Kes earned a spot as one of the Championship 4 alongside Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, giving him a shot at his second title at the Monster Energy Cup Series level. Unfortunately, his White Lite didn’t have the speed to contend with the Toyotas of Truex and Busch as he finished seventh in the Ford EcoBoost 400 to finish fourth—the second-best finish of his Cup career.

“We ran as hard as we could and put it all out there and just basically didn’t have enough speed,” Brad said. “On the mile-and-a-halfs, we weren’t as good as the 78 and 18 and those guys. This last race coming down to a mile-and-a-half didn’t particularly bode well for us, but my team ran as hard as they could run. They made some great calls—Paul Wolfe and everybody and put ourselves in position every chance we could to make the most out of the opportunities that existed without just being lightning fast, but it wasn’t there.”

BK qualified fifth for the final race of the 2017 season, though Kes knew coming in that his Ford couldn’t match the Toyota muscle on mile-and-a-half tracks. Right from the start, BK and Wolfe went off sequence. A caution flag flew just six laps into the day, and Wolfe called his driver to pit road while the leaders stayed out.

Brad restarted 13th at lap 10 and used his fresh tires to carve through the field to second place. He finished the first stage in the second position, first among all remaining championship contenders.

As the sun set, the Miller Lite Ford swung loose, causing Brad to slip to fifth place—a microcosm of the race for the No. 2 team, as they never quite had the speed to make it stick up front.

“We’ve just got to be faster,” BK said. “We can’t show up and be that far behind on the mile-and-a-halves. We know that. That Toyota car is a good ways in front of us and we’ve got to figure that out.”

At lap 122, Brad pitted from fifth, and fourth among championship drivers. On this cycle, Wolfe elected to short-pit, an action that brought the rest of the field on to pit road. Kes was holding strong in the top-five when Danica Patrick hit the wall at lap 142, bringing the field to pit road. Wolfe’s fitted Brad with a short-run setup on with 10 laps to go in Stage 2, helping him charge his way to fourth with a strong restart. However, he couldn’t hold off Busch toward the end of the run and he finished the second stage in fifth.

Kes restarted seventh for the final 100 laps but was bottled up, causing him to fall to 11th on the restart. He worked his way back to ninth before pitting under green at lap 198. The 2 Crew helped vault him to sixth when the field cycled, where he remained when the season’s final caution flag flew at lap 229.

The 2012 Cup Champion restarted seventh for the final 34 laps, but he didn’t have the power to advance over the closing laps, settling for a seventh-place finish while Martin Truex Jr. won his first MENCS title.

“You’re always gonna be disappointed when you don’t win the championship here, but I’m not disappointed in the effort,” Brad said. “There was a lot of great effort from my whole team and that’s something I was proud of.”

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BK’s great speed led to a second-place finish at Martinsville, and strong execution earned him another Top 5 the following week in Texas. In Phoenix, the speed wasn’t there, but the 2 Crew was fortunate as  Kes’ top rivals in the Cup standings bowed out due to wrecks, sending the team to the Ford EcoBoost 400 as one of four drivers competing for a championship.

“We probably had some really solid execution last week in Texas, great speed at Martinsville and luck [at Phoenix]. You know, if you put all three of them together on any given day, you can win,” Brad said. “We haven’t done that in the Round of 8, but we had one of each in all three races, and that put us in position to be here.”

A strong start to the 2017 season gave Brad a strong foundation of playoff points, essentially granting him that fourth-place spot all the way through the postseason. He breezed through the Round of 16, won at Talladega to advance through the Round of 12 and used a cocktail of speed, execution and luck to survive the Round of 8.

He’s joined by Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick. The two Toyotas of Busch and Truex have been the fastest machines in NASCAR all season long. BK is well aware that he isn’t the favorite, but the Team Penske driver is relishing the underdog role.

“Whenever there is a championship on the line, there’s pressure,” BK said. “On the other side, there’s not a lot of self-inflicted pressure when you know you’ve been running fourth or fifth all year and you’re probably going to need to win that race.”

Brad’s three Championship rivals all will bring momentum into Homestead. Harvick is fresh off an impressive win in Texas, Busch won the week prior at Martinsville, and Truex dominated the first three 1.5-mile events in the Playoffs, winning at Chicago, Charlotte and Kansas. However, BK isn’t worried about who’s hot and who’s not going into the winner-take-all season finale.

“I think momentum and Homestead is overrated. If you look at last year I would have said the guy with the least momentum (Jimmie Johnson) won it all. I’m not too caught up on that,” Kes said. “I’m excited about how we ran at Texas. I know that we’re bringing the same car build to Homestead, so probably a little more thrilled about that and I would look at Texas as being more of the momentum to Homestead than I would Phoenix.”

While BK’s No. 2 Miller Lite Ford might not have the mile-and-a-half prowess of its Toyota counterparts, it has a driver who knows how to perform when a title is on the line. This will be Brad’s first Championship 4 appearance since the alteration to the Cup postseason, but he’s gone to Homestead to race for a championship before in 2012, and when he did, he came home with the crown.

“This will be our first opportunity to go down there to race for one,” No. 2 crew chief Paul Wolfe said. “Brad has been able to do some amazing things when there’s something on the line like this.”

The White Lite will roll out for practice Friday at 1:55 p.m. ET before qualifying at 6:15 p.m., both to air on NBCSN. CNBC will carry Saturday’s first practice session at 10 a.m., while the 1 p.m. session will air on NBCSN. Finally, the 2017 MENCS champion will be crowned Sunday. The Ford EcoBoost 400 will go green at 2:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on NBC.

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However, given the speed of the Toyota stable on mile-and-a-half tracks like this weekend’s venue, Texas Motor Speedway, BK and Co. know they have work left to be done. With that in mind, Brad and his team are ready to do whatever is necessary to advance to the Championship Round.

“This No. 2 Wurth Ford team is focused on the task ahead of us, and we’re committed to doing the work,” Brad said. “We’re going tap into the Penske ethos of ‘Effort equals Results’ and see what happens.”

Brad has found postseason success at Texas Motor Speedway before. He boasts two second-place finishes at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth, Texas track. The first came in 2012 and played an enormous role in his 2012 Cup Championship run.

The second came in 2015 and as one of the most dominant performances of Brad’s career. His fast Wurth Ford landed on the pole, and he led 312 of 334 laps. He couldn’t finish the victory, as Jimmie Johnson had his No. 48 tuned perfectly for the final run, whereas the previously dominant No. 2 didn’t quite have it in the end.

“We just came up a bit short,” BK said two years ago. “We didn’t have any thing to shrug our shoulders about or feel bad about—the 48 was just a little bit better at the end. I held him off as long as I could, but there was no stopping that much speed. It’s unfortunate, but I’m not going to focus on not winning the race—I’m going to focus on the great things we did today and the knowledge that if we keep running like this, there’s a strong chance we can win the next two races and this championship.”

Unfortunately, that didn’t quite come to fruition for the 2 Crew, as they were left just outside of the title picture in 2015—an outcome BK hopes to change in 2017.

BK has finished in the Top 20 in his last 10 Texas starts, including a sixth-place run there earlier this season. NASCAR Playoff drama was at an all-time high last week, and that likely won’t change when the series heads to Texas for the third-to-last race of the year.

The No. 2 team will have one practice session Friday (1 p.m. ET) and two more Saturday (3 and 5 p.m. ET) to fine-tune the Wurth machine. Qualifying is set for 6:15 p.m. ET Friday, and the AAA Texas 500 will go green at 2:16 p.m. ET on Sunday on NBCSN.

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The No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion driver won both stages of the First Data 500 and nearly won his second race at the 0.526-mile track this season, though a late bump delivered by Chase Elliott in a battle for the lead sent BK sliding out of line and settling for a fourth-place finish.

“We had a really great Alliance Truck Parts Ford,” Brad said. “We were able to lead laps, win two stages and bring home a solid finish—and that’s something to be proud of.”

Brad led 104 laps and earned 53 points, second only to race-winner Kyle Busch. He remains in third in the Monster Energy Cup Series standings, 29 points ahead of the Round of 4 cutline.

Brad started seventh and showed right from the start that the Black and Yellow Deuce was a force to be reckoned with. By the first caution of the day at lap 36, Kes had moved into third place. The 2 Crew continued its stellar postseason, sending BK off in second place for the lap 45 restart. Within four laps, he had taken the lead for the first time on the day.

It wouldn’t be a Team Penske race if it wasn’t for a unique strategy call by Paul Wolfe. The No. 2 Crew chief brought Brad down pit road while the majority of the field stayed out at lap 89. The decision dropped Kes in 11th, but he used his fresh tires to drive all the way to the front and win Stage 1.

During Stage 2, the No. 2’s long-run speed was on display. The entire 130-lap stage stayed green, and just two laps before the Stage 2 yellow, Brad out-dueled Busch for his eighth stage win of the season.

Brad waged an outstanding battle with fellow playoff driver Elliot late in Stage 3. Wolfe hooked Brad up with an air pressure adjustment for the 35-lap final run. BK held his position from the outside line before putting the pressure on Elliott. After a fantastic six-lap battle, Brad used a little push from his teammate Joey Logano to vault past the No. 24 Chevrolet and into the lead with 29 laps to go.

While Kes built a comfortable cushion and set sail for the lead, a battle behind him changed the scope of the race. Busch made hard contact with the left-rear tire of Logano, causing heavy smoke to pour out of his No. 22 Ford. With smoke billowing out of the Team Penske machine, he kept remained on the track for several laps before spinning out, bringing the field to a caution with just seven laps to go.

BK chose the outside line for a restart with four laps to go, and after a hard battle on the restart, he was bumped out of line by Elliott.

“I just knew I got in the corner and he was inside of me and we just made contact,” BK said. “The track’s really slick for everybody on the restarts. I think we saw that it takes about five laps or more for everyone to get going, especially the leader. There was a lot of hard fighting here. It’s a short track, that’s what they’re about—hard fighting. You try not to take anyone out. Who’s to say what’s too far and what’s not.”

Brad slid back to seventh place, but just moments later, Elliott was spun out by Denny Hamlin, sparking overtime at The Paperclip. Kes restarted seventh for the two-lap finale. Similar to Elliott’s move on Brad earlier, Busch bumped his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Hamlin, out of line on the final restart and held off Martin Truex Jr. to win. Meanwhile, Hamlin couldn’t recover from the bump by Busch, and he spun out collecting nearly the entire field. Brad was one of the lucky few to skirt by to grab fourth place.

Brad walked away proud of his team’s performance, grabbing two stage wins and a Top 5 finish to start the Round of 8, but he knows that after coming up just shy of the Martinsville win, he’ll have to be at his best at Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway.

“Everyone’s just desperate,” BK said of the race. ” You’ve got two or three cars that are so much better than everybody else on the mile-and-a-halfs that this is our race to get it done, and I think we all know that.”

MENCS PLAYOFFS STANDINGS

1. Kyle Busch – 4100*
2. Martin Truex Jr. – 4117
3. Brad Keselowski – 4079
4. Kevin Harvick – 4053

–CHAMPIONSHIP CUTLINE–

5. Jimmie Johnson – 4050
6. Ryan Blaney – 4047
7. Denny Hamlin – 4045
8. Chase Elliott – 4027
* – Locked into Championship 4

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Of the three Round of 8 tracks, Brad sees The Paperclip as his best shot at victory. He’ll return to the Virginia short track as the defending winner, having captured his first Grandfather Clock at the Cup level this spring.

“Martinsville at this moment I would say is a must-win for us, and we know that going in,” Brad said after his Talladega win. “We tested there, and we feel like that’s the type of track that we have a lot of strength for.”

BK will ride a string of three straight Top 5 finishes at Martinsville into his 16th start at the 0.526-mile oval, and he knows that surface tips the odds in his favor. The Ford Performance stable simply hasn’t found the speed to contend with the Toyotas at 1.5-mile tracks, making Martinsville a crucial track on the road to a title.

“Well, the good thing about Martinsville is you spin the tires there, so the engine from a horsepower standpoint is not as critical when you can’t put the gas pedal down. I think that’s why we run so well there,” BK said. “If you look at the tracks where the Fords have won this year, it’s been the tracks where you have very little rear tire grip, a lot of wheel spin; Sonoma, Martinsville, and it’s been at the restrictor plate tracks, so I don’t think that’s a mistake by any means.”

Brad ran incredibly well at Martinsville earlier this season. The Rochester Hills, Michigan, native outdueled Kyle Busch late in the race to earn the coveted Martinsville win—one of the most special victories of his career.

“It felt like we were due with the Miller Lite Ford, and if you ever can be, this is probably one of those tracks, and today was one of those days where we persevered in a special way with the battle there with Kyle at the end I thought was a lot of fun to be a part of,” Brad said. “Hopefully it was a lot of fun to watch and kind of harkens back to the legacy of this sport on short tracks and why this track has been around for 70 some years because of battles like that.”

If Brad can replicate that performance, he’ll punch his ticket to Homestead-Miami Speedway where he’ll race for his second Cup title.

The No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford will roll out for two practice sessions Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Qualifying will take place on race Sunday at 12:05 p.m. ET. The First Data 500 will go green shortly after 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

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Unfortunately, the luck that fell their way at Talladega just wasn’t there at Kansas Speedway as BK finished 13th. He will, however, enter the Round of 8 in third place at 4,026 points.

“The Miller Lite Ford Fusion was good enough and better than our finish,” Brad said. “All in all, my guys put a good effort in it and I think we were better than we finished. We put ourselves in position to capitalize on strategy and execution multiple times today and we just didn’t catch any breaks. You’ll have that. Now it’s on to Martinsville.”

BK earned his third straight Top 10 start, qualifying in 10th for the Hollywood Casino 400. Right from the start, Brad battled a Miller Lite Ford that lacked stability entering Kansas’ corners. The loose handling caused BK to drop out of the Top 10, back to 14th when the competition caution was displayed at lap 30.

Paul Wolfe’s crew made air pressure and wedge adjustments to the White Lite, allowing it to battle to 11th before the conclusion of Stage 1, and Brad’s machine came alive in Stage 2. BK had powered his way back into the Top 10 to seventh before pitting at lap 144. Here, Wolfe employed some strategy to vault the No. 2 Ford to third for the end of the second stage.

Unfortunately, BK’s Stage 3 hopes took a hit before the segment began. He was flagged for speeding entering his pit stall, dropping him to the rear of the field. Over the next 90 laps, Brad drove all the way back into the Top 10. He was in seventh when he made his final pit stop at lap 239—but he was hit for speeding in the same section once again.

He restarted 22nd, but with 25 laps to go, he didn’t have time to make up the distance, finishing 13th.

“I don’t understand the pit road speeding penalties and will have to see that with my own eyes,” BK said after the race.

The MENCS Playoffs head to Martinsville Speedway to open the Round of 8. BK will return to the Virginia short track as the recent winner, having taken home his first career Grandfather Clock at the Cup level earlier this season.

He’ll look to replicate that performance when the First Data 500 goes green Sunday at 3:13 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

MENCS PLAYOFF STANDINGS

1. Martin Truex Jr. – 4069
2. Kyle Busch – 4042
3. Brad Keselowski – 4026
T4. Kevin Harvick – 4017
T4. Jimmie Johnson – 4017
6. Denny Hamlin – 4014
7. Ryan Blaney – 4009
8. Chase Elliott – 4006

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It was easier for the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion driver to sleep this week knowing he isn’t in need of a spectacular finish at this weekend’s 1.5-mile track, BK knows he’ll have to stay sharp to be ready for the challenges that await in the next round.

“To be able to win and to advance to the next round of the playoffs, and not have to deal with all of that, it’s really special,” BK said after his Talladega win. “I’m going to get to play a few more video games late nights because I don’t have to worry about Kansas as much, but right around the corner is Texas, Martinsville and Phoenix—those are three tough tracks.”

Brad, crew chief Paul Wolfe the Team Penske group will look to sharpen its sword on the 1.5-mile Kansas track. Mile-and-a-half speedways constitute the backbone of the Monster Energy Cup Series playoffs, including the championship venue, Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Kes showed some speed at Kansas earlier this season, finishing second to Martin Truex Jr.—coincidentally the only other driver currently locked into the Round of 8.

“We had a really good Elite Support Ford Fusion all day and just never had a chance to show it,” BK said at Kansas in May. “Every time we started to pass cars and cycle up to the front, we had some kind of issue, which was a real bummer to not be able to showcase the strength that we had.”

That marked Brad’s second-best finish ever at Kansas, behind only his win in 2011, the second trip to Victory Lane of his MENCS career.

While BK will quietly be looking for his second win at Kansas, 10 of his competitors will be scrambling to stack as many points as possible in hopes of joining him in the Round of 8.

The first practice and the qualifying session will take place on Friday at 2:25 and 6:15 p.m. ET, respectively. Two more practice sessions will follow Saturday at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. ET. Finally, the Hollywood Casino 400 will go green around 3 p.m. ET Sunday. All weekend coverage will take place on NBCSN.

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