BK led a race-high 86 laps and was pacing the field when the final caution of the Ford EcoBoost 400 came with 11 laps to go. However, he couldn’t fend off championship contenders Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick on the final restart, and he settled for a third-place finish.

“We led a lot of laps. The last four races we have run pretty strong, maybe not quite as strong as Phoenix as we wanted but three of the four races we were really strong and we just didn’t have enough to close it at the end,” Brad said. “I was really proud of my team tonight, really happy with what they were able to give me and we were able to take a run at it, we just didn’t quite have enough at the end on that final restart to hold those guys off.”

Kes showed solid speed all weekend and qualified eighth for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale. The green flag was postponed by roughly an hour and a half due to rain, and the 2 Crew had to clear a hurdle almost immediately.

The No. 11 car of Denny Hamlin was leaking gear oil on the track, and Brad was one of several drivers to hit fluid and skate up into the wall. The caution came out for the fluid at lap 13, and the 2 Crew sent an extra man out to the pit box to fix the damage, dropping Brad to the rear of the field.

However, the repairs were completed masterfully by Paul Wolfe’s group, and Brad powered his way up to 17th before the competition caution at lap 30. It was an excellent stop by the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford team, which earned Brad four spots during a fast four-tire stop. Two quick cautions followed, and Brad used them to jump to sixth after a lap 54 restart.

Nearly 100 green flag laps followed, and with Brad at the wheel and the 2 Crew putting together two spectacular green-flag pit stops, Brad cycled his way up to third in time for the fifth caution at lap 148. BK swapped between second and third place with Harvick on the next run, pitting from second place at lap 165.

This time, Brad was second off pit road, behind only another member of the championship four, Martin Truex Jr. However, Truex was running on just two fresh tires, and BK easily best him on four new shoes to take the lead at lap 172. No other driver could touch Brad on the long run that followed. Kes pitted under green from first place at lap 216 and quickly cycled right back to a 2.7-second lead over Busch.

As the laps ticked off, Brad worked his way through traffic and lost some time to Kyle Larson, who had usurped Busch for the second position. Larson was closing in on Kes with a dozen laps to go, and an enticing battle was brewing between the No. 2 and the No. 42—until the race’s seventh and final caution flag flew with 11 laps left.

“I was just trying to understand what (the caution) was for,” Wolfe told FOXSports.com while standing on pit road moments after the race ended. “I didn’t ever really see what it was for, but I guess that’s just the way it goes. I figured we obviously had a nice lead there and should have been able to cruise into Victory Lane, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Brad asked Wolfe his opinion on what lane he should choose for the final restart, and the settled on the inside. BK in first with Kyle Busch to his right, and Harvick behind Busch’s No. 18. However, BK didn’t get a great run off the green flag and was passed by Busch and Harvick. However, Harvick didn’t have anything for Busch, who went on to win the race, and the championship.

“I don’t really know if there was a right one or a wrong one to be honest,” BK said of his lane choice. “We just weren’t fast enough, and I don’t think it would have mattered either way.”

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While the Championship 4 of Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick battle for NASCAR’s biggest crown in the Ford EcoBoost 400, BK and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion team will be racing with all they’ve got to post their second win of the season.

“We gave it a solid shot, and I am proud of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford team’s efforts as well as grateful for the support we had from our partners and fans,” Brad said. ”To finish the season with a victory would go a long way towards offsetting our disappointment in not making it to the Championship round of The Chase.”

Just like in 2014, Brad was undone by a rough finish at Martinsville Speedway. This year, a wreck on a late restart left him in too deep of a hole in the standings, and even second- and ninth-place finishes at Texas and Phoenix weren’t enough for him to advance to compete for his second NSCS championship. However, a win in South Florida would not just make those feeling subside—it would also put Brad on track for a rebound in 2016.

If his last performance at a 1.5-mile track, Texas Motor Speedway, is any indicator, he’ll be right there competing for the win. He led 312 laps at Texas but was passed with four laps to go, which kept him out of the championship.

He has been dynamite at Homestead in the XFINITY Series, where he has been 12th or better in his last six starts, including four Top 5s and two wins. His Cup Series resume there hasn’t been as glowing, but it has improved with time. Last year he finished third for his best result there for his career, and the season prior he was sixth.

Undoubtedly, his most memorable trip to Homestead came in 2012, where he ran a conservative race crossed in 15th, which was good enough to clinch his first NSCS championship.

He’ll look to do a burnout again at the mile-and-a-half Miami oval—and he’s off to a good start. He posted the second fastest time on the board in the weekend’s first practice session, trailing only Carl Edwards and leading all four championship contenders.

Qualifying will run at 6:15 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network. He has started in the Top 5 in his last four NSCS starts, and he boasts two Homestead poles in NXS competition. Two more practice sessions follow at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Finally, the NSCS season finale, the Ford EcoBoost 400, will go green at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air on NBC.

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Originally scheduled to run around 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 finally went green under the lights approximately 9:30 p.m. ET. After the seven-hour delay, the race lasted just 219 of its scheduled 312 laps before it was red flagged with Brad running in the ninth position. BK had been climbing up from his 18th-place start, and with a little more time, he believed anything could’ve happened, but it just wasn’t meant to be on Sunday night.

“Who knows maybe this run we would’ve had something, but that’s not the way it played out,” Brad said on NBC Sports Network just before the race was officially called by NASCAR. “It’s raining the hardest it’s rained, so… I know it’s a late night for all the fans at home, appreciate you staying tuned and watching. It’s certainly not the day we wanted, but I’m happy for my friend Dale Jr., it looks like he’s going to get him one.”

The race ended just after its second caution of the night, which came in the middle of a run of green-flag pit stops. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had just cycled to the lead under yellow when the rain began to fall once again. NASCAR officials brought the drivers in off the track, and the skies only opened further, signaling the end of a long day in the desert, and a heartbreaking Eliminator Round for BK and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion team.

The White Lite struggled through practice and qualifying to begin the week. Brad qualified 18th—his worst starting position since July 26 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When the race finally began late Sunday night, Brad and his crew began a slow climb up to the front. They made it to 14th before the competition caution at lap 40.

BK listed a litany of issues with the handling of his car around the low-banked turns of the one-mile Arizona track. After pitting from 14th, he gained one spot when Jimmie Johnson was flagged for speeding, and he restarted in the 13th position. He faltered a bit in the early going of the run, but as the race stayed green, his car grew stronger. He passed Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray, Erik Jones and Kyle Larson to 10th place by lap 100.

“The first five laps

[of a run], I just couldn’t keep pace. But after that, it would come in really well,” Brad explained. “We’d just slowly climb our way forward and could only get so far.”

Joey Logano sparked the round of green-flag pit stops at lap 119, but Brad elected to stay on track until lap 124. He inherited the lead at lap 120 and held it for four laps before pitting for four fresh tires. With the field now scattered after the green-flag stops, Brad fell back to 12th, where he remained until Logano again brought the beginning of the next pit cycle at lap 194.

Brad had moved up to fifth in the running order before the race’s second caution flag flew at lap 196 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Gase got together. The 2 Crew, which continued its exceptional performance throughout the Chase, fitted Brad with four new tires and a fresh round of adjustments, and the cycled out three spots up to ninth.

The cars went back on the track and were nearly ready for the race to go green again, when a light rain began to fall. BK radioed to his spotter Joey Meier, hoping that NASCAR would keep them on the track, but cars were ordered down pit road. Brad initially stayed in his car, while crew chief Paul Wolfe was interviewed on air about his outlook for the remainder of the race.

“We’re slow and steady but I think we’re going to run out of laps. We’re good on the long run but it takes us too long to get going. We’re not as strong as we want to be but we haven’t given up yet,” Wolfe said. “There’s still time left and we’re not giving up yet.”

As it turned out, there wasn’t any time left in Phoenix. The red flag flew at roughly 11:30 p.m. ET after just about two hours of racing, and nine hours after the event’s scheduled start. Shortly after the cars came to pit road, the rain picked up, and NASCAR called it—an odd end to the season for Brad, Logano, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch.

Brad’s 24th Top 10 finish left him 13 points behind fourth-place driver Martin Truex Jr. BK, Logano and Busch all needed a win as the race was running to advance, but the early end nullified what could’ve been an interesting battle between Edwards and Truex Jr. for the final spot in the points. Only five points separated them in the standings, while just one position stood between them on the track.

“I don’t think it matters what’s fair, it matters what entertains the fans,” Brad said of the unorthodox ending to the Eliminator Round. “If the fans are happy then, that’s what it’s all about.”

The Eliminator Round was one of what-if for Brad. He led 455 laps at Martinsville and Texas. A late-race pass ended his shot at victory at Texas, but he still walked away 44 points. He garnered 36 on Sunday night in Phoenix, and at Martinsville, he looked destined for a Top 5 finish—if not a win or a runner-up result, when a wreck on a restart spoiled an otherwise stellar day. This marks the second straight year where an issue at Martinsville sunk Brad in the Round of 8.

POST-PHOENIX CHASE STANDINGS

1. Jeff Gordon – 4,121 (1x Winner)
2. Kevin Harvick – 4,123
3. Kyle Busch – 4,121
4. Martin Truex Jr. – 4,106

— CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND CUTOFF —

5. Carl Edwards – 4,101
6. Brad Keselowski – 4,093 (-13)
7. Kurt Busch – 4,085
8. Joey Logano – 4,054

NEXT UP

Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Truex will be the four vying for a championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway next week.

Brad’s best finish at the 1.5-mile track came last year, when he finished third. He has one other Top 10 finish: sixth place in 2014, and he has started in the Top 5 in each of his last five attempts at Homestead. He also has a great XFINITY Series track record there: two wins and five Top 10 finishes in just eight starts.

NASCAR’s season finale, the Ford EcoBoost 400, will go green shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air on NBC.

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The 22 Crew had a fantastic day and helped push Brad out to the lead twice for a total of seven laps on point, but the No. 22 Ford just couldn’t compete with the dominant No. 54 car driven by Busch—and Brad settled for a second-place finish.

“We needed lot more of everything, but we had a great effort. We had a great day on pit road.  The Discount Tire Ford guys on the pit crew did a great job there. We gained spots, so that was really cool and real fun, but we just needed a lot more speed to run with the 54.  Either way, it was a pretty solid day.”

Brad started the DAV 200 in the fourth position, and it took him just two laps to drive up to second place behind Busch, whose No. 54 sat on the pole and led 190 laps.

Kes reported that the Discount Double Deuce was loose on exit of Phoenix’s low-banked turns in the early going and settled into a tight condition through the center late. Crew chief Greg Irwin made adjustments throughout the afternoon, but the No. 22 couldn’t keep pace with the 54.

The race’s first caution came 17 laps into the day, but Brad stayed out from second place and retained that position for the ensuing run. Another yellow flag flew at lap 59 when Dylan Kwasniewski made hard contact with the wall. This time BK took his machine down pit road, and a stellar stop from the 22 Crew put him off pit road in second, behind only Elliott Sadler, who took just two tires.

With four new shoes on the 22, Brad easily bested Sadler to take the lead for the first time, but it was short-lived. Busch powered past to reclaim the top position, and that is where the race stood until the third and final caution flag came around lap 114. Another tremendous stop from the No. 22 team gave Brad the lead for six yellow-flag laps, but once again, Brad didn’t have anything for Busch on the restart.

The race went green the rest of the way, and BK never had a shot to repeat last year’s events. A year ago, Brad made a marvelous last-lap pass of Busch to steal the win, but it didn’t happen this time, and Busch claimed victory by a three-second margin.

The final result didn’t change anything. With a win last week at Texas Motor Speedway, Brad clinched Roger Penske’s third consecutive XFINITY Series Owners’ Points title. The result did however give Brad his 21st consecutive Top 10 finish in NXS competition. This was his ninth Top 10 finish in nine starts this year and his seventh straight finish of third or better. The last time he failed to finish in the Top 10 was Nov. 9, 2013 at Phoenix.

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BK led 455 laps in the first two races of the Eliminator Round but a wreck and a late-race pass have kept him from locking his spot in the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway next week. He now only controls his own destiny with a win, but still being in control of that destiny and being just two wins away from his second Sprint Cup Series title, Brad feels good.

“It isn’t pressure, it is opportunity,” Brad said. “I am happy to have those opportunities with a great team. As strong as we ran (at Texas), if we carry that over to Homestead, good Lord, watch out. We know we need to win the next two to win the championship. The good news is we have that opportunity. That’s the way I look at it.”

There is a chance that Brad and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion team could advance on points alone in this weekend’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500. They currently sit sixth in the NSCS standings, 19 points behind fourth-place Martin Truex Jr. Only Jeff Gordon is safely on to the next round, but BK will need at least two Chase contenders to wreck or have very poor days to get by without a victory.

BK also can’t expect any favors from fellow Team Penske driver, Joey Logano. Logano won all three races of the Contender Round, but he was wrecked late at Martinsville by Matt Kenseth, and he blew a tire early last week at Texas, putting him in a must-win situation as well. Unlike Brad, there is no mathematical possibility for the No. 22 Penske team to advance on points.

Fortunately, Brad does have a strong track record of his own at PIR. In 12 Cup starts at the one-mile Avondale, Ariz. tri-oval, he has finished in the Top 10 six times, including four Top 5s. His best finish there is third, which came in the 2014 spring race after he started on the pole.

While a win has eluded him in Cup competition, it hasn’t in the XFINITY Series. He has run 16 times in NXS competition, and 10 have resulted in Top 10 finishes, including nine in the Top 5 and a win on this weekend last season. He will run the NXS/NSCS double this week. He won last week in XFINITY competition to capture Roger Penske’s third consecutive owners’ points title. During his last seven double-duty weekends, Brad has recorded an average result of 2.9 in NXS races and 4.6 in Cup races. All 14 starts have produced Top 10 finishes, including his last Cup win at Auto Club Speedway in March.

He was strong at Phoenix earlier this year in the Cup series. He started sixth, finished sixth and led 52 laps, while Kevin Harvick captured the checkered flag. Harvick will almost certainly be the biggest threat to BK’s quest for a victory. The Stewart-Hass Racing driver has won the last four Cup races at Phoenix and has seven wins there in his career.

However, Brad still feels confident about his chances in the desert this weekend. His team tested at the unique track earlier this year, and that knowledge and experience should help his team, which has been running in peak form recently, as it looks to stay alive in the drive for its second cup title.

“The Miller Lite Ford has shown speed lately,” BK said. “We led a lot of laps over the last two races, and I feel as though we’ve had cars that were capable of winning. We tested Phoenix a while back, and I think we found a few things that should serve us this weekend. Our team is performing at a high level right now, our cars are strong, and the pit crew has been executing well. We have an opportunity to advance in the Chase this weekend, and we will do our utmost to capitalize on it.”

The White Lite wasn’t exceptional in opening practice. With a time of 25.661 seconds, Brad was just 17th on the board—but there’s still plenty of time for the 2 Crew to dial it in. Qualifying is set to begin at 6:45 p.m. ET on Friday and will air on NBC Sports Network. A good starting spot and pit box can be very advantageous at PIR. Brad’s string of three Top 6 finishes there have come off of starts of sixth or better.

BK and Co. will have two final practice sessions at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday to finish preparation. Sunday’s main event, the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500, will go green around 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air on NBC.

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BK won last week at Texas Motor Speedway to mathematically lock down the team’s spot on the NXS Owner’s throne for the third straight year, but in this weekend’s DAV 200 he’ll still be out for the team’s third straight win at Phoenix, while defending his own title in this race.

“This race is a chance for us to score another victory for our team and partners,” BK said. “It also gives us an opportunity to build momentum for the rest of the season. We’ll approach this race like we do all of them; we race to win.”

Brad bided his time as numerous challengers came and went last week at Texas, and he passed Austin Dillon in the closing stages to swipe the victory in Fort Worth. That win gave him his 20th consecutive Top 10 finish in NXS competition, dating back to his win in the 2013 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The last time Brad failed to finish in the Top 10 in the XFINITY Series was more than two years ago, on Nov. 9, 2013 at this week’s venue, Phoenix International Raceway. As the streak comes full circle for a second time this weekend, BK will be vying for his 35th career NXS victory. He’s currently fifth on the all-time NXS charts, four wins behind Carl Edwards who holds 38 career XFINITY Series wins.

Brad’s remarkable 20-race Top 10 streak includes a win at Phoenix last year. He passed Kyle Busch, the all-time NXS wins leader, on the last lap to steal the victory and all-but sew up last year’s owners’ title.

He won’t need another such performance to lock up this year’s title, which is already in the bag after last week’s triumph at Texas. Kes has now been a part of three owners titles for his team, and he also won Roger Penske his first NASCAR title of any kind in this saner series, taking the drivers’ crown in 2010.

“I am proud of the effort this Discount Tire team has made all season long to get Roger Penske his fourth XFINITY Series championship,” Brad said. ” I was thinking about it when I came to Team Penske in 2010 we didn’t have any, and now we have four XFINITY championships in five years. That is a huge accomplishment and something in which the team takes great pride.”

This year, the ensemble cast of Brad, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Alex Tagliani have combined to capture title No. 4 for Penske. Brad has contributed two wins and eight finishes of eighth or better this year, and his chances of getting his third victory this weekend are looking good. The 22 has been dynamite at Phoenix over the last few years. In addition to Brad’s win in this race last year, Logano piloted the No. 22 Ford Mustang to Victory Lane at Phoenix in the spring.

To win this Saturday, Brad will have to go through a number of Cup regulars. Busch will pilot the No. 54, Kasey Kahne will be in the No. 88, Kyle Larson will pilot the No. 42, and Dillon will once again be behind the wheel of the No. 33.

The No. 22 will have two practice sessions on Friday to figure out their setup, at 3:30 and 5 p.m. ET. Qualifying will run at 12:45 p.m. ET on Saturday, and the DAV 200 will go green around 4 p.m. ET that afternoon. The entire weekend slate will be televised on NBC Sports Network.

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BK dominated all day, but he was passed by Jimmie Johnson with just four laps to go, forcing him to settle for second place in the AAA Texas 500. The Deuce was the fastest car on track for most of the weekend, but Johnson’s No. 48 team got his Chevy dialed in for the final run, and that was enough to swipe the victory from the clutches of the 2 Crew.

However, as usual Brad is focused on the positives of a tremendous day. He once again had elite speed, and with just two races to go, he knows that the heartbreak at Texas hasn’t altered his position much at all: Two victories will still give him his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

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

BK topped the board in the first practice session of the weekend and followed that up with a tremendous performance in qualifying, where was the fastest in all three sessions as he captured his second pole in the last four races, his third of the season and the 11th for his career. However, practice on Saturday was rained out, and as a result none of the teams had the opportunity to run their cars in race trim.

That lack of practice made an impact almost immediately. Brad easily held off Kevin Harvick at the outset, but the opening run didn’t last long. BK’s teammate Joey Logano—likely as a result of the lack of practice—suffered a blown left-rear tire just 11 laps into the race. Kes elected not to pit, and on the ensuing restart, he yielded the lead to Harvick after a great side-by-side battle. Harvick led until another teammate of Brad’s, Ryan Blaney, hit the wall at lap 26, bringing out caution No. 2.

On this first stop, winning the pole paid off for Brad. He pitted from second place but was off in first from the coveted final pit stall. The 2 Crew was tremendous all day long: the Wurth Ford won every race off pit road in Fort Worth.

Crew chief Paul Wolfe also fitted Brad with an adjustment to fix the loose condition in the Deuce. BK used it to fend off Kyle Busch on the following restart. Two more quick cautions followed when Harvick and Tony Stewart had issues at lap 36 and 52. After the fourth yellow flag brought out by Stewart, Kes again roasted Busch on the restart and set off, lapping numerous cars during this long green-flag run before caution No. 5 at lap 100.

Kes reported that he was a bit tight in the center and a bit loose exiting the turns of the 1.5-mile Texas oval. Wolfe made a wedge adjustment to the No. 2 and Brad again retained the lead before another caution at lap 150. The Deuce wasn’t as dominant on this run, forcing Wolfe to go back on his change, and this alteration stuck, as Brad left Harvick in his wake on the ensuing restart. Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun out at lap 167 to bring out caution No. 7, and this time Brad had to take on Johnson, and he during this exchange, he beat the 48 easily to stay in first place.

One more caution broke up the action at lap 197 before a long stretch of green-flag racing. Brad’s lead was up to four seconds before green-flag stops began at lap 253. Kes was one of the later drivers to stop, and his lead over Harvick was cut down to 0.8 seconds. However, the Deuce won out again. His lead was back up to 4.3 seconds over Martin Truex Jr. before he pitted under green once again at lap 298.

As a result of a blown tire Harvick short-pitted and cycled to the lead at lap 298, however it took just one lap for Brad to use his fresh tires to regain the lead from the No. 4. Shortly thereafter, Kes set the track record for laps led at Texas Motor Speedway. If the race had stayed green, Brad would’ve almost certainly cruised to victory—but alas, it didn’t. Debris brought out the yellow flag at lap 311, resetting the field once again.

“There’s nothing you can do about the debris yellows at the end of the race. They’re going to favor some and hurt others. It wasn’t our day for them to favor us,” BK said. “It obviously wouldn’t have hurt if it had gone green, but that’s not how it played out, so you can’t look back.”

Brad pitted from first and after an adjustment was off in first place. This final restart with 18 laps to go was the diciest of the day for Brad. He and Truex put on a spectacular show, going side-by-side for two thrilling trips around the mile-and-a-half. The two shared contact and Brad drove off to fight for the lead, while Truex finished eighth. When the race finished, Kes immediately went over to talk to Truex to make sure there was no misunderstanding about the hard racing late.

“I didn’t know if I came up into him or if he came down into me,” BK said of Truex. “Either way we got together and it probably didn’t help either of us. I just wanted to tell him I hate that happened and I thought he ran a great race.”

Johnson then took Truex’s place batting Brad, and the two former champions engaged in a tug-o-war for several laps. Brad did all he could to hold off the the six-time champion, but the No. 48 was just too fast on that final run. The pair hit lapped traffic with five laps to go, and one lap later, Johnson completed the pass and stole the win.

“The 48 car had mega turn that last run. I couldn’t keep the turn in and I kept pushing real bad. He just kept turning and turning. I did everything I could to hold him off, but he was way faster that run. The 48 team did a helluva job, they found a lot of speed,” BK explained. “But my team did a helluva job. We led 312 laps. We have a lot to be proud of with the Wurth Ford Fusion. We’ll have a great shot at winning next week as well. We really needed to win this one, but I know I gave it my all, and I can feel good about that.”

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A wreck last week at Martinsville Speedway put Brad at just 4,013 points, trailing fourth place by 24, going into the second race of the Eliminator Round: the AAA Texas 500. The Team Penske driver was in the exact same position last year with the exact same number of points after Martinsville, and even with finishes of third and fourth at Texas and Phoenix, he was left eight points shy of advancing to the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

But while BK is aware of his situation in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, he isn’t worried about this weekend being a “must-win.” He knows that all the 2 Crew can do is work hard and execute on Sunday, and let the chips fall where they may.

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

Following that mantra, Brad will be putting in some extra work on the track this weekend. He’ll be running in the XFINITY Series as well, piloting the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang, a car that has all-but locked up its third consecutive NXS Owner’s Points title for Roger Penske. That race will go green around 3:45 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Every little bit of track time will help Brad in his quest for his second Sprint Cup Series championship. It will also help that Brad and his crew chief are on the same page mentally. Paul Wolfe said after last week’s race, where the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford dominated and led 143 laps before the wreck, that all the 2 Crew can do is focus on what they’ve done well and try to emulate it going forward.

“We’ve got to take the positive out of it, and that’s we had the best car here for sure, definitely, on the long run, and we had a great day on pit road which was a struggle for us earlier in the year,” Wolfe told FOX Sports at Martinsville. “So all those things are positives, and we’re going to build off of that and go to Texas and hopefully put together another car like we had today.”

The 2 Crew has been strong historically at Texas Motor Speedway. Brad finished second in this race in 2012, which sent him on his way to the Cup championship that season. That finish started a string of five Top 10 finishes over his next six starts at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track. He has logged back-to-back Top 5 finishes there: the third-place finish a year ago, and a fifth-place finish earlier this season. Kes has long contended that the 1.5-mile tracks are the key to winning a championship in this Chase, and now he and his team will be put to the test.

“Our program is in a good place right now, though I want to be a little faster on the mile-and-a-halves for sure,” BK said. “Historically, Texas has been good for us, so we know we can find the speed that we need to run up front there and ideally position ourselves to make it to the next round.”

Brad’s Penske teammate, Joey Logano, is in the same position. Logano was the hottest driver in the Chase and rode a three-race win streak into Martinsville. He combined with BK to lead 350 laps at The Paperclip, but he was wrecked by a vindictive Matt Kenseth. The race looked like it could be a 1-2 Penske finish, but now both drivers are backed against a wall.

“I look at Texas as a track where we haven’t been where we want to be with the No. 2 car, but my teammate, Joey Logano, has been really fast,” Kes said. “So we know we have the potential, so we’ve just got to find it, and we’re going to do that by going to work.”

That work paid dividends early on Friday. The Wurth Ford was the fastest car on the track during the first practice session. Kes bested Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Logano and several other contenders with a time of 27.403 seconds. He was the only driver to post an average speed in the 197 MPH range. However, as Brad said on NBC Sports after practice, success really only counts come Sunday.

“We need to win probably two of the next three to win the championship. That’s going to be really tough to do, but I feel like we have the team to do it,” Brad said. ” So far so good. But we were really fast in practice and qualifying trim at Kansas at well, and it didn’t translate to the race. It’s a little too early to tell. The proof is in the pudding when it comes race time.”

Brad won the pole at Kansas, and he’ll look to do the same in qualifying at 6:45 p.m. ET. BK started third at Texas earlier this year. The 2 Crew will have two more practice sessions at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET on Saturday to get the Fusion dialed in for race day.

Brad will sport the Wurth Racing colors in Fort Worth. His last win came under the Wurth banner at Auto Club Speedway this past March. He ran the NXS/NSCS double that weekend as well. The AAA Texas 500 will go green around 2 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air on NBC.

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