Last week at Martinsville Speedway, Brad Keselowski did his best but fell just short of becoming the Chase for the Sprint Cup spoiler, finishing second to Jimmie Johnson. But this week at Texas Motor Speedway, the No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion driver will look to turn a runner-up into a win in the AAA Texas 500.
A blown engine at Talladega Superspeedway spoiled Brad’s shot at the title, but even though he has been eliminated from championship contention, he’s focused on winning, and nothing else.
“Honestly, I’m here to win and I think we had a great shot at doing that here as you can tell today,” Brad said last week at Martinsville. “I don’t care about this format, so I’ll just go out there and try to win. Whatever these guys do it’s still racing at the end of the day and you should be here to win.”
Without the pressure of the Chase, Brad is racing free and devoting all of his focus on winning, rather than worrying about points and standings. And if he can win at Texas this weekend, it’ll be a first.
In this event last season, Brad led 312 of 334 laps but was passed by Johnson with five laps to go. At that point, like Brad now, Johnson was out of Chase contention, and the late pass ultimately erased BK’s shot at advancing to the Round of 4. This year, Kes believes his team is poised to walk out of the Lone Star State with a win in-hand.
“I think we’re the best team in the garage and if we’re not the best, we’re right there and we don’t have a shot at winning the championship,” Brad said in Martinsville. “I think today showed how strong we are and I’m really proud of that.”
The statistics certainly support Brad’s assessment of his team. The 2 Crew has amassed 16 Top 5 finishes this year—one shy of BK’s career-high, and enough to lead all Sprint Cup teams in 2016. His 22 Top 5 finishes tie him for third, and in the most important statistic of all—wins—he’s also tied for first with four.
With Brad deadlocked with Johnson, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr., the tie is sure to break over the final three races. And it’s clear that BK intends to be the one to break it, as he said after his title hopes ended at Talladega.
“Win more races,” BK said.
A win would break the tie and also be a breakthrough for Brad at Texas. He and the No. 2 team performed flawlessly throughout each and every pit stop thorugh the duration of last year’s 500-mile fall race in Texas. The No. 2 Wurth Fusion had built a safe lead, only to see it erased by a debris caution with less than 20 laps remaining. Shortly after the restart, Brad lost the lead at settled for second behind Johnson, whose No. 48 was dialed in perfectly for the final run.
That wasn’t the first run-in at Texas for the longtime rivals. Brad put himself in position to win at Texas during his 2012 Sprint Cup championship run. He traded paint with Johnson in a thrilling green-white-checkered finish, but he lost the lead and settled for second.
That marked Brad’s first Top 10 finish ever at TMS, though he’s finished ninth or better six of eight times since. One of the two where he didn’t log a Top 10 came earlier this season. BK walked away with a disappointing P18 finish after a loose wheel forced the team to pit under green, dropping them down two laps. The long runs didn’t allow many chances to utilize a Lucky Dog or wave around, as he finished the race two laps behind race winner Kyle Busch.
But with a strong history in Texas on their side, and momentum from a second-place run last week at Martinsville, the entire Team Penske crew has a lot to look forward to when the AAA Texas 500 goes green. Catch the action live on NBC at 2 p.m. ET, on Sunday, Nov. 6.