It has been Brad Keselowski’s goal all season long to bring a victory to the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang team in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, and this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway will be his last shot.
The NXS heads to the backyard of the No. 22 team’s primary sponsor, Discount Tire, which just extended its sponsorship agreement with Team Penske. And Brad wants to take them to Victory Lane.
“We can’t do anything in this sport without our sponsors,” BK said. “Discount Tire came on board
[in 2010] and were really the catalyst to building this No. 22 Discount Tire team.”
With 18 Phoenix NXS starts under his belt, it’s safe to say that Brad knows his way around the 1.022-mile desert track. Owning one victory to his credit from the 2014 fall race, he passed leader Kyle Busch to get there—on the final lap.
“I couldn’t keep pace with him until I was able to get under him in (turns) three and four (on the white flag lap),” Kes said. “So, it was just a drag race down to turn one. This is one I’ll never forget.”
Brad has led 159 laps at PIR, but even more impressive is that he has finished 17 of his 18 starts, with the outlier stemming from a tire failure in 2011. Being there at the finish says a great deal about his ability to drive smooth at a difficult, flat short track.
In racing, it’s said that it isn’t about where you start, but where you finish. Often times at Phoenix, starting position does dictate where you finish, as passing is at a premium. Claiming a Coors Light Pole in the spring 2014 race, he’s come to a combined seven Top 5 starts. Those top starting spots definitely transferred to the race outcome as Kes has scored 10 Top 5 finishes, including the win, four P2’s, and 3 P3’s.
With crew chief Greg Erwin back atop the pit box, Brad knows they will have a shot at winning. In Erwin’s pair of races as the strategist for the No. 22, the team has had great success. The first ended in victory with Joey Logano last spring. Claiming the pole, Logano led 176 laps en route to his triumph. And in the fall of 2014, he came as close to a repeat performance as possible with Keselowski behind the wheel, leading nine laps and scoring a runner-up result.
“I absolutely think we can do it again at Phoenix,” Brad said. “I’ve become a big fan of Phoenix over the last few years and I think our Discount Tire Ford will be stout.”
Tune in to the Ticket Galaxy 200 from Phoenix to see if he can notch an NXS win this season. The race airs live on NBC Sports Network at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 12.
Team BKR Heads to Phoenix With Triple Shot at a Win
Brad Keselowski Racing enters the weekend at Phoenix International Raceway with three chances to score a win, with both of their flagship teams, and Austin Cindric once again taking the wheel of the the No. 2.
Cindric, who will be making his sixth Camping World Truck Series start, and his second at Phoenix, is excited about his chances this weekend in the PIRTEK Ford F-150. Filling in for an injured Austin Theriault last season, Cindric took the No. 29 Cooper Standard F-150 to a 14th place finish, while completing all but one lap.
“I’m really grateful to have the opportunity to run one more race with Brad Keselowski Racing this season,” Cindric said. “Phoenix is the first time that I’ve returned to a track with the PIRTEK Ford F-150, and for me, that’s definitely important. We were strong in the race last year but things just didn’t work out for us.”
This season, Tyler Reddick pilots the No. 29 machine this time around, and is still in search of his share of success in the desert.
“Every time we’ve been to Phoenix we’ve run well and I think the Cooper Standard Careers For Veterans Ford F-150 will be really competitive this weekend,” Reddick said. “It’s difficult to pass, so you’ve got to be very aggressive on restarts, but at the same time, you have to be smart. You’ve got to think ahead and put yourself in the best position possible when making those passes because you may not get a second chance if you don’t make the pass.”
Still in search of his first career win, Daniel Hemric and his No. 19 Blue Gate Bank team look at PIR at another chance at a breakthrough.
“I’m pretty confident going to Phoenix International Raceway, especially given the fact that I like to put it in the same category as a Gateway Motorsports Park,” Hemric says. “It’s obviously a little faster than Gateway, but the characteristics of what your truck needs to feel like are very similar, and we had a lot of speed there earlier this year.”
The trio’s quest for a win begins on Friday, Nov. 9 at 10 p.m. ET when the Lucas Oil 150 goes green on FOX Sports 1.
