The post Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

The post Go Bowling 400 appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

The Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion didn’t quite have the speed to compete for the win in the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. However, after starting 19th, BK worked his way into the Top 10 and hung tight to the fringe of the lead group for most of the day. But disaster struck with 87 laps to go when the right rear tire on the No. 2 car shredded, forcing Kes to drop from the 10th position, where he was running at the time of the incident. He ultimately lost five laps as a result of the issue and subsequent repairs, and settled for a 29th place finish.

“We ran in that 10th place range pretty much the entire race until we cut the tire,” Brad said afterward. “The Alliance Truck Parts Fusion was probably about a 10th place car, but you never know how things would have played out without the tire issue.”

The No. 2 was one of four cars to encounter a similar tire problem at Phoenix, with their tires shredding at the end of long runs. Goodyear, the sport’s tire manufacturer, reported that the intense brake heat generated by the cars at Phoenix was melting the tire beads at the position where the edge of the tire sits on the wheel, causing the rubber to separate. It was an issue that also doomed the days of the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets of Ryan Newman (31) and Paul Menard (27) as well as the Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (17).

Before the tire incident put a damper on his day, Brad had made the most of what he had in the Alliance Truck Parts Ford, which failed to show the speed all weekend that made the No. 2 car so successful in Las Vegas just one week prior.

The weekend in the desert began with a disappointing Fast Friday. The Deuce was 12th quickest in the day’s lone practice session, but the speed vanished in qualifying and after running eighth fastest in the first round he logged just the 19th best time in round two, failing to advance to the final round of knockout qualifying for the third time in four races already this season. The Deuce missed the final round of qualifying just eight times all of last season.

Speed was an issue for the ATP Ford early Saturday as well, as BK was just 21st best in the morning practice session. But just a few hours later, the No. 2 had made great strides as Brad posted the seventh quickest lap in final practice. That gave the 2 crew some confidence heading into race day.

After starting on the inside of Row 10, the Alliance Truck Parts Ford quickly gained ground, moving up to 16th at the outset of the race. However, as other cars like the No. 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson surged from further back to the front of the field, they left the No. 2 car in their wake. Kes also struggled with the handling of his black and yellow Ford Fusion early in the day and briefly slipped out of the Top 20 around Lap 20.

About 40 laps into the race, as the No. 2 crew closed in on their first pit stop of the day, BK reported that the Deuce was running loose-in and loose-out of turns and was tight in the middle, a troubling condition that made the car difficult to drive and made it even more difficult to gain ground on and pass other cars to move toward the front.

When the first caution came out at lap 52, for the first tire bead issue of the day on the No. 31 car of Ryan Newman, the No. 2 car was marked in 18th position. Thanks to a great first stop by the No. 2 crew, which included air pressure and wedge adjustments to improve the handling of the Deuce for Brad, the Alliance Truck Parts Ford gained two spots on pit road and restarted in 16th, his best position of the day. He moved up a spot in the Lap 60 restart from there started picking off drivers in a march toward the Top 10.

After taking a several laps to get by the No. 5 of Kasey Kahne to 14th, the No. 2 driver quickly drove down and passed the No. 42 of Kyle Larson at Lap 78 to move into 13th. BK continued to note that the Deuce was too loose on entry and exit of turns as the green flag run went on, but it didn’t stop him from chasing down the No. 43 of Aric Amirola and moving by him for 12th on Lap 98. By the 1/3 mark of the race at Lap 104, he’d passed Austin Dillon in the No. 3 car to take 11th place. He was running there, just outside the Top 10 when the second caution of the day came out at Lap 107.

Once again it was a melted tire bead that caused a single car incident, this time for the No. 27 of Paul Menard, who hit the wall and brought out the yellow. From P11, Brad followed the field down for his second pit stop of the day under caution. Another great stop from the 2 crew gained BK two more spots on pit road and he was scored in ninth for the ensuing restart, the Deuce’s first appearance in the Top 10 all day.

However, that did not last long. On the Lap 113 restart, circumstances beyond his control forced Kes to cede a few spots. Starting from the inside of Row 5, the No. 2 got a little stuck on the inside, when the line bottled up in front of him. As the field re-organized to run single file through the 1.022 mile desert oval, multiple cars drove by before BK was able to tuck his Alliance Truck Parts Ford into line in P11. He then had to survive a near disastrous incident where his car lost speed in the straightaway. The No. 78 car of Martin Truex Jr. closed in fast behind him and as Matt Kenseth drove his No. 20 down to try to make a pass, the trio briefly went three-wide into Turn 3 before Kes was able to pull away.

The No. 78 eventually caught the Deuce around the midway point of the race and pushed Brad back to 12th, where he sat when the third caution of the day came out at Lap 163. Once more the caution was caused by a tire failure, this time on the No. 17 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., which sent the car hard into the wall in Turn 1 and brought out the yellow flag.

Once more the No. 2 crew did an excellent job on pit road, quickly making adjustments and putting four fresh tires on the Deuce to get Brad in and out with one of the quickest stops in the field. This time he gained three spots on pit road back to ninth position for the Lap 169 restart.

This time he was able to hold his ground on the restart and kept a stranglehold on the ninth position for about 25 laps. He dropped back to 10th when a hard-charging Kyle Busch, whose No. 18 had fallen from the front of the field to the middle of the pack thanks to some pit road issues on the previous stop, passed the No. 2 on his way to the front. Still Brad held firm on the edge of the Top 10 until Lap 227 when he became the fourth tire-related casualty of the day.

As the right rear tire on the Alliance Truck Parts Ford shredded in the tri-oval and spewed debris all over the track, BK did a great job to avoid contact with either the wall or a fellow competitor as he fell off the pace. However, he was caught at the wrong end of the track and had to nurse the car halfway around the track to pit road under caution. By the time the No. 2 car made it to his pit stall the right rear wheel was essentially out of rubber down to the rim.

The 2 Crew slapped new tires on the Deuce and did their best to repair moderate damage to the right rear quarter panel, caused by the release of the shredded tire. They got the black and yellow Ford back on the track under caution, where BK was set to take his spot at the tail end of the lead lap. However, when Brad returned to the track, he realized the damage of the shredded tire had not only impacted the right rear quarter panel, it had also severed the rear brake line.

“That was unfortunate and we aren’t really sure why but there isn’t anything we can really do about it,” Brad said of the issue. “It is hard to say really where we would have been if that hadn’t happened.”

The brake line obstacle took a little longer to repair and forced the No. 2 team to essentially abort their pursuit of the race win. As they fixed the further damage to the rear of the car on pit road, the Alliance Truck Parts Ford lost five laps to the leaders. BK returned to the race for the restart at Lap 235, five laps down in 32nd position. He managed to gain three positions over the final 75 laps of the race, though he lost a sixth lap to race winner Kevin Harvick as well, and drove the Deuce home to a 29th place finish, the No. 2 team’s worst of the year so far.

As a result, of the unfortunate incident, Brad gained just 12 points at Phoenix, and fell from sixth to 11th in the points standings. He now has 110 points, 44 behind Phoenix race winner Kevin Harvick, the new Cup points leader. Harvick also tops the Chase grid after four races while Brad slid from second to fourth in the Chase Grid, behind the other three race winners so far this season, Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin. All four are essentially locks for the Chase by virtue of their wins.

NEXT UP

The NASCAR slate completes its three-week NASCAR Goes West tour of the Pacific side of the United States with a trip to Southern California for the annual race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

Brad is the defending race winner at Fontana, where he rallied from fifth on the final restart to win with a final lap pace of Kurt Busch last March. The victory marked BK’s first and only win of the 2015 season.

The post Blown Tire Ends Top 10 Run at Phoenix appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

The post IRWIN TOOLS NIGHT RACE appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

The post Windows 10 400 appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

The post Jeff Kyle 400 At The Brickyard appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

BK ran well early in the event, which featured a group qualifying format for the first time. The Deuce had a Top 4 time on the board at one point, and advanced to the second round. But in that second round, the White Lite didn’t have the speed necessary to advance to the final round missing the Top 12 cut-off by a several spots as BK finished 19th.

Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is unique in the fact that it only sets the front row for the 500, not the rest of the field. Each other placement after the top two merely locks in the drivers’ starting spot for one of Thursday’s two Budweiser Duels. BK’s 19th place finish locked him into Budweiser Duel No. 1, which he’ll start from P9. Jeff Gordon went on to take the pole for the Daytona 500 and teammate Jimmie Johnson will start alongside him on the front row.

But the story of the day was the controversial new group qualifying format. Last season, NASCAR instituted knockout qualifying at every race but the Daytona 500, and the results were positive, with a few exceptions: the Superspeedways, where group qualifying created a messy situation in both sessions at Talladega and the summer race at Daytona.

The two tracks, both require cars to use restrictor plates, which lend themselves to pack racing making qualifying individually at high speeds a challenge. Group qualifying is designed to fix that problem, allowing drivers to draft during qualifying. But it also comes with risks, most notably the odds of a rare qualifying wreck. Still, NASCAR decided to implement the group qualifying format for Sunday’s session. Brad was asked what he expected before climbing into his car and noted that it was hard to predict how things would play out with so many variables.

“I really don’t know what we’re going to see here,” Brad told FOX Sports. “I think what you’re going to see is it’s going to take a lot of luck and tiny bit of skill…probably like playing rock-paper-scissors. There’s a little bit of skill involved, but not much. But that’s not to take away from whoever gets the pole today. It’s a huge accomplishment. It’s still Daytona. We all want to win and we all want to win every event we can, whether it’s a race or qualifying.”

With each driver hungry to secure their spot in The Great American Race, it didn’t take long for the new format to create drama.

BK’s No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion was part of the first group to go out onto the track during qualifying and his first lap was fourth fastest of the 25 cars on the track. However, just a few turns of the track later, two of his fellow competitors, Clint Bowyer and Reed Sorenson tangled when Sorenson attempted to block Bowyers’ attempt to pass him. The wreck resulted in both Bowyer’s No. 15 car and Sorenson’s No. 44 car being totaled, and caused damage to Denny Hamlin’s No. 11, Bobby Labonte’s No. 32 and J.J. Yeley’s No. 23 car.

It also had an impact on the rest of the field because it halted the first session of the opening round of qualifying with 1:22 remaining. That time would’ve allowed for the drivers to put down two more laps, which likely would’ve been their fastest as they continued to gain speed. Instead the remaining drivers had to attempt to get back up to speed in that short window and couldn’t, so their first round times were effectively set at the time of the crash.

At the time, Brad was eighth of 25, teammate Joey Logano was 10th of 25 and Ryan Blaney, who will run the 500 for Wood Brothers Racing through a partnership with Team Penske, was fifth. All three drivers wound up advancing to the second round, but the wreck put them on shaky ground as they waited out the results of the second session of the first round, involving the 24 other drivers looking to qualify.

“You need to get all the laps in you can get in because every lap keeps getting faster,” Brad told FOX’s Matt Yocum. “When you have a wreck…you lose your last two or three laps that might be the fastest. No one was able to get back out because you couldn’t get enough speed. But it’s just all part of the game. We did a good job controlling what we could control. All three cars are close to making it to the next round but I wouldn’t put any guarantees on it.”

Blaney’s No. 21 wound up 17th while Kes’ No. 2 and Logano’s No. 22 just made the cut at 20th and 22nd of 24 respectively.

The other part of the group qualifying format that mystified was the mind games on pit road before rolling out to the track. Each driver waited for the other to make the first move, creating a cluster of cars just sitting. The hope for each driver was to be as far back in a pack as possible, after practice proved that the tail car in a drafting line produced the best speed and time. At the outset of the second round, the field froze on pit road for two full minutes.

But with just three minutes remaining in the round, Brad made the first move and rolled off pit road with Blaney and Logano in tow. But that moved proved costly as the rest of the cars followed shortly thereafter. From the head of the field, the No. 2, No. 22 and No. 21 had no help in the draft and wound up getting passed just before the final lap, leaving them in no-man’s land over the course of the final turn around the speedway. Brad finished 19th among the 24 drivers, Blaney was 20th and Logano was 21st.

Though BK was disappointed to fall short of the front row starting spot he’d set his sights on, the end result means little beyond that in the long run. The Deuce still has a Top 10 starting spot for Budweiser Duel No. 1 on Thursday, and the No. 2 crew will have plenty of time to tweak their setup and get him up to speed before then.

NEXT UP

All teams will take two days away from the track before heading back on Wednesday for a pair of practice sessions for those Budweiser Duels. The first is a 45-minute session beginning at 2 p.m ET and the second is a 40-minute session beginning at 3:15 p.m. ET. Both can be seen on Fox Sports 2.

Then the White Lite team gets one more chance to tune up for the Duels on Thursday with practice at Noon ET. on Fox Sports 1. Coverage of Budweiser Duel No. 1 begins at 7 p.m. ET. on Fox Sports 1.

After the starting order is determined, there will be three more chances to tune-up for the 500. Friday features practice sessions at 11 a.m. ET and 2 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1 and Saturday’s happy hour final practice begins at 10:30 a.m. ET on FS1.

Coverage of The Great American Race, the Daytona 500 is slated to begin at Noon ET. on FOX and the green flag will fly at 1:20 p.m. ET.

The post BK Qualifies 19th, Will Run in Duel 1 appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

Debuting the new Alliance Truck Parts Yellow Deuce, Brad took the pole for Sunday’s The Profit on CNBC 500 at PIR with a new track record time of 25.828 seconds at 139.28 mph. The lap was just .022 seconds faster than the best lap of teammate Joey Logano, who will start beside Brad on the front row.

“We had a really fast car, and there is some pride to be taken in being the first one to win a Sprint Cup pole in this format,” Brad said. “I am sure it will undergo a few adjustments along the way, but it is very rewarding and a testament to my team and how fast of a car they gave me. Then it was just a matter of executing on my end. We were able to do that. I didn’t think I ran a good enough lap to be quite honest. When they told me the time, I said, ‘Alright, I will take it.'”

NASCAR’s new format changes the way cars qualify for races other than the Daytona 500. The qualifying session begins as a 30-minute free-for-all with the top 12 cars from that session advancing to a 10-minute session where they compete to earn the pole.

At the outset of the first session at about 4:40 p.m. local time, both Team Penske drivers noticed a cloud hovering over the race track, cooling down the track and giving it more grip, which generally leads to faster qualifying times. Both BK and Logano took full advantage racing out to get their laps in under the cloud.

Brad went first and nabbed the top spot early, with a run of 26.040 seconds at 138.25 mph. He was soon topped by Logano, who posted a time of 25.929 seconds at 138.84 mph. After kicking off the session with two of the fastest times, both drivers opted to return to pit road and see if their laps would stand up. For 25 minutes they waited, and no one was able to top them.

BK said he wasn’t sure how much credit was due to strategy, but he pointed to the quickness of his No. 2 car as a difference maker.

“I think you have to have a fast car, that’s the most important part, either way,” he said. “Everybody on the Alliance Truck Parts Ford team did a good job of

[giving me] that.”

Following the 30-minute first segment, the field waited out a mandatory 10-minute cool down period. The timing allowed both the No. 2 and the No. 22 cars cool off for more than half an hour. When each took the track again, it was clear how advantageous that period was. Brad posted a great time on his first lap, but Logano once again topped him, breaking the old track record.

However, BK would have the last laugh, making his last tour around the track at Phoenix International Raceway in 25.828 seconds, the best ever run there. Logano tried to top the mark later in the session, but Brad’s time and speed held up. Afterward, Logano congratulated his teammate while crediting the hard work of all the people at Team Penske for allowing both drivers to start on the front row this Sunday.

“You have to be happy for him, as a teammate. We’re 1-2, that’s good. But after you win the first segment it’s like ‘alright, I feel pretty good.’ I think I even went a little faster the second run,” Logano said. “He just barely beat me. But overall, Team Penske did a great job today.”

Brad was just happy to take the top spot after coming so close multiple times over the last two weeks at Daytona with second place finishes in the Sprint Unlimited and Drive4COPD 300, and a third place run in the Daytona 500.

“At Daytona, we had two great cars and two strong runs,” he said. “I swear, I was tired of finishing second or third. So it’s good to finally put a first up on the board, and in the first group qualifying. That’s pretty neat as well.”

Brad gets two more practice sessions on Saturday to gear up for this week’s race. The first is at 11 a.m. ET with Happy Hour following that at 2 p.m. ET. Both sessions can be seen on Fox Sports 1. Brad’s busy Saturday at PIR also includes Nationwide Series qualifying at Noon ET on Fox Sports 1 and the Nationwide Series Blue Jeans Go Green 200 presented by Cotton, The Fabric of Our Lives at 3:30 ET on ABC.

Sunday is all about the Cup Series and coverage of The Profit on CNBC 500, Presented by Small Business Fueling America, begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, with the green flag scheduled to fly shortly after 3 p.m. ET.

RELATED LINKS

• Keselowski wins Coors Light Pole Award (NASCAR.com, February 28, 2014)

The post Kes Scores Knockout For Phoenix Pole appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

As it turned out, the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion was nearly fast enough to win The Great American Race.

Brad led on four different occasions during the 56th running of Daytona 500, for a total of 13 laps and was in contention for the victory as the field came to the line for a green-white-checkered finish under the lights.

BK had his No. 2 was side-by-side with leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the 88 as the field approached the green flag, but when Earnhardt Jr. got a big restart push on the low line from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, he pulled ahead of BK.

Brad mounted one final a run at the lead before the white flag, pushed hard on the high line by Kyle Busch around Turn 3 at Daytona. But Earnhardt Jr. came up to block and Kes couldn’t quite find a way get his No. 2 around the 88 car.

On the final lap, BK lost his drafting help and Earnhardt Jr. drove on to his second Daytona 500 victory while Brad settled for a third place finish.

The result was BK’s best ever finish in the Sprint Cup Series at Daytona and he said afterward that he enjoyed a great Daytona 500. He just wished he would’ve gotten one more chance to go for the win in the final lap.

“I thought our car was really strong, the best car I have ever had here at Daytona. I got the lead from the very back twice and just didn’t quite pull it off the third time,” Brad said. “That last restart was just crazy. I had the 18 (Busch) and the 11 (Denny Hamlin) behind me and they were doing a good job pushing me into Turn 3. I honestly thought we were going to win, right then, going into 3, with the run that we had. But the 18 and 11 got separated, that kind of stalled my run, and I couldn’t get any help from behind for the last lap and a half, so that was all she wrote.

“It was a strong night for sure. We didn’t get the win, which is most disappointing as a driver with a car like that, which you don’t get all the time. At least most of us don’t. I had the opportunity tonight and came up a little short on that last restart. I am really proud of the effort and happy for my friend (Earnhardt Jr.).”

It was certainly a bittersweet finish for BK, who was focused on kicking the season off on a high note and winning his first Daytona 500. But he was happy for his good friend, Earnhardt Jr., who gave Brad an opportunity in 2007 to race his Nationwide Series (then still known as the Busch Series) car back in 2007. BK ended up running 84 races over three seasons with Jr. Motorsports and won six races. He credits the chance Dale Jr. gave him for allowing him to truly break into the sport.

“Dale obviously gave me my big opportunity. He’s probably my best friend in the garage outside of my teammate Joey Logano,” Brad said afterward. “I thought he did a great job. If there’s ever a guy who is due, it’s the guy who finished second three out of the last four years. He was due. Today was his day. So I’m happy for him and happy for all those guys.”

The incredible finish to Sunday’s Daytona was a full week in the making and it took a full day to get there.

Because he posted the sixth best speed in the field during last Sunday qualifying session, Brad was locked into a spot in the field a week before the 500. But he had to start the race in 33rd after a series of mishaps caused him to finish his Budweiser Duel in 24th place on Thursday night.

The race began under sunny skies shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET and Brad quickly began Miller Lite Ford Fusion quickly began making his way through the pack toward the front of the field. By the time the caution came out on Lap 22, Kes was just outside the Top 20 and after a pit stop during that caution period for two-right-side tires and fuel, he moved up to 18th position.

From there, BK worked his way into the Top 10 and when the race’s second caution came out on Lap 33, he sat in sixth place. During that caution period, a rainstorm that had been anticipated to deter the race arrived, and the Daytona 500 was red flagged on Lap 38.

The cars were called to pit road where they were parked in order and covered while drivers retreated to their haulers. A six-hour and 21-minute rain delay, the longest single-day weather delay in Daytona 500 history, ensued. But after extensive track-drying efforts, the drivers were called back to their cars shortly after 8 p.m. ET. The cars rolled back out for some caution laps at 8:35 p.m. and green flag racing resumed at 8:53 p.m. on Lap 47.

After restarting in sixth, it didn’t take long for Brad to surmise that his car hadn’t skipped a beat despite the weather change and on Lap 57, he used a push from Jeff Gordon to pass Kyle Busch and take the lead for the first time.

BK and Busch ran side-by-side for most of the next six laps. Brad held the lead for four of those six laps and pulled ahead again on Lap 73 for three more laps before making his first green flag pit stop on Lap 76. The No. 2 elected to change all four tires and after the race Kes noted that the first round of green flag pit stops seemed to level the playing field a bit.

“Probably around lap 80, a bunch of other cars picked up speed for whatever reason. It was interesting,” Brad said. “I’m not sure why, but the back half of the field seemed to really adjust on their cars and make gains. I thought before that, there was a little more of a separation, especially in the sun. It would have been interesting to see how the race played out under those circumstances.”

Despite competing with a larger number of fast cars than he did earlier in the race, Brad still managed to gain ground with the Miller Lite Ford Fusion in short order and was the race crossed the halfway point at Lap 100, Brad was in fifth.

Drivers were notified shortly after the race went back to green that another storm system was on its way and could halt the race at anytime, so as the race reached the official halfway point, racing got even more intense.

“Everybody kept telling me over the radio, ‘There’s more rain coming, more rain coming.’ I think that really added to the anxiety and rush of pace,” Brad said.

The storm system held off but the drivers raced aggressively in anticipation of its arrival. Kes took the lead for a fourth time on Lap 116 and held it until Lap 121, when he dropped down to make a second green flag pit stop. As the field cycled through the pits, Brad found himself in the middle of the pack, but he didn’t stay there long and when the first wreck of the race came on Lap 146, BK was well ahead of it in seventh.

The wreck also led to another round of pit stops, which wound up being the last of the night for the leaders. Brad came out of the pits in sixth, where he sat when the race restarted with less than 50 laps to go.

Another wreck on Lap 163 involved 10 cars and took several out of the race. Still more fell out of the running during another wreck on Lap 185. BK said after the race that as the field thinned out, the skill level and intensity of the racing only heightened.

“I think everyone raced a hard 500‑mile race. I never saw a lull in the action from where I was sitting,” Brad said. “You look at this rules package, the way the cars ran today, you could run the bottom, the top, the middle.  At one point in the race, handling started to come into play and skill level really showed up from a driver’s perspective.”

As wrecks continued to occur in the middle of the pack, Kes kept the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford near the front. By Lap 194 he was running in second and chasing down Earnhardt Jr. in an effort to take the lead and race to the win. But another crash in the rear of the pack stopped his charge, putting the race under caution and setting up the green-white-checkered finish.

When he analyzed the field around him while the drivers toured the track under yellow, Brad realized he would have his hands full. Not only was Earnhardt Jr. in front, but he had one Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, right behind him and another, Jimmie Johnson, two cars back in seventh.

“I never come here and write off the Hendrick cars,” Brad said. “Seems like come Sunday they pull something out that no one’s ever seen.  They obviously were faster in the race today than they had been throughout the rest of Speedweeks.”

Behind him, Brad had the No. 18 car of Kyle Busch and the No. 11 car of Denny Hamlin, two Joe Gibbs Racing machines with drivers who were focused on making their own way to Victory Lane.

The disadvantage was obvious at the restart as Gordon pushed Earnhardt Jr. to start/finish line well ahead of BK. But with the help of Busch and Hamlin, Brad got a run on the outside line, forcing Earnhardt Jr. to leave the low line and block the high line.

As Earnhardt Jr. held off BK, the field began to shuffle. Gordon lost his drafting help from Carl Edwards, who began to fall back and the high line advanced with Earnhardt Jr. Brad, Busch and Hamlin. But that line soon broke down too as Hamlin left Busch’s back bumper and dropped to the low line as soon as he cleared Gordon’s nose. Without a drafting partner Busch began to fall back and was passed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who settled in behind Brad.

The field took the white flag with Earnhardt Jr. trying to hold off Kes on the high line and Hamlin on the low line. Earnhardt Jr. finally chose the low line and Stenhouse couldn’t get to BK’s bumper to give him a push.

“I don’t feel like there’s anything I could have done differently. When the 11 and 18 broke apart, then the 17 split the 18, that was the end of my night,” Brad said. “There was nothing I could do. It was just circumstances outside of my control. I could have blocked the 11 and ran second. That’s all that was going to happen if I would have blocked the 11. But I really wasn’t interested in running second.  I took a shot at a different move that would have given me an opportunity to win and finished third. That’s just the way it is.”

By the time the field entered the final turn of the race, the result was essentially academic, but the middle of the pack was still running aggressively, which created a wreck, bringing out the caution to freeze the field and end the race.

Brad was originally marked in fourth place behind Earnhardt Jr., Hamlin and Gordon, but when NASCAR officials reviewed the tape of the finish, they ruled that BK was ahead of Gordon when the caution came out, giving BK third place, his best ever Cup Series finish at Daytona. After the race, though disappointed at missing out on a chance at a huge win, Brad beamed at the competition level of the race itself.

“That has to be the hardest 500 race ever, probably one of the best,” he said. “I couldn’t be more pleased as both a participant and naturally a fan of the sport with how the 500 went from a competitive standpoint, how things went there. Obviously disappointed I didn’t get two spots higher, but the actual racing I really thought was great. I really hope they don’t change this package because I thought it was very, very solid.”

“We seem to do really well when we have delays here in Daytona. Maybe we should run 50% of the race and pause for four hours. We’re stumbling upon something. The racing gods are trying to tell us something. We need a four‑hour intermission during the 500. That will be our next format change. Whatever works. I’m glad that it’s working.”

Brad managed to pick up 42 points in the Sprint Cup standings to begin the season in third place, but with the new Sprint Cup playoff format putting an even bigger emphasis on winning, BK said the points were of no solace. 

“Points days don’t mean anything anymore,” he said. “That’s the great thing about this format. There is no good points day, as far as I’m concerned. What matters is a win, especially when you come to Daytona.”

NEXT UP

The Sprint Cup Series heads west for the second race of the season next Sunday in Phoenix.

In nine career Cup Series races at Phoenix International Raceway, BK has three Top 10 finishes, including two Top 5s. Since taking over the No. 2 Miller Lite car, Brad has never finished lower than 18th at PIR. His highest finish was in last week’s March race at Phoenix when he took fourth and he followed that with an 11th place finish in the fall.

The first practice at Phoenix is on Friday at 2 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying at 6:40 p.m. ET. Saturday features a morning practice at 11 a.m. and final practice at 2 p.m. BK will then run the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang in the Nationwide Series Blue Jeans Go Green 200 at 3:45 p.m. on ABC

The main event comes Sunday, The Profit on CNBC 500, scheduled for 3 p.m. ET live on FOX. 

The post Kes Finishes Third in Thrilling Daytona 500 appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

Under direction of four drivers and with the help of one of the best crews in the sport, the No. 22 team won the 2013 Nationwide Owner’s Points title for Team Penske with 12 victories over the course of 33 races last season. So what can the team do for an encore? Crew Chief Jeremy Bullins, who returns with a nearly identical crew as last season, has some ideas.

“The approach for us is simple, and that’s to continue to build on the things that made us successful last year,” Bullins said. “If we can continue to improve in all areas, whether it be faster cars or faster pit stops or better strategy, there’s no reason to think we can’t perform at a high level. Everyone at Team Penske has worked hard in the off season to be as prepared as we can be for this season.”

One thing the No. 22 team can do that they didn’t last year is win at Daytona and they have a chance to do that in the season kickoff race, the DRIVE4COPD 300 on Saturday.

Brad Keselowski, who won six races in the No. 22 last year, will be back behind the wheel of the Double Deuce for several races in 2014, including Saturday’s race at Daytona. He ran the Discount Tire Ford Mustang sixth fastest in the first Nationwide practice on Thursday and will start the race on Row 9 after finishing 17th in Friday’s qualifying session.

BK has won 27 career Nationwide races, putting him in a tie for seventh all-time, but he has never been to Victory Lane at Daytona in the Nationwide Series, or any other series for that matter.

Kes has come close to winning at Daytona in the DRIVE4COPD 300 while piloting the Discount Tire machine each of the last two years. He finished second in the race in 2012 and was attempting to make a move for the win in the final turn last year when Regan Smith went up for the block and contact between the two cars created a huge wreck.

“We’ve been close here, last year comes to mind,” BK said. “We have fast Ford Mustangs and this No. 22 Team Penske crew knows what it takes to win. We have a solid chance this year, and we will do our utmost to make the most of the opportunity.”

The DRIVE4COPD 300 will be Brad’s 12th career Nationwide race at Daytona. He has led at least one lap in eight of those 12 and his average finish is in the Top 15, including four Top 10s. He’s also run nine regular season Sprint Cup races at DIS with a pair of Top 10s. Additionally, over the last week, BK led the Sprint Unlimited and his Budweiser Duel for long stretches. With that kind of success at the track under his belt, Kes knows it is merely a matter of time before he finds his way to Daytona Victory Lane.

“I always enjoy racing here at Daytona,” he said. “If you run up front consistently and keep yourself in a position to win – it is going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.”

When could certainly be Saturday afternoon as the No. 22 team seeks to build on one of the best seasons ever for a Team Penske race crew. The precedent is set, and Brad and his team are ready to try and exceed it.

“I think when you have a season like we had in 2013, with 12 wins and a championship; you never really want it to end,” Bullins said. “It also sets the bar high for the following year, as you always want to move forward and get better.”

Coverage of the 2014 DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway begins at Noon ET on Saturday on ESPN, with the green flag scheduled to fly at around 1:15 p.m.

The post New Season Begins In Nationwide No. 22 appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.