon in the Bank of America 500, which was postponed due to rain from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon. His efforts produced a seventh place finish, fourth among Chase for the Sprint Cup drivers, marking a strong start to the Round of 12 for Kes and the No. 2 Crew as they attempt to survive and advance in the Chase.
“It’s a solid day,” he said. “To run seventh is OK. We just weren’t quite anywhere near as fast as the 48
[Jimmie Johnson] and the 24 [Chase Elliott], and we were behind a bunch of the others, so we just need to find a little bit of speed, but the execution was great.”
The Wurth Ford Fusion began the 500-mile race mid-pack in 20th after a slower than normal showing in Thursday’s qualifying session. Rain cancelled all track activity on Friday and Saturday, making adjustments a challenge, but both Brad and crew chief Paul Wolfe knew once the race began that they had plenty of time to make their way out front without using any strategy.
Taking the first lap conservatively, BK lost three positions. But he quickly started gathering them back, passing Trevor Bayne on lap three, and Kurt Busch on lap 11. With a nice charge late in the green flag run, Kes made his way back up to the 21st spot prior to the lap-25 competition caution. However, upon exiting the pit stall, the No. 2 was blocked in by a few competitors, costing them three positions and setting up for a P24 restart on lap 31.
However, within just six laps, Brad had already driven his way back to 20th, making up for the setback. He then passed Ryan Newman on lap 36, Danica Patrick on the 39th, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on lap 42, as well as Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne on his way up to P15, where he sat when the No. 88 of Alex Bowman blew out a tire bringing out the yellow on lap 61.
Pitting again under caution for a fresh set of Goodyear Eagles and fuel, the 2 Crew faced another pit road penalty as one of the members jumped over the wall too soon. The Deuce was forced to start at the end of the longest line in P31 on lap 70, forcing Brad to drive through the field once more.
But BK was undeterred and cooly went about rising back up the board. Within three laps, he passed Landon Cassill and Aric Almirola up to 29th. By lap 79, Kes had also passed Clint Bowyer, Brian Scott, Chris Buescher, Michael McDowell, and Regan Smith to move into P24. In the next handful of laps, he passed another six cars, getting around Trevor Bayne, Patrick, Stenhouse, Paul Menard, Kyle Busch, and Greg Biffle for 18th. Cracking the Top 15 on lap 111, he passed Stewart, Kyle Larson, and Joey Logano, whose flat tire brought out the next caution.
Though an unfortunate fate for his teammate, Logano’s misfortune came at the right time for Brad, in the middle of a green-flag pit cycle when the No. 2 was yet to come in for service. The timely yellow flag gave the 2 Crew the track position they needed. Pitting for four tires and fuel in 12.1 seconds, BK was set up in great position to restart in P3 on lap 162.
Not long into the run, Brad found himself trying to work around leaders Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin, but while trying to make that move, he took a slide in the process in Turn 2. BK miraculously saved his car, but lost a spot to Chase Elliott, dropping to fourth place. On lap 201, Ryan Newman passed the Deuce on track, but once the field cycled through a round of scheduled green flag pit stops on lap 212, the 2 Crew had done enough in the pits to help him claim the spot right back from Newman.
A lap 229 debris caution brought the Wurth Ford back down pit road, where the crew fitted four tires on in 11.6 seconds, but they still lost a spot to Martin Truex Jr in the No. 78. Lining up for a P5 restart on lap 237, Brad immediately fell to seventh behind Newman and Hamlin. Soon thereafter, on lap 253, A.J. Allmendinger blew a tire and hit the outside wall, triggering the fifth caution. Pitting once more under yellow, Wolfe called for another new set of sticker tires on the car, setting up for a 10th place restart.
The biggest moment of the race came on the lap-259 reset, where a wreck with leader Austin Dillon triggered a Talladega-style Big One on the front stretch. The carnage, which took out Chase contenders Chase Elliott and Dillon, had serious championship implications all over it.
Luckily, Kes was safely positioned on the outside line for the restart and rode that line safely past the meleè without damage. He restarted sixth on lap 266, and radioed that the car was loose off the corners, which was evident as he dropped spots to Larson, Kasey Kahne, and Carl Edwards, falling to ninth. The motor in Denny Hamlin’s Toyota detonated on lap 309, bringing out the final caution of the day, and a tremendous stop from the No. 2 Wurth Ford team sent Brad off of pit road up two spots in sixth place.
“On the last pit stop my guys got the Wurth Ford out with the leaders, which was really good,” Brad said. “We’re executing well. We just need to find a little bit more speed to be able to make that execution and speed win races.”
The race went green one last time on lap 316 and moments later Kyle Busch drove his No. 18 car by Brad on the start, dropping the Deuce P7. BK would hold it steady there, leaving him to finish the race in seventh for his 21st Top 10 finish of the year, second only to Kevin Harvick in the Sprint Cup Series.
Jimmie Johnson won the race to punch his ticket to the Round of 8. In the Chase roundup, Hamlin finished 30th, Dillon 32nd, Elliott 33rd, Logano 36th and Harvick 38th. Kes was one of just five Chase drivers to finish in the Top 10, putting him in solid position going into the second race of the Round of 12 He’s currently fourth on the Chase Grid with a 25-point cushion over the elimination line.
With the unpredictable Talladega looming in two weeks, the 2 Crew wants to build up as much of an advantage as they can in Kansas. Tune into next week’s race, the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, Sunday, Oct. 16 at 2 p.m. ET, live on NBC.
