Brad Keselowski will start the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series campaign within striking distance of a Daytona 500 victory.
BK finished fourth in the Can-Am Duel 1, leading three times for a race-high 28 laps. With that in mind, the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion driver came away disappointed that he didn’t bring home a victory, though the strong showing bodes well for Sunday’s main event.
“It was a solid night for the Miller Lite Ford,” Brad said. “We had some good speed and learned some more things about this car. There’s always something to be learned. We had some good speed. We led a lot of laps. Most importantly, we took our best car and brought it home in one piece. We still wanted to win.”
BK’S RESTRICTOR PLATE LEGACY
The Deuce has been running strong all throughout Daytona Speedweeks, and BK looks poised to add to his stellar restrictor-plate resume. In his last start at Daytona International Speedway, Brad won the Coke Zero 400—his first win at the historic track.
“I don’t care that it’s not the 500—It’s Daytona,” he says. “It’s huge. I love this place and here we are in Victory Lane with the Detroit Genuine Parts Ford. It’s amazing. It was a great effort for our whole team. I’m really proud of everybody.”
Now, it is the 500, and BK is ready to make the statement once and for all that he is the driver to beat on restrictor-plate tracks. With a summer win at Daytona, as well as four wins at Talladega Superspeedway (three spring and one fall), the Daytona 500 is the only restrictor-plate race remaining on the checklist.
Kes has already shown this week that he won’t let anyone stand in the way of a Daytona 500 victory. In Sunday’s Advanced Auto Parts Clash, Brad sent Denny Hamlin spinning while making a pass for the lead. Afterward, he made sure his message was heard.
“It is the Clash. It’s not the 500,” Brad said. “I guarantee he knows and everyone else who’s watching today, that I’m going to make that move again and you better move out or you’re going to end up wrecked.”
THE PENSKE PLAN
Team Penske’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford driver Joey Logano went on to win the Clash, and he spoke leading up to the 500 about the Penske duo’s clever strategy, which Brad coined “island-hopping.”
They used it to perfection at the Clash, and they’re ready to do it again in the 500.
“The side-draft is huge, like it’s always been. Brad is probably the best at doing that leapfrog or what he calls the ‘island hopping,’ whatever you want to call it, and we were able to pull them apart and get in a hole and pull another one apart and get in the hole,” Logano said. “He’s really good at that, probably better than anybody at it, so he was the right guy at the right time. It was the perfect storm.”
BK and JL combined to win two of the last four Daytona races, as well as three straight Talladega races, as they’ve been the team to beat at Daytona and Talladega.
“I love studying military history and World war II and how they island-hopped to Japan,” Brad said. “That’s what the Toyotas are forcing everyone to do. They have enough strength in numbers, they have six quality cars that they can create strength by having multiple cars…So they only way you can beat them is to island-hop. You have to take one car at a time, destroy it (separate it from the rest via the side-draft) and go to the next one until you get to the main prize, which is, obviously, first.”
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Often times, strong starting positions are undervalued at restrictor-plate tracks due to the regular shuffling on the leaderboard throughout the race, but lately, Brad has shown that track position matters.
Kes started fifth in his Daytona win last July, as well as in his 2014 Talladega victory. His 2016 spring win at ‘Dega came from a seventh-place start, and he nearly won from second place in the fall, leading 90 laps before his engine expired.
Thanks to a fourth-place finish in the Duel, BK will start seventh, once again within striking distance at Daytona. The last two Daytona 500s have been tough for the No. 2 team, but Kes is confident they can turn that around this weekend.
“Last year, we ran really good in the (Clash) and we were terrible in the 500 and it was really disappointing, to be honest,” Brad said. “But this year I think we’ve learned a lot from that and have applied it and our car seems to be a lot better for the 500 than even for the (Chase), so I’m excited about it. I’m ready to go.”
Green flag is set for 2:31 p.m. ET and will air on FOX.