Brad Keselowski kicked off a great weekend for Team Penske at Pocono Raceway on Saturday with a dominant win in the XFINITY Series that harkened back to the good old days for the 22 team.
Brad led a race-high 29 laps in the No. 22 SKF Ford Mustang and crossed first in all three stages to take the checkered flag in Pocono Green 250 on Saturday. The victory marked his first in NASCAR’s second series since November 7, 2015 and was a long time coming for the entire No. 22 crew.
“Hell of a race. Really happy for the 22 team,” Brad said. “It’s been a while. I think it’s been well documented that they haven’t been in victory lane. Discount Tire has been a part of this program for a long time. They deserve it. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have a career in NASCAR. They’re on the car today…SKF…proud of them guys. It’s good for Ford and everybody. It feels good for me, the team. They deserve it.”
Brad had made six trips to Victory Lane in the Cup series since his last NXS win, but he ended the drought in convincing fashion. Starting from eight position, it took just 22 laps for the No. 22 to take the top spot and swipe the Stage 1 win after 25 laps of competition. The SKF Ford was outstanding and required no adjustments from crew chief Greg Erwin throughout the day.
Kes went on to grab the lead back seven laps into the second stage and held on for another stage win.
While Erwin didn’t utilize any adjustments, he used some interesting strategy to help Brad grab his 35th NXS win and his 59th across NASCAR’s three series. Erwin kept Brad out on track to start the third series and brought him in under green at lap 64. The move paid off, as a yellow flag at lap 79 allowed BK to claim second place—and an opportunity for victory.
It didn’t come easily, though, as Brad was incidentally pushed out of the groove and back to 13th with 15 laps to go. But just when it looked like another NXS win would escape the 2010 series champion, he persevered and charged his way to the front, passing Kyle Larson for the win on the final lap—the first win in 46 races for the No. 22 team.