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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MENCS PLAYOFFS STANDINGS

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

–CHAMPIONSHIP CUTLINE–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The No. 2 Team Penske crew just didn’t have it in their hometown, finishing 15th in the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. As a result, Kes dropped from fourth to 10th in the Monster Energy Cup Series standings going into next weekend’s trip to Talladega Superspeedway.

“It wasn’t the day we wanted for the Team Penske/Alliance Truck Parts Ford, so we’ve got two races left to go and we need to have two strong races,” Brad said. “I was probably more frustrated with not being as fast as we wanted to be.  That makes the day a lot longer, but a little bit of heat, that’s what this sport is about.”

The Black and Yellow Deuce had some speed off the hauler for just his third start of sixth or better in the last seven races. However, a spin in practice to start the weekend foreshadowed the handling issues that plagued BK throughout race day. When the green flag dropped on Sunday, Brad couldn’t hold his starting position as he fought a machine that lacked stability entering and exiting the corners of the 1.5-mile North Carolina racetrack.

A rough restart on lap 36 saw Brad slide out of the Top 20. He did all he could to pick his way back to the front but made it to just 14th, just outside of the points at the conclusion of Stage 1. A nice pit stop by the 2 Crew sent BK off into Stage 2 from the 12th position. But 90 laps later, he found himself just outside of the points again, in 13th position when the second stage came to a close.

Paul Wolfe and Co. made rounds of air pressure and wedge adjustments while Brad altered the track bar from the cockpit. The No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts machine found a little life late in the race as Brad cracked the Top 10 after a green-flag pit cycle around lap 225.

But the stint in the Top 10 didn’t last. As Brad continued to fight an ill-handling Ford, he slid back out of the Top 10 to 15th place when the checkered flag flew, the second-lowest finish of all remaining playoff contenders.

BK earned 22 points from his finish but couldn’t collect any additional points throughout the day. He sits 10th in the MENCS standings, though he’s just two points off of this round’s eighth-place cutline.

The Monster Energy Cup Series now heads to Talladega Superspeedway, where Brad boasts four wins, more than any other track. Kes finished seventh at Talladega earlier this season. Of his four Dega wins, one came in this fall event—and it came in 2014 as one of the biggest wins of his career. That clutch victory sent him to the next round of the playoffs, a feat he’ll look to replicate Sunday (Oct. 15) at 2 p.m. ET.

MENCS PLAYOFFS STANDINGS

1. Martin Truex Jr. – 3106*
2. Kyle Larson – 3072
3. Kevin Harvick – 3069
4. Chase Elliott – 3
5. Denny Hamlin – 3056
6. Kyle Busch – 3055
7. Jimmie Johnson – 3051
8. Jamie McMurray – 3044

— ROUND OF 8 CUTLINE —

9. Matt Kenseth – 3043
10. Brad Keselowski – 3042
11. Ryan Blaney – 3039
12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – 3034

* – Clinched Round of 8 Berth

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Featuring two mile-and-a-half tracks sandwiched around a trip to the treacherous Talladega Superspeedway, the Round of 12 is sure to increase the playoff intensity. The first 1.5-mile track comes this weekend in Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Bank of America 500. While BK enters the Round of 12 in fourth place, he’s not taking lightly the challenge that lies ahead.

“I see those two mile-and-a-halves (Charlotte and Kansas) which is mostly about the aerodynamics, and that’s important to get all that right,” Brad said. “And then Talladega which is just…”

Brad boasts four career wins at Talladega, more than any other track, but he’s well aware that he can’t take the challenge lightly. The Team Penske driver believes that the restrictor-plate track’s unpredictable nature will be magnified in the current stage format.

“I felt like before the stages it was a little easier to control your destiny there. You could run up front and kind of stay away from it all,” BK said. “Then with the stages, you could run up front, somebody would short pit and cycle you to the back. … That just mixes up the field; it means there’s no safe place to be.”

With that in mind, up-front finishes and strong points days will be highly coveted this weekend at Charlotte as drivers look to pad their points going into Dega. BK knows that he and crew chief Paul Wolfe will have to be on their game, as the race for stage points will be fierce.

“Those stages are (crucial), as they were meant to be. They were meant to put an emphasis on running up front early in a race and not just riding around and cruising,” Brad said. “You can run fifth and not score any stage points and you’re not going to score the fifth-most points on the day, you’re going to score about the 10th-most points.”

Fortunately, BK has mustered up some magic in this playoff race at Charlotte before. Amid a 2012 Championship hangover in the 2013 season, Brad raced his way to his first career win at the 1.5-mile Carolina track—his only win of that down campaign.

He also has three XFINITY Series wins to his name at Charlotte, two of which came in the fall. He has a history of CMS consistency at NASCAR’s second level, finishing in the Top 10 in 14 of his 18 starts.

Brad was on a string of four straight Top 10 finishes at the Monster Energy Cup Series level before this season’s earlier trip to Charlotte. Kes hit an oil slick and smashed into a spinning Chase Elliott, ending his Coca-Cola 600 run just 19 laps in.

“We had a really fast Miller Lite Ford and I think we had a shot at winning tonight, but that’s how it goes,” Brad said after the wreck.

The Alliance 2 Crew will look to replicate that speed this weekend. First practice is set of 1:30 p.m. ET on Friday, followed by qualifying under the lights at 7:20 p.m. The final two practice sessions are set for 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The Bank of America 500 is scheduled for a 2 p.m. ET start on Sunday and will air on NBC.

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The Black and Yellow Deuce didn’t have elite burst, but Paul Wolfe and Co. were flawless in the pits while BK executed on the track, and together, they strategized their way to a fifth-place finish in the Overton’s 400, allowing the 2 Crew to once again crack the Top 5 in the MENCS standings.

“A strategy day for sure,” BK said, reflecting on the race. “Our Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion was okay, decent speed. I thought we had the best strategy out there, we just needed a little bit more speed.”

The Sunday morning qualifying session sent Brad off from 11th position when the Overton’s 400 went green and it didn’t take long from there for strategy to come into play. The 2 Crew has found its share of success in the past on The Tricky Triangle, a unique 2.5-mile triangular track, by strategizing in ways to put them off sequence with opponents and Wolfe made it clear that would be the plan from the start. The 2 crew chief called Brad in for a green-flag stop at lap 15 to get the Deuce moving in the right direction.

As a result of the call, Brad cycled out near the front of the field and finished Stage 1 in the fourth position, earning seven points. Brain power nearly earned the No. 2 Ford team a Stage win thanks to a fuel-only pit call by Wolfe after an early caution in Stage 2. However, an untimely yellow flag late in the stage forced BK and Co. to settle for second-place at the end of the stage, and a cool nine points.

The beginning of the third stage saw the Alliance Truck Parts machine show its best short-run speed of the day. After restarting 11th, Brad used four fresh tires and a full tank of fuel to power his way back into the Top 5 in just one lap.

The green flag remained out for the entire third stage, just when Brad and Co. were hoping for one final stroke of strategic luck. Kes stayed out as long as possible before making his final pit stop under green, but that crucial caution never came. Fortunately, Brad fought his way back into the Top 5 by the time the checkered flag flew.

Kes recorded his third straight Top 10 finish and his 11th Top 5 finish this year, putting him on pace for a career-best number of finishes in the lead quintet. He leads all Cup Series drivers with 11 Top 5s and 14 Top 10s on the season. He also has now logged five consecutive Top 5 finishes at Pocono Raceway.

Brad spoke after the race about the strength of the Toyotas relative to Fords, admitting that he and his team have work to do with just six races remaining until the playoffs. Kyle Busch picked up his first win of the season as one of six Toyota drivers in the top nine finishers. Three Ford drivers—Kevin Harvick (P2), Brad (P5) and Clint Bowyer (P6)—were the only ones to break up the Toyota party up front.

As the engineers look to make up ground in the shop, Brad will continue to fight for playoff points. He’s currently in a three-way tie for third with Busch and Kyle Larson with 13 playoff points.

Additionally, positions in the final Cup standings will pay off in a big way. The 2 Crew had a great day in that regard, earning 48 points—second only to Busch’s 50—to vault to fifth, which would equate to six playoff points if the season ended today.

However, there are still six more chances for BK and Co. to gain ground and points going into the postseason. The next challenge is the second and final road course on the Cup Series schedule, Watkins Glen International. Brad has made a name as one of the Cup Series’ drivers on the upstate New York road course. He boasts five finishes of seventh or better in seven starts at WGI. He’s also fresh off a third-place finish earlier this season at the series’s other road course, Sonoma Raceway—his best finish ever at the track.

The I LOVE NEW YORK 355 at The Glen is set for a 3 p.m. ET start, Sunday, Aug. 6 on NBC Sports Network.

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And just days after signing a contract extension to stay at home with Team Penske, there couldn’t be a better time for BK to convert that runner-up magic into a win on the 2.5-mile Tricky Triangle.

“There are some things you control and a lot that you can’t,” he said. “That said, our approach for the weekend is always shifting and adjusting based on how the rules package flows and how our own team developments flow, and Pocono always seems to line up where the first Pocono we are a lot less competitive than the second Pocono for whatever reason.”

Pocono’s second run of the season is one of the most demanding races, of man and machine, on the Cup schedule. The 400-mile venture on the unique triangular track—which can be described as a combination between a road course and a superspeedway—will strain the motor, breaks and transmission, as well as a driver’s mettle.

“I tend to find things that I like about all the tracks that we race on, as that is the optimal way to approach the weekend,” Brad says. “The variation in corner speed, the length of the long straight and the configuration of the corners are unlike any other circuit. The track is also uniquely situated geographically as most race tracks on the Cup circuit are relatively close to a large city. Having won there in 2011 makes it standout in my mind as well as that was a big win for us without a doubt.”

His victory six years ago in the mountains of Pennsylvania was a triumph on a few levels. It was the Deuce driver’s second regular-season win, one that all but locked him in his first Playoff. Additionally, it was the first race the Michigan native won on pure speed. In conversation with longtime spotter Joey Meier, Brad noted that his first win came at the crapshoot Talladega Superspeedway, and his second was a fuel mileage win in Kansas. But the most memorable part of all was how he won just four days after fracturing his ankle in a testing crash.

In full health now, Kes will look to repeat that performance. In recent Pennsylvanian runs, the No. 2 has scored all but a victory. With the last four results being a second, third, second and sixth, Paul Wolfe & Co. are more than capable of squeaking out a win on pure speed or strategy.

In this event last year, Brad left the Pocono Mountains with another second-place finish. Brad had perhaps the fastest car on the track, but the race was ended prematurely as a thick fog loomed over the superspeedway—allowing Chris Buescher to grab his first career MENCS victory. The last time the series visited Pocono in June, BK made it to Victory Lane, but to interview and congratulate his future teammate Ryan Blaney, who was announced this week as a third-car addition to the Penske outfit starting in 2018. Kes finished sixth himself in Blaney’s victory, showing what kind of power his Roush Yates motors brought to this demanding race track.

And always in need of another win to add Playoff points before the postseason begins, Kes will go for it when the Overton’s 400 goes green on Sunday July 30. The race airs live on NBC Sports Network at 3 p.m. ET.

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BK qualified the Alliance Truck Parts Ford in fourth position for the penultimate race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup’s Round of 8, and the 2 Crew was looking forward to an opportunity to add its fifth win of the season to their 2016 résumé. But a rain shower rolled through Fort Worth just before the start of Sunday’s race, delaying the green flag for roughly six hours.

Under the lights, the setup of the Deuce just wasn’t there, and it was all Brad could do to finish 14th.

“We were anticipating a really strong day with the No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford today, so we are definitely frustrated to finish 14th,” Brad said. “Not sure where we missed the setup but I just couldn’t get the car to do what I needed it to.”

The rain, and subsequent six-hour delay, changed track conditions dramatically, as rubber was washed off the surface, and the asphalt cooled when the afternoon race turned to a run under the lights. Once the race finally went green, BK struggled just to keep the handle of his Ford.

With the No. 2 tight through the center and loose exiting the corners of the 1.5-mile Texas track, Kes held on in the Top 5 early before he started to slide back. He maintained a position in the Top 10 throughout the first half of the race as the 2 Crew made every adjustment they could think of to try to bring the black and yellow Deuce back to life.

However, no matter what Paul Wolfe’s group tried, their car just wouldn’t agree with the track Sunday night. BK slid as far back as 15th over the course of the evening. He gained one spot back before rain again fell on Fort Worth, ending the event after 293 of 334 laps.

“Paul and the guys threw a lot of changes at it but nothing had much of an effect,” Brad said. “Everyone worked their tails off this weekend and I appreciate that. We’ll head to Phoenix next to try to get another win before the end of the season.”

NEXT UP

The Sprint Cup Series heads to Phoenix International Raceway for a Chase elimination race—the final event before the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Brad finished 29th at Phoenix earlier this year but showed strength in the tough result. He was running in the Top 10 all afternoon before a cut tire ended his shot at a solid day.

The No. 2 team will look to improve upon that result in the Can-Am 500, 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 13 on NBC.

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