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.

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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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On Sunday in the final segment of the Chase’s Challenger round at Dover, Brad felt a different kind of Deja 2.

For the second straight race at the Monster Mile, BK had a victory in his sights, but just like in the spring, when the Deuce ultimately finished second to Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48, Kes was the runner-up at the end of Sunday’s AAA 400 as Jeff Gordon raced to victory at Dover.. Again this weekend, BK had a win in his sights, but just didn’t quite have enough over long runs to best Jeff Gordon for the win at the AAA 400.

The second-place finish wasn’t the win Kes and the No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion team wanted at The Monster Mile, as the Deuce just didn’t have enough to best Gordon’s No. 24 over long green flag runs, but as the next round of the Chase for the Cup begins, it’s all about looking ahead to the next three-race set.

“We’ve had a really good start,” BK said after his runner-up finish in Dover. “I guess we can’t really complain that much having won a race, a second and a seventh, but it’s hard to look at that. All I could think about is how I wanted to win all three races, and now it’s time to move forward.”

Kes finished the Challenger Round as the series leader, with a four-point lead ahead of Penske teammate Joey Logano—but points have now completely reset for the 12-man Contender Round, putting BK back at the same total as Logano, Kevin Harvick, Johnson, Gordon, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne. 

While nothing from the previous three races will carry over, Brad and the 2 Crew will be able to take with them the approach that led to three successful runs in the first round and try to replicate it for the next trio of nerve-wracking races.

“Three more races, a new start and what we were able to do in these last three, other than getting us to this next round, really means nothing,” Kes said. “We’ve got to keep our head on straight and push forward these next three like we have these last three.”

That mindset worked to near perfection through the first three postseason races. Brad posted two top-five qualifying efforts and on each race day he not only led for a sizable chunk, but had a realistic shot at victory in all three events on his way to finishes in first, seventh and second.

His only poor qualifying result came at Chicagoland Speedway, where qualifying was rained out and the field was set based on a poor practice run. He went on to overcome the P25 starting postion and won the race. Then last week, BK took the pole at New Hampshire and finished seventh despite spinning out late in the race. The No. 2 was strong yet again in qualifying this weekend at Dover, where Brad qualified fourth behind Hamlin, Busch and Harvick.

From there, Kes showed his strong short-run speed, which allowed him to claim second from Busch almost immediately. The Deuce trailed Harvick’s No. 4 through the opening green-flag run, but caught up once the leader reached heavy traffic.

However, just before Kes could attempt to pass Harvick, the race’s first caution flag flew. 

Before he came in for his first pit stop of the day, BK reported tight handling through the center of the Monster Mile turns. In response crew chief Paul Wolfe called for a chassis adjustment and four fresh tires, and the 2 Crew had BK right back out in second place. Another caution flag flew shortly after the restart, and on the subsequent green-flag run, Gordon joined the battle between BK and Harvick at the front of the field.

Gordon eventually passed Brad for second, but shortly thereafter, caution No. 3 came out. After getting an air pressure adjustment during his trip down pit road, BK beat Gordon on the restart and reclaimed P2—but the duel between the 2 and the 24 carried on throughout the event. Harvick looked to have the best of both, particularly with clean air at the front of the field, but an issue with his left-front shock allowed Brad to take the lead for the first time at lap 148.

Kes held the top spot for 25 laps until the No. 32 car of J.J. Yeley hit the wall at Lap 171, bringing out another caution. On the subsequent stop, the 2 Crew made another chassis adjustment and had Brad out of the pit box in just 13.5 seconds. But Harvick’s crew, positioned in the final pit stall, got the No. 4 off pit road just ahead of the Deuce, which allowed Harvick to reclaim P1.

Harvick held that lead through a long green-flag run, and Brad came into the pits under green at lap 250, at which point the No. 2 Crew made another track bar adjustment. The Wurth Ford Fusion cycled back to P2 after a 12.8-second trip through the pits. However, after that stop at lap 252, Harvick’s left-front tire blew, giving Kes the lead once again.

After the caution, Brad showed off his outstanding short-run strength, and easily claimed the top spot. He held P1 for 53 laps before the race teetered in Gordon’s direction over the long run. The 24 took the top spot at lap 306 and the race stayed green for the next 94 laps, which left Brad unable to use the Nio. 2’s short-run advantage. Gordon took the checkered flag with Brad 4.352 seconds behind in position No. 2.

“Once the 4 went down, I knew we could compete with the 2. But he made it hard on us there at the end,” Gordon said of Brad. “The 2 was really good on short runs, but we could run him down over the long runs.”

Brad led a total of 78 laps and has now led more than 3,000 laps for his career. Gordon joined Brad and Logano as the only drivers with four wins on the year, but BK remains the only contender with five victories. It was BK’s 16th top-10 finish this season and the 75th for his career. He and Logano, who finished fourth, are tied with a series-leading 13 top fives on the year.

The Deuce finished in the Top 10 in all three of the Challenger Round races and has done so in six of the last seven races, giving the No. 2 crew strong momentum going into Round 2. Unfortunately, momentum is all Brad will be able to carry over into the next round. All 12 remaining drivers are reset at 3,000 points each going into the next three events.

NEXT UP

The Contender Round starts at Kansas Speedway next week, then heads to two NASCAR meccas: Charlotte Motor Speedway and Talladega Speedway to close the round. After the three grueling races, four more drivers will be eliminated from title contention.

As with last round, a win will automatically expedite a driver into the next round.

Brad has won at each of the next three tracks, including two victories at ‘Dega and one at Charlotte in last year’s Chase, but looking ahead, that still gives him little solace. After finishing second at Dover, he broke down what he expects out of the treacherous Contender Round.

According to BK: The always unpredictable restrictor plate race at Talladega is the Wild Card of the three-race slate, Charlotte is the most predictable, and Kansas is a mini-Dega.

“In some ways all the brackets are survival brackets, but that particular bracket is probably more so than the others. At Talladega, it’s going to be a crazy place to finish that bracket out and certainly there will be a lot of guys on the bubble and it’s probably all gonna change on the last lap and the last corner.

But looking at Charlotte and Kansas you can control your destiny more so at Charlotte than any other race track, which is good. We’re putting an emphasis on that race, but then I look at Kansas and say that since that track has been repaved it seems to be very, very sensitive to aerodynamics and getting in a pack and spinning out with a really hard tire, so anything could happen there. It’s almost like a mini-Talladega in that sense, but all in all it’s going to be a real challenge.

If you can survive all three of these brackets and go to Homestead and win this thing, you’ve certainly earned it.”

Round 2 of the Chase will begin Sunday at Kansas, where Brad has one win, two top fives and four top 10s in nine runs. He qualified third there earlier this year on his way to a 13th place finish.

The Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway is set for a 2 p.m. ET start and can be seen on ESPN.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Gordon, Keselowski, Harvick showcase championship form (SB Nation, Sept. 29, 2014)
• Keselowski: First 3 Chase races are history (MotorSportsTalk, Sept. 28, 2014)
• Jeff Gordon wins AAA 400 at Dover (Charlotte Observer, Sept. 28, 2014)
• Gordon wins, Kahne survives at Dover (SportingNews, Sept. 28, 2014)
• Gordon wins at Dover, Kahne gets final Chase slot (USA Today, Sept. 28, 2014)
• Gordon gets Dover win; Four booted from Chase (Racin’ Today, Sept. 28, 2014)
• Gordon makes statement with Sprint Cup win at Dover (KC Star, Sept. 28, 2014)
• Gordon wins Chase elimination race at Dover (Fox Sports, Sept. 28, 2014)

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Kes qualified on the pole at Dover in June but came up just short of victory, finishing second to Jimmie Johnson. After that result, the No. 2 Crew feels like it can challenge for the win again in Sunday’s AAA 400, even while the rest of the Chase contenders race with desparation on their sides.

“We’ve won here before and I feel as though we are more than capable of winning again,” Brad said. “This race is an important one for our competitors and that will make for an interesting race. I am looking forward to it, and it should be a great show for the fans.”

While a full field of 16 championship hopefuls enters the Monster Mile, the group will be cut down to just 12 after Sunday’s event in Dover.

With his win at Chicagoland Speedway, Brad has already earned his spot in the next round, which will feature races at Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega. His teammate Joey Logano did the same with a win at Loudon last week, but 14 other drivers will be battling for the remaining 10 slots in the next round Sunday.

At Dover earlier this year, Johnson’s No. 48 was simply unbeatable and Brad led just one lap after taking the pole. The start was BK’s first time on the pole at at Dover and the second place finish marked his third Top 5 in nine races at the track. But Kes has gotten better at the Monster Mile as he’s gained experience there, and those three Top 5s have all come in his last four races at Dover.

It has been all good at the one-mile concrete oval lately for Kes, outside of last year’s unfortunate finish in the AAA 400. Amid a string of poor 2013 luck, a damaged rear-end housing took him out of contention, resulting in a 37th-place finish.

BK and the No. 2 team are in much better shape than it was this time last season, going into this fall run at Dover. Kes will pilot the red and white Wurth Ford Fusion this weekend as the points leader, the only driver with five wins and one of just two drivers with 12 Top 5 finishes for the year.

“We are in a good place right now,” BK said. “The team is in championship form and our Wurth Ford has good speed. During the race here earlier this year we qualified up front and then came up just a little short of the goal with a second-place finish.”

Rather than being the runner-up again at the Monster Mile, Brad will be looking for a result more like his fall run in 2012. Kes led just 14 laps but took the checkered flag, which sent him to the top of the point standings in the Chase—a major springboard to his 2012 Cup championship.

Kes enters Sunday’s race as one of the hottest drivers on the circuit. He has two wins in the last three races and five Top-10 results in the last six.

Through 28 races, he boasts 11 top-three, 12 top-five and 15 top-10 finishes. Additionally, his Penske teammate Joey Logano is the only other driver with a win in the Chase, after a triumph last week in New Hampshire. The two teammates look like the drivers to beat for the title, but with eight weeks remaining, Brad isn’t about to call himself or his counterpart the favorite.

“We’re so early in this thing and with the resets that there are, the success of one day really means nothing come the last race at Homestead,” Brad said. “With each reset it looks like an NCAA bracket. In that sense to compare it, it would be like if a great NCAA team beat a lower-seeded team it doesn’t really matter when you get to the next round. It’s great. It’s positive momentum and everything you want to do and think you should do, but when it resets it resets and nothing that you’ve done in the past really matters as long as you’re eligible for the bracket. We’re a long, long ways from using the word ‘favorite’ or feeling overly confident.”

While the points standings will reset after Sunday’s race, Brad will be looking to build as much positive momentum as possible going into the next round.

That process began Friday morning with the opening practice session, where BK was second fastest with a time of 21.988 seconds, just fractions behind Kevin Harvick at 21.971 seconds.

The field for the AAA 400 will qualify ON Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and Brad will be vying for his sixth pole of the season and the second of his career at Dover. He has qualified eighth or better at the track in each of his last three tries.

After that, Brad and the No. 2 team will have two more opportunities to tune-up for Sunday’s race with practice runs on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET—the first will air on Fox Sports 1 and the second can be seen on Fox Sports 2. This weekend, Kes is piloting the PRS-921 chassis, which he last drove to a 12th-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July.

Coverage of Sunday’s race begins with NASCAR Countdown at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN and the green flag will wave at 2:15 p.m. ET

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Before we jump into the similarities, what is the biggest difference from 2012 and now? The format of the chase and how to win. Back in 2012, the person with most points won the championship, but in 2014, there are three “rounds” and the highest finisher takes all at Miami Homestead. One thing is for sure, the 2014 Chase will keep you on your feet.

Back in 2012, BK won the opening race at Chicagoland Speedway. Despite starting in 25th position this year, the outcome was the same.

Now for the similarities. In 2012, Brad won a total of five races and so far in 2014, he has matched that and looking for more. But here is where the similarities really show up. In 2012, Brad started the Chase as the top-seed with his three race wins for the first 26 races, while this season, his four race wins had him parked atop the standings heading into the Challenger round.

Back in 2012, BK won the opening race at Chicagoland Speedway. Despite starting in 25th position this year, the outcome was the same – standing in victory lane. With the new format of the Chase, Brad automatically secured him a place in the Contender Round which includes Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega.

In the second race of the Chase, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Brad claimed a top-10 finish in 2012 (6th) as well as a seventh place finish last week. Despite leaving Loudon in 2012 in second place, Brad left NHMS in 1st last week.

Starting in a similar position to 2012 – in the top-10 – Brad has his hopes set high to lift up Miles holding his Wurth die-cast on Sunday at the conclusion of the AAA 400.

Brad races at Dover this weekend, a track he has won at before, including the Fall race in 2012. He started from the pole in the 2014 Spring race and finished second, however, in this race last year, BK finished a disappointing 37th. Looking for his second Monster the Miles trophy and fourth top-5 in the last five races at the track, Brad and the No. 2 Crew are ready for the 1-mile concrete Monster on Sunday, Sept. 28.

I know that the No. 2 Team Penske crew will win their second championship this year, but watching how he does it will be Wurth it!
 

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Chase for the Sprint Cup
Is lonelier than ever
Without Brad’s presence

Fastest on race day
Boosted with Roush Yates power
Going for the win

Checking his Twitter
Talking with his greatest fans
Always with his phone

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At the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, the issue was a damaged rear-end housing that sent BK to the garage near the race’s midway point, resulting in a 37th-place finish.

“We still aren’t exactly sure what happened, but something in the rear end housing went out and it burned up,” Brad explained. “We leaked oil on the track, so we figured we would come in before we ruined everybody else’s day.”

This latest issue was once again disheartening, given the speed the Blue Deuce showed all weekend.

Brad was one of the fastest drivers through the practices at the “Monster Mile.” He posted the No. 6 qualifying time and was faster than any competitor during the final practice Saturday afternoon.

Crew members saw a small warning sign of an issue in the Blue Deuce, though there was nothing that could really be done to prevent further damage.

Twenty-four hours after that blazing practice, the Blue Deuce wasn’t quite the same early in the race, as BK radioed that he was loose entering and exiting the high-banked corners at Dover.

He still maintained his sixth position through a long green-flag run early. After the first caution on lap 37, crew chief Paul Wolfe called for a four-tire stop, which lost the No. 2 a bit of track position behind a number of competitors who took only right-side tires.

As a result, BK restarted from 13th at the lap 43 restart. Despite still being loose around the Dover oval, Brad turned in some of the race’s best lap times as he dueled with Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards on his way to eighth place.

At the race’s 100-lap mark, he was running eighth, just ahead of fellow Ford drivers Edwards and Joey Logano.

BK’s Penske Racing teammate Logano ended up in third, but fate had something different in store for Brad. While running just outside the Top 10 at lap 222, he reported smoke in the driver’s compartment, prompting Wolfe to call him in to the garage.

After the race, Kes commented that the crew members saw a small warning sign of an issue in the Blue Deuce, though there was nothing that could really be done to prevent further damage.

“We definitely weren’t going to finish the race like that,” BK said. “It’s just one of those deals. We had a little bit of warning but not much. The crew guys noticed a lot of oil in the wheel well after pulling the tires off under one of the pit stops.”

After his team fixed the issue in the garage, BK went back onto the track at lap 266. However, after losing so many laps, there was little he could do to gain back his positioning.

With the frustrating 37th-place finish, Brad picked up just seven points and fell to 15th in the Sprint Cup standings behind Jamie McMurray.

With just seven races remaining in the season, BK is hoping that he and his team can exorcise all of their bad luck and prepare for another championship run in 2014.

“It was unfortunate because we had a pretty good Miller Lite Ford Fusion,” Brad said. “It’s better to go ahead and get all the bad luck out of the way now since we aren’t in the Chase. Look out next year.”

NEXT UP

The NSCS will head to Kansas this week for the Hollywood Casino 400.

BK will head to Kansas after two straight Top 10 finishes at the track. He finished sixth at Kansas Speedway earlier in the season and came in eighth in this Chase race last season.

Brad also had great NSCS success at Kansas in 2011, when he finished third in the Chase event and won the spring race at the Midwestern track.

He will look to duplicate that success when the Hollywood Casino 400 goes green at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday.

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