The best of days can happen at the most unexpected tracks, and after consistent years of struggling at Sonoma Raceway, Brad Keselowski finally achieved the result his No. 2 Freightliner Elite Support Ford Fusion team deserved.
Entering the weekend, Sonoma and Indianapolis were the only two tracks where BK had never posted a Top 5. But even without regular crew chief Paul Wolfe, who was absent from the No. 2 pit box for the birth of his child, the 2 Crew persevered through some major cosmetic damage, and Brad posted a career-best third-place finish in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.
“The Elite Support Ford was really good today,” Brad said. “I just wish I could run this race again I think I might have had better car than driver today and I learned a lot. Just an amazing fun day.”
Luckily, these Monster Energy Cup Series races aren’t about where you start, but where you finish, as the Freightliner Elite Support machine did not have the single-lap qualifying speed the team is accustomed to. Starting in 23rd, Kes & Co. had their work cut out, but long green flag stretches, and some stellar strategy turned out to be the race changer.
“We didn’t have the qualifying run we wanted. We had amazing race pace,” Kes said. “That’s a credit to everyone at Team Penske. It felt really good.”
When the first yellow flew on lap 16 for contact between Danica Patrick & Dale Earnhardt Jr., BK had climbed his way up to P16. In some hard road racing, Brad was involved in early incidents with Chris Buescher and Clint Bowyer, delivering some cosmetic damage to the No. 2, and Kes was mired in 28th when Stage 1 ended on lap 25.
The second Stage was also split with another caution, involving both drivers from the race’s first wreck, along with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Employing a different strategy to stay out during the entire 25-lap sprint, Keselowski ended up rising to second, scoring a handful of Stage points in the process. The Team Penske driver earned second most points in the field.
Pitting under the second Stage pause, the 60-lap remainder of the race meant that everyone had to visit pit road at least one more time. Hoping to catch a caution at just the right time, substitute crew chief Brian Wilson decided to leave his driver on the twists and turns as long as he could, eventually taking the lead on lap 72 as all the other leaders pitted. Fellow Ford driver Kevin Harvick, who had been to pit road, snatched the lead back from BK on lap 88, four laps before Wilson called him in for the final time Sunday afternoon.
“You have to be patient and have to believe in your team because you know they can see things you can’t and obviously they made they made the right call to stay out there long. And when we decided to come in and get tire we were able to move up the field quickly. A few lap more laps we could have gotten up to second.”
Cycling out P10 with tires in excess of 20 laps fresher than his competition, Brad’s lap times were blistering quick—at times 2-3 seconds faster than the race leaders. With seven laps remaining, he passed enough cars to crack the Top 5. And on the last lap, the Michigan driver made the pass to climb onto the bottom step of the podium, which was filled with Ford drivers: Harvick, Bowyer and BK.
After BK’s P3 finish in Wine Country, Indianapolis Motor Speedway now stands as Kes’ worst track statistically—the only surface where he doesn’t have a Top 5. Ironically, it might be the best circuit in Team Penske history. With that in mind, BK wants nothing more than to deliver his first Brickyard 400 to The Captain.
https://twitter.com/keselowski/status/879146584403042304
Before Kes and the 2 Crew have a shot to improve on their best Indianapolis finish, they’ll head back to Daytona for the Coke Zero 400. As the defending race winner, Brad hopes to have another dominant car again at the most famous track in NASCAR. Tune in to the restrictor plate action on Saturday, July 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on new broadcast partner NBC.