A year ago at Talladega, Brad captured one of the most dramatic victories of his career, passing Ryan Newman on the last lap to triumph in a must-win situation, where not even a second-place finish would do, to advance through the Contender Round of the Chase. In this weekend’s CampingWorld.com 500, Brad can approach the weekend a bit differently.

“That win certainly was a bit of a lucky day,” Brad recalled. “I caught some breaks, and then I forced some things to happen. A lot of times in racing, and I think this is key, most champions don’t force it to happen because your odds of being successful in this sport when you force things they’re pretty high that you’ll be successful in the short-term and extremely low that you’ll be successful in the long-term. We’re in this deal for the long-term, so we’ll do our best to win while keeping in mind that a Top 10 ought to be enough to get us through to the next round.”

A wreck at Kansas put BK in that desperate situation last year, but although he isn’t in dire straits going into this weekend, he’ll still need a solid finish to advance to the Eliminator Round. BK captured his 99th and 100th Top 10 finishes at Charlotte and Kansas to start the Round of 12, and he’ll likely need No. 101 to advance past this weekend.

Kes sits in a tie for fifth with Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon in the Chase standings. The three are just seven points ahead of Kyle Busch, who sits in ninth and below the Eliminator Round cutline. Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth are all below that cutoff as well, while Team Penske’s Joey Logano is the only driver locked into the next round after winning both Charlotte and Kansas.

A win will send Brad to the next round, but he also controls his own destiny without a win. He can finish second with no laps led, third with one lap led or fourth with the most laps led and still advance no matter where the rest of the Chasers finish.

However, at Talladega where large, field-engulfing wrecks abound, it is almost a certainty that at least one Chase hopeful will see his day ruined thanks to a crash. Brad will try to keep his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion away from “The Big One,” as it is called at the 2.66-mile tri-oval.

Talladega is NASCAR’s longest oval, and it and Daytona International Speedway are the only tracks where restrictor plates are instituted. The restrictor plates limit the airflow into an engine, reducing horsepower and speed. It puts all cars essentially on a level playing field and creates pack racing, where aerodynamics are at a premium. If a driver gets out of line and has no help behind him, he can slide back into obscurity in seconds.

BK is known as one of the best restrictor plate drivers in the game, especially at Talladega. In the Cup series, he boasts three wins and seven Top 10 finishes at the track. His first Cup victory came there in 2009.

“There are quite a few drivers who can win at Talladega, and I think we’re one of them,” BK said after finishing ninth last week at Kansas. “But we don’t have to win. We just have to have a really good day. That’s something to remember.”

Consistency has been Brad’s approach to this Chase thus far. He has finished in the Top 10 in 14 out of his last 16 races, including three Top 10s in five playoff races to this point. Another solid finish is likely to send him to the Eliminator Round for the second straight year.

He should have some help from teammates in this race. Logano is not in need of a win, having already won twice in this round. The teammates will be assisted by Ryan Blaney, who drives in the XFINITY Series for Team Penske and in the Camping World Truck Series for Brad Keselowski Racing. He drives part-time in the Cup series for Wood Brothers’ Racing, which has a technical alliance with Team Penske.

The three finished in order in the first practice: BK in 19th and Blaney and Logano behind him in 20th and 21st. Normally, that finish in practice would be worrisome, but the highest Chase competitor (Kenseth) was just 13th. The 2 Crew will have one more practice on Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET to sharpen their sword.

Qualifying is set for 4:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, though due to the nature of the racing, starting place has a minimal bearing on success at restrictor plate tracks like Talladega.

Finally, the CampingWorld.com 500 will go green shortly after 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday and will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network.

The post Contender Round Reaches Fever Pitch at Talladega appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

BK led the first 28 laps of the Hollywood Casino 400, and throughout the day he rebounded from a scrape with the wall to pass Jeff Gordon at the start/finish line to steal a second consecutive ninth-place finish.

“It was a long day,” Brad said. “Kind of like last week, we weren’t very fast. Everyone on the Miller Lite Ford team and everyone at Team Penske worked really hard to get through it. We just fought and didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot any more than me driving the car, but came out with a Top 10.”

Brad captured his 10th career pole, his second of the season and his first in Kansas City to start the weekend. He paced the field through the opening stage but was passed by both Kevin Harvick and his teammate Joey Logano at lap 29, just before a J.J. Yeley wreck brought out the day’s first caution.

While BK started in first place, he didn’t get his choice of the best pit stall. The week prior, both he and Tony Stewart received their fourth written warnings from NASCAR, and as a result, the two were last to select a spot in the pits. That poor positioning hurt him on the first stop. He pitted from third place but was off in sixth. While it hurt his standing early, BK said after the race that the pit stall didn’t alter the outcome.

“It was a good storyline, but we weren’t fast enough to hold the first through third or fourth positions for it to really make a difference,” Kes said.

On the ensuing restart, he drove his No. 2 back up to fifth, but was passed by Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson to fade back to seventh by lap 62. Two laps later, Tony Stewart spun out, bringing about the second caution.

Some strategy from Paul Wolfe put the White Lite back in solid positioning. The 2 Crew changed just right-side tires, vaulting Kes from seventh to second. Unfortunately, the strategy call didn’t stick. Brad battled a rough handling car on the next run, at one point telling his team that he was just doing what he could to keep the car off the wall, and he fell back to ninth place.

Brad took two tires during the next caution and restarted second at lap 62. He was passed by multiple cars out of the restart and slid back to sixth at lap 73 as he was passed by Logano. Kes fell down to ninth by lap 98, suspecting that he might have a flat right-rear tire.

“There just ain’t any groove or tactic that’s working,” Brad radioed to his team. “I’m tight in 1 & 2 and snapping loose off. I’m deathly loose in the center of 3 & 4 and loose off there.”

As BK detailed his car’s poor handling to his crew chief, a much-needed caution came when Kyle Larson lost control at lap 109. BK pitted from ninth, took four fresh tires and an adjustment and restarted in 10th. Still fighting with his car, he fell back as far as 14th after the restart but eventually settled in. When Austin Dillon wrecked to bring out the fourth caution at lap 155, Brad was back up to 12th.

Just before this stop, BK reported to Wolfe that his car was much better entering Kansas’ corners, but it was still tight in the center and snapping loose on exit. The following run was a short one. Clint Bowyer had a hard wreck just 10 laps into the run. As a result the leaders stayed out, and Brad was the first to pit from position 11.

On the ensuing run, Brad was digging to find any speed he could. After seeing his Team Penske partner Logano running the high line with success while battling for the lead, BK tried his hand at running up high. However, at lap 188, he got loose and scuffed the wall, dropping him to 14th.

However, the damage was minimal, and the White Lite inexplicably became better after the incident. He also got some help when to Chasers had issues during green-flag pit stops at lap 216. Harvick was penalized for pulling his gas tank out of his pit box, and Martin Truex Jr. was penalized for an uncontrolled tire.

With around 40 laps remaining, BK cycled out to position 10 but was passed by Carl Edwards back to 11th with 31 laps to go. Two more quick cautions followed. Brad had passed Ryan Newman to eighth place before Matt Kenseth spun out while battling with Logano for the lead at lap 262.

BK pitted from eighth hoping that fresh tires would help him on the green-white-checkered finish. He restarted in 12th place, and he had to battle his way back up. He passed Newman again for position 10 and right at the checkered flag, he edged Gordon by a matter of inches to log a ninth-place finish for the second week in a row.

“We want more than Top 10s,” BK said. “We need to be winning races. We know that. But we’re not in the worst of positions going into Talladega, and we need to have another solid day there.”

The post BRAD SCRAPES WALL BUT FINISHES 9TH AT KANSAS appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

BK currently sits eighth in the Chase standings, and only the top eight drivers will move on to the next round. That means that between this week’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas and next week’s race at the always-unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway, Kes must at least hold on to that eighth spot, if not improve his position, to guarantee his spot in the Eliminator Round for the second straight season.

The best way to do that is to win.

As he aims to do just that, Brad will be back in his familiar No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion this Sunday. From the seat of the White Lite, he’ll be attempting to follow Penske teammate Joey Logano, who locked his spot in the next round with a win at Charlotte last week, to Victory Lane.

“We’re in a reasonable spot heading into Kansas this weekend,” Brad said. “Right now Team Penske has one car locked in to the Eliminator Round and we have a shot to get the Miller Lite team to advance this weekend, which is all you can ask for really.”

In the early stages of race weekend, Brad has already shown the speed to compete for victory. He was fastest in Friday’s first practice session, with a time of 27.785 seconds at an average speed of 194.349 miles per hour. He was the only driver in the 27.7-second/194.3 mph range.

Brad is also building on a history of success at the Kansas City tri-oval. He booked his lone victory at Kansas back in 2011, in only his third career Cup start there, and his first Cup run there in the Deuce. Though he hasn’t found Victory Lane since, he’s still been relatively steady and successful. In fact, Kes has led laps in each of his last four starts at Kansas, including a career-high 52 in this event in 2013, which he finished in position 17. Earlier this year, the Deuce led 43 laps and finished seventh, marking BK’s fifth top 10 finish at the 1.5-mile track.

Brad has led 611 laps in total this season, similar to the pace he set during his 2012 Cup championship season, but far off from the 1,540 he led in 2014. He also likely won’t match the win totals from either year. He won five times in 2012 and six times last year. However, his ninth-place finish last week was his 20th in the Top 10 this year. That matches the 20 he had a year ago, and puts him on pace to top his career-high of 23, set in 2012.

“We haven’t necessarily got the results that we’re looking for with respect to laps led, wins, Top 5s, but our consistency this year has been as good if not better than any other year,” Brad said. “Our Top 10 percentage is slightly better, so I think that’s probably where I’d generate that conclusion from.”

Despite his on-track consistency this season, Kes will be entering Sunday’s race at a slight disadvantage. NASCAR issued punishment this week to the No. 2 and No. 14 teams after both earned their fourth rules warnings of the season at Charlotte Motor Speedway last week. As a result of that punishment, regardless of where the Deuce qualifies, Brad’s pit crew won’t have the right to choose its own pit stall. They will instead be forced to pick between the last two available stalls.

While Brad could attempt to play it safe in an effort to reach the Eliminator Round, he doesn’t plan to. He wants to win his way to a second Sprint Cup title. Even though he hasn’t won a race since March, Brad believes he has a good a chance of any car at winning the Sprint Cup.

With that in mind, Kes said his drive to win is as high as it has ever been.

“I think that would perhaps more solidify, not just in other people’s minds, where our team is, but in my own. And that would be a tremendous feeling for me personally, considering where we’ve come from and how far we’ve come,” Kes said.

The NSCS will qualify at 6:15 p.m. ET on Friday. After determining their starting spot, the 2 Crew will then have two more practice sessions to tune-up their setup on Saturday. The morning session will be broadcast at 11:30 a.m on MSNBC and Happy Hour final practice will air at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

Finally, the Hollywood Casino 400 will go green around 2:15 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air on NBC.

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So that’s exactly what the 2 Crew did. The No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford team was mired in the back for much of the afternoon but eventually scraped up a ninth-place finish, breaking a two-race spell outside of the Top 10.

“It was a lot of work,” Brad said after the race. “We weren’t as fast as we wanted to be. When we had green-flag pit stops, we seemed to be really fast with the Detroit Genuine Parts Ford. On restarts, on yellow flags, we just kept getting stuck in dirty air and couldn’t move anywhere.”

It was a difficult day for Brad, but he’s left in a decent position for the start of the Contender Round, where only the top eight drivers will advance. Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch all encountered trouble on the day, and BK currently sits eighth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings—just above the Eliminator Round cutoff and six points ahead of ninth-place Ryan Newman.

The race was originally slated to run on Saturday evening, but rain postponed it until Sunday morning. Brad qualified in position No. 13 but the dirty air and restart issues gave him trouble immediately.

Jeb Burton wrecked on the very first lap under the sun at Charlotte. On the ensuing restart, Kes fell back to the 17th position, and it took him 26 laps to move back to 15th before NASCAR threw out the competition caution at lap 26.

After a nice four-tire stop by the 2 Crew, Brad was off pit road three spots up in 12th for the lap 30 restart. However, he couldn’t make it stick. He slid two spots back on the ensuing restart. Under green, he made up some ground, passing Jimmie Johnson up one spot before taking another when Kasey Kahne had a brush with the wall at lap 40.

BK was passed back by Johnson at lap 59, and two laps later, the issue with Kahne arose again. The No. 5 hit the wall and the race’s third caution came out. Brad had reported that the No. 2 was too tight entering and was lacking grip exiting Charlotte’s corners, and so Paul Wolfe’s crew fitted him with an air pressure and wedge adjustment on the stop.

But the tough restarts struck again. He slid back to 16th, where he remained until Dale Jr. hit the wall at lap 72 to bring out caution No. 4. After another round of adjustments and four fresh tires, Brad restarted 14th and radioed to his team some words of inspiration.

“It’s gonna be a blue-collar day,” Brad said. “Let’s keep working boys.”

Brad was right. The black and blue Deuce was swallowed up on the following restart, falling all the way back to the 25th position. BK kept working from there, passing Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Greg Biffle, Paul Menard and Jeff Gordon in succession to take 21st. However soon after, another issue that plagued Brad all day reared its head: the mid-run lull.

BK was passed back by Gordon at lap 96, and he fought his car all the way until the green-flag pit stops came at lap 123. The 2 Crew was outstanding all day, and this time they allowed Brad to gain about five spots. When the pit stops cycled through at lap 135, BK was in 16th.

Midway through the run, Brad spent several laps trying to get around Jamie McMurray and into the Top 15, but the Deuce continued to struggle in dirty air. He ended up losing a spot to Gordon once again as a result.

The fifth caution arose a lap 166, and the 2 Crew came through again. BK pitted from P17 and was off in 14th.

“Doing a helluva job down there,” Brad radioed to his crew. “Keep it up.”

This time, Brad backed his crew up and turned in a tremendous restart. He jumped to the outside line and passed Gordon, Newman, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Austin Dillion up into the Top 10 for the first time all race.

But just when Brad and the Deuce were getting some momentum, the typical Chase race adversity halted them. A Kenseth blown tire brought out a caution at lap 177, and Justin Allgaier blew an engine on the ensuing restart, dropping fluid all over the track. NASCAR workers came and put speedy dry on the mess, but just before the restart, Brad reported over the radio that there was still speedy dry left on the outside line.

He restarted in the Top 10, but he was one of a number of drivers to hit the debris and slide back. Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch were among several drivers to complain about the incident and the track conditions afterward.

Only after Brad fell to 13th did NASCAR throw the eighth caution to finish the cleanup. On the following run, BK swapped positions throughout with Kenseth, Newman, Gordon and Bowyer before pitting under green at lap 230. Another solid stop had Brad back up to the Top 10 when Kenseth hit the wall to bring out the ninth and final caution of the day at lap 240.

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BK was just beyond the cutline, forcing him to take his black and blue No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion out for another lap in the second round. He crossed the start/finish line with the exact same time—down to the thousandth of a second—as Carl Edwards: 28.181 seconds.

The two drivers tied for the last spot in the final round, position 12, but the tiebreaker went back to the point total after the Challenger Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, so Edwards got the nod.

“We were 12th, it’s just that somebody else was 12th too,” Brad told NBC. “We’re 12B. We unloaded

[the car] today not real good, and then Paul Wolfe and the team worked on it and we’ve gotten a lot better from where we unloaded. So I’m pretty optimistic, but still certainly want to be a little bit faster. We’ll keep working on it. We’ve got a day of practice tomorrow and 13th is close enough to see the front.”

That puts Brad one spot behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. and two behind the championship favorite, Kevin Harvick, in the running order for Saturday night’s main event. Only three non-Chase drivers—Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Aric Almirola—will start head of Brad. And only two Contender Round qualifiers—Martin Truex Jr. in P15 and Jeff Gordon in P22—will start behind him.

Rough starting position hasn’t held Brad back at Charlotte before. In 2013, he started in P23 and won. And in 2012, he started P24 and took the checkered flag in fifth.

His final two practice sessions will come at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday. He’ll also be busy on Friday piloting Team Penske’s No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Fusion in the XFINITY Series. He’s running his first NSCS/NXS double in two months.

His last double came at Watkins Glen, where he finished second in NXS and seventh in Cup. He has notched an average finish of 4.2 in his last five Cup races where he also ran in the XFINITY Series. The NXS’s Race for the Cure 300 will go green shortly after 8 p.m. Friday night.

The primary focus for Brad, however, is starting the NSCS Contender Round off on the right foot. All 12 remaining drivers are tied with 3,000 points, and only eight drivers will move on from this set of three races.

Last year in this race, race Kes started in 17th and finished 16th in the Detroit Genuine Parts Ford. However, this race was the start of a dramatic Chase with Brad at the center. After the race, Denny Hamlin pursued BK in the garage and had to be restrained by his crew. Meanwhile, Matt Kenseth ambushed Brad between haulers, sparking a brief brawl between the two crews.

This spring’s race at Charlotte passed without incident. BK was dominating the All-Star Race before being flagged for speeding on pit road, which relegated him to a ninth-place finish. He was also solid in the Coca-Cola 600, where he started sixth and finished seventh.

That was one of four Top 10 finishes for Brad over his Cup career at Charlotte. Of course, his best finish at the 1.5-mile quad oval came in 2013. In a trying season, BK came to this very event without a win, and he captured his first ever NSCS victory at Charlotte. It was one of the most memorable wins of his career, and it came as a consolation prize for an otherwise frustrating campaign.

He’ll enter this race with that feather in his cap, along with some strong results at tracks similar to CMS. As Brad has long contended, the 1.5-mile, intermediate tracks are vital to winning the championship, and the 1.5-mile paved surface with 24-degree banking at Charlotte is one of the keys to victory.

Brad has been the model of consistency at the mile-and-a-halfs this year. At Charlotte and the tracks similar to it—Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas, Kentucky, Las Vegas, and Texas—he boasts an average finish of seventh. He has finished in the Top 10 in all seven 1.5-mile races this year, including an eight-place result at Chicagoland Speedway to start the Chase.

“I’m really optimistic about it,” Brad said. “I felt like the last few tracks of a similar nature we’ve run really, really competitively at – it’s not a guarantee that we’re gonna run well this time, but I feel like we’ve got a strong shot at it in the Detroit Genuine Parts Ford.”

After two practice sessions and the NXS race on Friday, Brad will put his black and blue No. 2 to work at Charlotte. The Bank of America 500 is set to go green shortly after 7 p.m. ET on Saturday night. The race will be broadcast on NBC.

The post BK STARTS CONTENDER ROUND IN 13TH appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

The No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion never had the speed to compete for a win, or even a Top 10 finish in Sunday’s AAA 400. However, BK did what he could with what he had, keeping the Deuce as clean as possible and holding on for a 16th place finish. That result was just good enough to allow Brad to move on into the Contender Round of the Chase.

BK ended the Challenger Round tied for seventh in points with Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon —all three at 2,100 — just two points above the cutline of 2,098. But because his eighth place finish at Chicago was his best of the round, Brad was behind most of his fellow competitors in all tie-breaking scenarios.

Both Busch and Gordon held better Challenger Round finishes than Brad, so he ended up ninth in points at the end of the round. That left him just two points above Jamie McMurray, who was the last driver eliminated from the Chase. So if the Deuce had finished 18th or worse, BK would have been eliminated on Sunday.

Instead, McMurray, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer and six-time Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson were eliminated, narrowing the field to 12 for the upcoming contender round.

“I was not very aware of the points situation at the end,” Brad said after the race. “The guys told me we were ok, and it looks like it was really, really close. That’s part of the game.”

BK and the No. 2 crew entered the weekend with some optimism, but that was quickly dampened by rain, which cancelled Friday’s practice and the race qualifying session.

That locked Kes into a P8 start based on Owner Points. The weather cleared enough for the Cup Series to get both practices in on Saturday, and the Wurth Ford Fusion was sixth quickest in both sessions, giving the team some renewed hope that they could compete for a win at Dover, as Team Penske engineer Brian Wilson revealed before the race.

However, when Sunday’s race began, the speed the Deuce had shown in practice was gone and a precipitous drop began at the outset of the race. After starting on the outside line in P8, Brad quickly fell to ninth after the race went green. An early caution for the spinning No. 23 car of Jeb Burton put the No. 2 on the inside line at P9 for the ensuing restart and when that line faltered on the restart, Kes fell all the way back to 12th.

By lap 10, the Wurth Ford had also been passed by Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 car and the No. 18 of Kyle Busch, dropping back to 14th. Both of those drivers were behind Brad in points entering Sunday and their move toward the front while the Deuce dropped back, creating some nervous moments for the No. 2 team.

BK lost another spot to Kyle Larson a few laps later, but found some speed late in the first long green flag run of the day to pass fellow Chase drivers Ryan Newman in the No. 31 and Dale Jr. in the No. 88. He sat in 13th when the competition caution came out at Lap 41, preceding his first pit stop of the day.

On that trip down pit road, the No. 2 crew opted to strap four fresh tires on the Deuce while also performing air pressure and wedge adjustments. The crew got him back out in the same position he entered, P13 and BK caught a break when Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 were both flagged for speeding on pit road. This allowed Brad to rise back to P11 for the Lap 45 restart, putting the Wurth Ford Fusion just outside the Top 10 for the first time since the early stages of the race.

However, that restart led to another setback for the No. 2 team on a day full of them. Though he was running in P11, that was far enough back traffic that room to maneuver was hard to come by when the race went back green. He got stuck on the inside line while several cars zoomed past on the outside, dropping the Deuce all the way back to 16th. To make matters worse, as BK tried to find a way to get out of his predicament, he noticed the temperature gauges on his dashboard rising to the point that they pegged.

Brad radioed to his spotter to see if there was debris on his grille causing the spike by Joey Meier reported back that the car was clean, raising the concern level of the No. 2 crew about the Wurth Ford running hot. A mechanical failure at that stage of the race likely would’ve been curtains for Brad in the Chase. Fortunately, as the run went on, the temps leveled off and weren’t an issue for the rest of the day, allowing the team to avert disaster. Still, with Brad running in the middle of the pack, points were starting to become an issue.

He managed to get back into the Top 10 at Lap 88, but just before the quarter point of the race he reported that the car was running very tight through the center of turns, making it difficult for him to gain any ground, and he radioed that the team needed plan another adjustment at their next stop. However, that stop was still a long ways off and as the green flag run wore on, the speed that came later in the first longer run of the day was not there and he ended up falling all the way back to 18th at Lap 102.

He got a spot back when Jimmie Johnson was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop, but quickly lost that gained ground to the No. 16 of Greg Biffle one lap later. To make matters worse, race leader Kevin Harvick was dominating the field and coming for Brad, who sat in 18th as the last car on the lead lap. Fortunately, just before Harvick arrived at his back bumper, a caution came out for debris, saving Brad his lead lap spot and getting him a much-needed pit stop so the No. 2 crew could make adjustments.

As he got set to make his stop, Brad told crew chief Paul Wolfe that the car remained far too tight in the center of turns, even after the adjustments made on the first stop of the day, and described the feeling at the center of turns as “numb.” The No. 2 crew made another adjustment and strapped four tires on the Wurth machine, and with one of their best stops of the day, Kes gained a spot on pit road, allowing him to restart at P17 on Lap 118.

Despite starting on the bottom again, Brad was able to hold his position this time and settled into a groove at P17. From there, he started to methodically gain ground on the cars in front of him. He moved by the No. 16 of Greg Biffle into P16 at Lap 131 and 20 laps later the Deuce got by the No. 3 of Austin Dillon up to 15th. When Clint Bowyer had to pit off schedule, BK assumed 14th place, however, Dale Jr. in the No. 88 quickly took that spot away, dropping the Wurth Ford Fusion back to 15th and the fringe of the lead lap.

Two laps later, Harvick arrived at Brad’s bumper and with no caution in sight to save him this time, the No. 2 was put a lap down by the No. 4. BK continued there for the duration of the longest green flag run of the day. The fourth caution of the day finally arrived at Lap 193, brought out again by an incident involving the No. 23 of Burton. The No. 2 crew went to work with more adjustments on the lapped Wurth machine on another four-tire stop, including a grille-cleaning to ensure the temps stayed controlled, but nothing seemed to take.

On the Lap 206 restart, BK was running 16th as the second car one lap down behind only Biffle. Despite Brad’s best efforts to find a way around the No. 16 and become the first car a lap down, in position for “the lucky dog” at the next caution, he was mired behind Biffle’s machine and when the next caution came out for debris at Lap 232, the No. 16 car got the free pass to the lead lap.

Brad went in for another pit stop during that caution period, reporting that the previous adjustments hadn’t improved the car’s conditions. The No. 2 crew continued to work on it and got the Deuce off pit road as the second car one lap down behind only the No. 11 of Hamlin. However, Hamlin was flagged for speeding on pit road again, giving Brad the lucky dog spot as the first car one lap down (P16) on the restart.

All BK needed was another quick caution to get back on the lead lap. But instead, the field went for another 75 lap green flag run. During that run, Kes tried valiantly to fight off the hard charging No. 15 car of Clint Bowyer, but the 15 was able to run the bottom groove with much more success than the Deuce. As a result, Bowyer passed Brad at Lap 252.

At that point, BK radioed to Wolfe expressing his frustration with how things were going.

“Nothing’s working here, Paul,” he told his crew chief. “I don’t know what to tell you. I wouldn’t say it’s worse, but definitely no better.”

Brad held P17, behind only Bowyer among lap down cars, for the rest of the run, but the 2 had nothing for the 15 over the long run and when the sixth caution came at lap 312, Bowyer took the free pass to the lead lap.

On the ensuing pit stop, Brad bested Hamlin to the line, to maintain his standing as the first car a lap down, then held off Hamlin on the restart to settle back into P17. This time the hard work of he and his team was rewarded. When Brett Moffitt’s No. 34 car hit the wall with 47 laps to go, bringing out the eight caution of the day, the Deuce was finally in the Lucky Dog position at the right time and got the free pass to the lead lap.

After another four-tire stop, the Wurth Ford Fusion took the wave around as the last car on the lead lap. But because the wave still forced him to restart behind several cars that were a lap behind him, and he had to work his way up through lapped traffic to get to the rest of the lead lap cars.

His progress in doing so was stalled when the final caution of the day came out with 29 laps to go after the No. 40 car of Landon Cassill blew its engine, leaving some oil on the track. BK made his final pit stop from P17 and drove off in P16 as Kurt Busch kept his No. 41 in for an extended stop to fix an issue. The ensuing restart was Brad’s best of the day and he moved all the way up to P13 within the first lap after. However, the positive momentum didn’t last and he was passed back to P16 in short order.

He was running there as the laps ticked off toward the finish, giving him just a two-point cushion from being eliminated from the Chase. To maintain that cushion, he had to hold off Busch’s No. 41 over the final few laps, and did so successfully to cross in P16, safely into the next round of the Chase.

After Top 10 finishes in 10 consecutive races through the first race of the Chase at Chicagoland, the No. 2 Ford has now placed outside the Top 10 in each of the past two races, trending in the wrong direction. However, the slate is now clear for the Contender Round, putting all 12 Chase drivers back on equal footing as the Cup Series heads to Charlotte next week. Brad believes that’s as good a place as any to turn things back around.

“Our approach now is to win Charlotte,” Brad said. “I feel like we have the cars and the team to do it. We didn’t showcase it today, but we are better than we did today.”

NEXT UP

The Contender Round begins under the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway next Saturday night.

In 12 career races at CMS, Brad has logged four Top 10s. All of those have come in the last four years, including a win in this race back in 2013. In last year’s Chase race at Charlotte, BK started in P17 and finished 16th, complicating his Contender Round standing to the point that he had to win the next week at Talladega — which he did — in order to advance.

However, the No. 2 crew does have some recent success at Charlotte Motor Speedway to draw from. The Deuce has started and finished inside the Top 10 in each of the last two spring races at CMS. Back in May, Brad started the Coca-Cola 600 from P7 and finished sixth. If the team can find that speed again, they could set themselves up for a strong Contender Round with a solid finish at Charlotte.

The weekend begins on Thursday with a 1:30 p.m. ET practice. Qualifying follows under the lights at 7:20 p.m. ET. After determining their starting spot, the No. 2 crew will have two more chances to tune up the Deuce on Saturday afternoon, with practices at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. ET. All four sessions can be seen on NBC Sports Network.

Coverage of the Bank of America 500 begins on Saturday at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Network and the green flag is scheduled to fly at 7:15 p.m. ET.

The post Brad Extends Season With 16th Place Finish At Dover appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

Hurricane Joaquin threatens this weekend’s schedule, and heavy rains washed out Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions. As a result the field was set based on the owners points standings. In other words: The Chase field starts in order first through 16th—with Brad in the middle at position No. 8.

Kes is just one of eight drivers who controls his own fate without needing a victory. Meaning, if Brad garners 30 points on Sunday, he will advance, no matter where the rest of the Chase hopefuls finish. He can finish 14th without leading a lap, 15th with at least one lap led or 16th with the most laps led, and he’ll safely advance. And of course, a win would do the trick too.

“This race has a little more riding on it than usual, but that’s what makes it fun,” Brad said. “Our first priority is to advance to the Contender Round of the Chase and if we can do that with a win all the better.”

BK will be sporting the only paint scheme that has brought him a win this year: the No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion. He brought the red and white Wurth machine to Victory Lane at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. in March.

The #GoingFor2 mantra will be in full effect this weekend. As he looks to make the postseason’s second round, he’ll also be eying his second win of the season, and the second of his career at The Monster Mile.

He’ll be hoping the Wurth colors can bring him some luck, and he’ll also lean on a solid track record at Dover. He boasts four Top 5 finishes, including a second-place finish in this even last year. He was also in the Wurth Deuce for that runner-up finish.

One of those Top 5s came as a key moment in his 2012 championship season as well. Dover’s famous Miles the Monster trophy was holding a Blue Deuce after the 2012 Chase race, a win that was a key stepping stone on BK’s title run.

“Dover is a good track for the No. 2 Wurth Ford team,” Brad said. “We’ve led laps and been in a position to win here the last few times we’ve raced at the Monster Mile, and what it takes to win is the same each weekend, you have to have speed, you have to execute and a little luck helps too.”

Brad finished second in both Dover races last year, and he has led a total of 116 laps over his last two starts at the one-mile Delaware track. He paced the field for 28 laps but finished 12th at this track in the FedEx 400 in May.

He battled a loose Deuce in that race, and Paul Wolfe and Co. will need to be on their game to battle the weather and changing conditions at Dover this weekend. If Mother Nature allows, the 2 Crew will have two practice sessions at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET on Saturday to dial in the Wurth Deuce.

The AAA 400 is scheduled for a green flag around 2:30 p.m. ET. The race will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network.

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BK rebounded to finish 12th, and although his career-best streak of 10 straight Top 10 finishes ended at the Sylvania 300, his standing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup actually improved.

“It was a heck of a rebound. I’m really proud of my guys today to come back and finish 12th,” Brad said afterward. “We moved on and got a solid finish that hopefully will make our Dover a little bit easier, so that was good.”

Despite the late setback, BK still finished ahead of numerous Chase contenders. Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch all finished behind Kes. The Team Penske driver sits in eighth in the Chase standings with a 16-point cushion on 13th place.

“It’s very frustrating,” Wolfe said. “We knew this (New Hampshire) was a strength of ours in this round, and to have an opportunity to get a win or a top five would have been huge, and take a little bit of the pressure off going to Dover. Yeah, we recovered to 12th and gained a few points and are not in terrible shape, but at the same time Dover’s been hit or miss for us, so it would have been nice to come out of here with a win or some more points.”

While Brad is in solid standing as the circuit heads to the final race of the Challenger Round, it looked, as Wolfe indicated, like he would be even better off. Kes qualified fourth for the Chase’s second race, and he was in second place behind Harvick, who led 216 of 300 laps before running out of fuel, for almost the entire afternoon.

He held strong in that fourth spot early until the leaders ran into lapped traffic around lap 20. Using that traffic, the No. 2 passed Carl Edwards and lap 24 and sped by Kurt Busch at lap 30 into second place. He set his sights on Harvick and the lead before the race’s first caution arose at lap 36.

The White Lite was one of the strongest machines on the track all afternoon, and crew chief Paul Wolfe fitted it with a slight wedge adjustment to tune it in early. After that and a two-tire stop, Brad was off in second place. He held off Busch and Denny Hamlin to keep second on the restart.

He nearly lost it on the next run after hitting fluid put down by Landon Cassill’s No. 40 car. Fortunately, he held on and kept second place again through restart No. 2 at lap 54. The third in a trio of quick cautions came shortly thereafter at lap 60, and the 2 Crew elected to keep Brad out on the track. He restarted second once again, and once again, he bested Busch and Jimmie Johnson to stay right there.

Finally, another long green-flag run followed. Brad weaved his way through traffic to keep pace with Harvick, as the No. 4 and the No. 2 drivers solidified themselves as the best of the afternoon. Yellow flag No. 4 flew when Alex Bowman hit the wall at lap 120, and the 2 Crew put together a solid 13.0-second four-tire stop to allow Brad to keep second place.

This time on the restart at lap 126, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave Brad all he could handle, but like others before him, Dale Jr. eventually bowed out, and BK kept that second position. From there, Brad was off to the races. He completed his fastest time of the afternoon to that point at lap 129, traversing the 1.058-mile oval in just 28.686 seconds

That blazing lap time came even after the White Lite shared some contact with Junior’s No. 88 Chevrolet on the restart. As the run went on, it impacted performance a bit, but fortunately, a caution came quickly. At lap 157, Chase hopeful Kyle Busch took a major blow, as his No. 18 Toyota hit the wall to bring out caution No. 5.

While it hurt Busch’s postseason hopes, it allowed the 2 Crew to fix the minor damage and swap out the White Lite’s right-side tires. Brad nearly saw his own postseason hopes take a hit on this stop. He had a near-miss with Casey Mears’ No. 13 car on pit road, and the incident dropped BK to third off pit road. But that bad luck was instantly reversed, when Edwards pulled his gas tank out of his pit box, resulting in a penalty for the No. 19 team, and a P2 restart for the No. 2 team.

This time around, Brad had to best the eventual race winner, Matt Kenseth, on the restart. He did it after a tough battle, and remained in second place until a caution at lap 192 threw off the field’s strategy.

BK and Co. called for four tires, while six drivers—Kenseth, Johnson, Joey Logano, Earnhardt Jr., Bowyer and Tony Stewart—took two. Brad, meanwhile, was the second car on four tires after Harvick. But he made a move on this restart that put him in position to win.

Brad beat out Harvick to take sixth place on the lap 197 restart, making his the first car on four fresh tires. From there, BK made it past Stewart, Johnson and Logano to third place at lap 201, just in time for caution seven, brought out by a wreck involving Danica Patrick at lap 205. Another caution came quickly at lap 211, and Brad pitted for fuel only, his eyes on a fuel mileage win.

Eight drivers elected to stay out, and BK was the first off pit road, putting him in ninth for the restart. He quickly jumped out to sixth after the green flag, and he passed Stewart five laps later to make it back to the Top 5. On this run, Brad moved to fourth and was playing a fuel mileage game with Harvick, who also pitted for fuel on the last stop. Kes was saving while Harvick wasn’t, and this move made a tremendous difference at the end of the race.

Justin Allgaier hit the wall at lap 236, and Brad didn’t pit, sending him to second place for the restart that changed everything. Kes restarted next to Greg Biffle, and after a side-by-side battle, he eventually settled into second place. But while the battle was taking place, NASCAR was reviewing the restart and eventually decided to black flag Brad for a restart violation.

The No. 2 team was more than displeased with NASCAR’s call, which Wolfe explained in detail afterward.

“It depends how you look at it,” Wolfe said. “We did leave the zone, I guess, before the 16 (Biffle) but the 16 looks like he checked up there right at the end. So I don’t know how they’re calling it. No denying we left the zone first, and it looked like we accelerated, but it seemed like right at the same time he checked up, because they were running in the back of him. So that’s the part where it’s frustrating to call that. If they looked at it, you would see the 16 checked up.”

The post Kes Overcomes Black Flag to Finish 12th at NHMS appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

With a fast No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion, BK just missed capturing his fourth career NHMS pole award. He was third quickest in Friday’s opening practice and kept the Deuce near the top of the board throughout qualifying. Then with a time of 27.666 seconds, he briefly topped to board in the final round, only to set for a fourth place finish, locking him into a second-row start for Sunday’s Sylvania 300.

“I thought we were going to get the pole after the second round, the car was really good,” Brad said after his qualifying run. “In the last round, just didn’t quite put the lap together, but still a great effort from the Miller Lite Ford. In the spring we qualified 10th here and we were able to drive to the front. I feel we’ll be really strong again. So I’m just proud and ready to get going.”

Even more important than adding to his impressive track record at Loudon, Brad is out to improve his standing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup in the second of 10 postseason races.

BK started the Chase last weekend with an eighth place finish at Chicagoland Speedway, which also extended his personal best Top 10 streak to 10 straight races. The No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion driver spoke this week about how another Top 10 finish could all but sew up a spot in the Contender Round.

“It is good to come into this race knowing that a Top 10 will likely move us to the Contender Round,” Brad said. “We want to win—we always want that first and foremost, but what we learned from last year’s Chase is that Top 10s will get you to Homestead, and that is the ultimate goal. We’ll make the most of the day and if we have a shot at the win, we’ll take it.”

Kes currently sits ninth in the Chase standings, but with two races remaining—this week at Loudon and next week at Dover—anything can happen. Fortunately, NHMS is one of BK’s very best tracks.

Of his 12 career Cup Series races at Loudon, Kes has finished in the top 10 eight times. That includes five Top 5s and one victory, which came last summer. He has led a total 343 laps at NHMS in the Cup Series, the fourth most at any track for his career.

In his last race at New Hampshire, the 5-Hour Energy 301 in July, the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford finished second after starting 10th. That was the eighth consecutive finish of 11th or better at Loudon for Brad.

“We probably had a winning car that day, but things just didn’t go our way,” Brad said. “New Hampshire has been a good track for us.”

In last year’s Chase event at Loudon, Brad captured the Coors Light Pole Award but finished seventh. That marked his third pole position at New Hampshire, with the two others coming in 2013 and 2010. His fourth-place start on Sunday will be his sixth in the Top 10 at the 1.058-mile oval.

The 2 Crew will have two more practice sessions to tune up the White Lite on Saturday morning, first at 9 a.m. and later in Happy Hour final practice starting at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Sunday’s main event, the Sylvania 300 will go green shortly after 2 p.m. ET and the race will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network.

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BK and the No. 2 crew pushed their Top 10 streak to double digits when the Deuce crossed in eighth place at the end of Sunday’s MyAFibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. After starting from P3, the White Lite didn’t quite have the same speed on race day that it had in practice. Brad still pulled off his career-high 10th Top 10 finish in a row to begin the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series postseason in a good spot, but afterward he lamented how the weekend worked out and left the team with some work to do.

“It was a decent day,” he said. “We just couldn’t get the front end to work. It is disappointing because I thought we were better than this in practice, but it just didn’t work out.”

BK posted the third fastest lap during Friday’s lone practice session, and when qualifying was rained out later that afternoon he was locked into a P3 start: his third straight in the top three.

However, as the first race of the Chase got underway, the Miller Lite machine quickly fell back in the pack, to sixth in the running order. His precipitous drop stopped when the first caution came up almost immediately at lap two, as eventual race winner Denny Hamlin spun out his No. 11 car. But on the ensuing restart, the Deuce fell back even further to eighth. By the end of the ensuing run, Brad found himself running in 11th place, while the front end of the No. 2 Ford was giving him fits.

That condition persisted throughout the afternoon, and Brad lingered outside of the Top 10 for most of the event. BK made his first pit stop of the day under green at lap 53, and the White Lite cycled out to 11th from there, before the second yellow flag of the afternoon came at lap 124.

The 2 Crew made their second stop of the day at that point, and had BK off in 12th. He grabbed one position following the next restart, but any momentum he had was stymied when an incident involving Austin Dillon’s No. 3 car quickly brought out the next yellow. The run that followed that caution was also short-lived. Brad was running just one spot outside of the Top 10 when the green flag waived, but on a wild restart, he fell all the way back to 15th before another caution came out three laps later. However he wasn’t the worst for wear after that short green flag run.

The three-lap cycle delivered a big blow to defending Cup champion Kevin Harvick’s Chase chances. After restarting in the lead, Harvick found himself fighting for position near the front of the pack on that wild restart. When Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 dove down to an attempt a pass, the two cars made contact, causing some damage to the No. 4’s rear quarterpanel. A few laps after the contact, Harvick spun out and hit the wall, the damage having caused his tire to be cut. The regular-season points leader finished 42nd, putting him in a major hole after just one race in the Challenger Round. Meanwhile Johnson survived the contact and crossed in position 11.

BK moved to 14th as Harvick bowed out, and from there the 2 Crew made their first championship-caliber strategy call of the day.

While other teams running near the No. 2, just outside the Top 10, made green flag pit stops, Brad and crew chief Paul Wolfe elected to stay out and bide their time as long as they possibly could, and that move paid off. Kes was running third behind Carl Edwards and Hamlin, when the caution came out. The Deuce pitted from third position and was third off pit road as well, allowing BK to restart in fifth.

The position was valuable, but even with some cleaner air the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford struggled with front-end handling, making it difficult on Brad. He lost fifth to the No. 24 of Jeff Gordon on the restart and dropped all the way to eighth before stopping under green once again at lap 243. As the race neared its end, the White Lite was hovering on the fringe of the Top 10 at P10 when the final yellow flag of the day came out at lap 259. That caution set the stage for a thrilling finale.

Strategies during the final yellow flag period of the day covered the gamut from staying out to come down pit road and taking four tires. Kes and Wolfe elected to strap four fresh tires on the Miller Lite Ford Fusion for the final sprint to the finish, positioning the Deuce in 11th for the final green.

The ensuing restart was Brad’s best of the day. He made a move to the bottom of the racetrack and climbed all the way up to fourth position in just one lap. Unfortunately for Brad and his team, the No. 2 car just didn’t have the speed to hold a spot in the Top 5 over the final laps. Kes did all he could to fend off the coming drivers, but the Deuce ultimately slid back and settled for an eighth-place finish.

“It looked like we were going to steal something on that final restart. We gained quite a few spots and probably weren’t quite a top-five car but almost stole a top-five,” Brad said. “We were racing real hard and just fell back. I just didn’t have the turn to run up front. I was trying to make something happen but, all in all, I guess it was a decent day.”

For Brad, the 10th consecutive Top 10 extended his career-best streak and made him just the sixth driver in the Chase era to log at least 10 consecutive Top 10s. The finish also marked BK’s 19th Top 10s for the season, second only to Harvick (22) and Joey Logano (21) in the Cup Series.

Meanwhile, Hamlin captured the win and became the first driver to secure a spot in the Contender Round. BK earned 36 points for his eighth place finish and sits in sole possession of ninth place in the standings, one point behind Ryan Newman for 8th, one ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 10th and 11 points above the Contender Round cutoff after the first of three Challenger Round races.

POST-CHICAGO CHASE STANDINGS

1. Denny Hamlin – 2,050 (1 Win)
2. Matt Kenseth – 2,050
3. Carl Edwards – 2,049
4. Kyle Busch – 2,049
5. Kurt Busch – 2,048
6. Joey Logano – 2,048
7. Jimmie Johnson – 2,045
8. Ryan Newman – 2,040
9. Brad Keselowski – 2,039
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 2,038
11. Martin Truex Jr. – 2,035
12. Jeff Gordon – 2,031

— CONTENDER ROUND CUTOFF —

13. Jamie McMurray – 2,028 (-3)
14. Paul Menard – 2,027 (-4)
15. Clint Bowyer – 2,025 (-6)
16. Kevin Harvick – 2,009 (-22)

NEXT UP

The Chase rolls on next week to another strong track for the 2 Crew: New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Brad boasts eight Top 10 finishes in 12 career Cup Series races at Loudon, including a win in last year’s summer run at NHMS. He’s also bagged three Coors Light Pole Awards at New Hampshire, most recently before this race last year. He finished seventh from that pole spot last September, however earlier this year he parlayed a P10 start in July’s 5-Hour Energy 301 into a second place finish. Those results give the No. 2 Crew confidence they can bolster their Challenge Round position this weekend.

The Sylvania 300 is set to go off Sunday at 2:15 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

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