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.

The post 2 CREW EARNS HARD-FOUGHT P9 FINISH IN CHARLOTTE appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

Brad spent most of the Drive for the Cure 300 in the Top 10 but could hardly sniff the Top 5 until the final stages of the afternoon. After laying in wait, BK pounced with just 50 laps to go and grabbed a third-place finish, stretching the Double Deuce’s lead to 82 points in the XFINITY Series Owner’s Points standings.

“We probably had a top-five car at best tonight, but the Discount Tire crew executed well and did not give up,” Brad said afterward. “We did a good job to make the most of what we had, caught a break and made strong late-race restarts. It was a championship effort and a big points night for the team.”

Roger Penske held a 61-point lead over the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 car going into the race, and it looked like that lead might diminish. Kyle Busch kept the No. 54 Toyota out in front for 102 laps, but he encountered some trouble late. Busch and another Cup Series regular, Kasey Kahne, were entangled with roughly 50 laps to go, and Busch finished 31st. The No. 60 Jack Roush-owned Ford, driven by driver points leader Chris Buescher, moved into second place in the owner points race.

BK qualified just 13th at the 1.5-mile quad oval, his worst NXS time-trial run since he started 14th in the season opener at Daytona.

He moved into the Top 10 in just eight laps as he radioed to crew chief Greg Erwin that the Discount Tire Double Deuce was loose entering Turn 1 but tight through the center of Charlotte’s turns. Erwin made several chassis adjustments throughout the evening to help dial in the Team Penske machine.

The night’s first run ended with a yellow flag for debris at lap 50, and by then, Brad had the No. 22 up to seventh place. The No. 22 Crew came through with a nice four-tire stop, putting him back out in fifth place for the lap 54 restart.

Passing was difficult at Charlotte, and the No. 22 lacked elite speed, causing Brad to fall back to seventh on the ensuing run. Green-flag pit stops began early around lap 99, when the race leaders, Busch and Erik Jones, each short-pitted after their crews failed to pack their machines full of fuel on the previous stops.

Brad cycled back out to seventh place after pitting at lap 100, and he reported on the following run that the car was bouncing terribly, and that the previous changes hadn’t helped the No. 22’s handling. The race’s second caution came at lap 142, and it allowed for the crew to make some more adjustments, which helped BK make his final push.

BK restarted seventh with 54 laps to go. On this restart, Kes jumped down to the inside line and swiped fifth place from Daniel Suarez. On this restart, trouble also struck for Busch. He slid back initially, and soon thereafter shared contact with Kahne. The battle sent both drivers into the wall, and Brad rocketed past his two Cup rivals into third place in time for the third caution at lap 151.

The post BK’S P3 FINISH GIVES NXS TEAM 82-POINT LEAD appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

The Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte will mark BK’s first XFINITY Series start since Aug. 8. when he piloted the No. 22 Ford Mustang to a runner-up finish at Watkins Glen International, finishing behind only his teammate Joey Logano.

The Team Penske squad has remained hot since, finishing sixth or better in all but two races over the last two months. That leaves Kes confident as he hops back into the Discount Double Deuce this Friday.

“I’m optimistic about this race,” Brad said. “The Discount Tire team is a front running team and I feel as though we contend for wins every time I am in the Ford Mustang. It ought to be a great race for the fans and it’s nice for the crews to be able to have their families come to the race too.”

The goal as always for the No. 22 team is to win races and gather owner points, and that quest has been going exceptionally well this season. Car owner Roger Penske is well on his way to his third straight XFINITY Series owner’s points title, with the No. 22 team holding a comfortable lead over the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 team. Brad rides a 61-point cushion at the Drive for the Cure 300.

That lead has been built by the contributions of an excellent stable of drivers. After Brad took second at Watkins-Glen, Alex Tagliani followed with an identical finish on the road course at Mid-Ohio. Ryan Blaney hit a road bump the following week, finishing 22nd, but he bounced back with another second-place result at Road America. Joey Logano followed that up with a sixth-place result at Darlington Raceway, and Blaney has held the reigns since then. The 21-year-old finished 35th at Chicagoland Speedway, followed by a win at Kentucky Speedway and a fourth-place finish last week at Dover.

Brad has also played a big part in the strong 2015 season for his team with Top 8 finishes in all six of his XFINITY Series races, including a win of his own at Kentucky. He’s also logged a pair of runner-up finishes, a third, a fifth and his worst XFINITY finish of the season was eighth at California. Dating back to the final race of 2013, he boasts 18 consecutive Top 10 finishes in XFINITY Series competition.

BK also has an outstanding track record at Charlotte. In 15 NXS starts at CMS, he has 11 finishes in the Top 10 and six in the Top 5, including three wins. His first win there came in 2010 during his NXS championship run. His second came in 2012, and he won this event just last season.

Charlotte has brought some ups and downs for Brad in the Sprint Cup Series.

In 12 starts, he has just four Top 10s and two Top 5s. Kes did, however, post one of the most memorable wins of his career at Charlotte in 2013—his only win of a rough season. He finished seventh in Cup competition there earlier this year.

The NXS event will provide some valuable experience for Brad as he continues his Chase for the Sprint Cup this weekend as well. The 1.5-mile quad oval is a key surface for championship hopefuls. Last week, Kes finished 16th at Dover International Speedway to just narrowly advance to the Contender Round of the Chase, and a solid finish at Charlotte will be key to moving on to the Eliminator Round.

Coincidentally, Brad will start Friday night’s XFINITY Series race from the same P13 spot that he’s locked into for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race. The Double Deuce was faster than that in both of Thursday’s practices, running sixth each time, but couldn’t quite duplicate that speed in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session and fell just short of making the final round. But the No. 22 team is confident they can race to the front from there and continue what has been a stellar season, at Charlotte.

The Drive for the Cure 300 is set to go green shortly after 8 p.m. ET on Friday night and NBC Sports Network will have the broadcast.

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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.

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At No. 6 are a series of events where the pressure created by the new Chase format boiled over with BK in the middle of the drama in Charlotte and Texas.

No. 6: Chase Drama

After several seasons under a 10-race playoff format that had 12 qualified drivers accumulate points throughout with the highest total declared the winner, NASCAR decided to overhaul the Sprint Cup Series postseason format prior to the 2014 season.

The new 10-race playoff featured 16 drivers and four rounds. Each of the first three rounds of the playoffs featured a three-race stretch after which four drivers were eliminated and the points reset. The new format culminated in a one-race finale with four remaining teams vying for the coveted Sprint Cup.

The new Chase for the Sprint Cup brought plenty of drama to the postseason in NASCAR’s top series, just as NASCAR intended.

The new format made it so that a poor finish in any of the three races in each round could be enough to sink a driver—but it also provided the drivers with a way out. A win in any of the three races would punch their ticket to the next round—so drivers raced fervently for victories each and every weekend.

As the postseason rolled along, more drivers were eliminated and the drama only swelled, both on and off the track—and Brad Keselowski found himself getting under the skin of several competitors, resulting in two post-fight fracases.

CLASH IN CHARLOTTE

Before the new Chase format debuted, Brad predicted that Round 2—the Contender Round featuring races in Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega—would be the most treacherous of the three-round fight to the finish.

“The contender bracket, that one scares the (expletive) out of me. Kansas and Talladega are just two tracks where they have been wreck-fests,” Brad said before the postseason began. “The only way you can really feel comfortable with that bracket is if you go to Charlotte and win the race. I think that bracket will break some hearts and that is the most concerning thing to us.”

The Contender bracket was off to a rough start for Brad after a blown tire at Kansas Speedway ruined a promising day and dropped him to the cellar of the points standings.

With a restrictor plate race at Talladega Superspeedway—essentially NASCAR’s version of a crapshoot—looming in the final race of the round, Kes approached Charlotte as a must-win situation, and he wasn’t the only driver with that outlook.

Brad started in position No. 17 for the Bank of America 500, making it an uphill battle from the beginning.

The No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts team made tweaks throughout the night and had the Light Blue Deuce in position to fight for the win.

But beginning with a restart at lap 272, things got intense over the final stretch of the race.

Brad was running alongside Denny Hamlin at the front of the pack, and was clipped in the right rear by Matt Kenseth, who was attempting to make a pass on the high side. After the contact, Kes fell back in the field and Kenseth fell off the lead lap.

Not long after, and just ahead of a green-white-checkered finish, Kenseth took exception to the earlier contact and bumped the nose of Brad’s No. 2 while the race was still under yellow. The contact caused Brad to fall back to a P16 finish, and it also played a role in him making contact with Denny Hamlin. Kenseth finished in P19 and Hamlin finished ninth, as all three took a hit in the Chase standings.

“Through the whole sequence of events – I think the 20 car got in back of me on one of the restarts (at lap 271)– it was just a racing deal and I wasn’t mad at him,” Brad said, explaining his side of a wild night race at Charlotte. “But when the last yellow (flag) came out he got the wave around and when he came by he swung at my car and tore the whole right front off of it. When we restarted fifth with no right front on it, we fell all the way back to 16th and it ruined our day. That gave us a big Chase hurt, which is unfortunate.”

After the race, the stress of the Chase was on full display.

During the cool-down lap, Hamlin showed his displeasure and brake-checked BK. Kes responded by bumping the left-rear of Hamlin’s No. 11.

“I don’t know what that was all about and he swung and hit at my car. So I figured if we were gonna play car wars under yellow and after the race, I’ll join too,” Brad said immediately after the events unfolded. “Those guys can dish it out, but they can’t take it and I gave it back to them. And now they want to fight. I don’t know what’s up with that.”

Next, as the field drove down pit road and back to the garage, Brad traded paint with Kenseth, and the two ran into the rear of Tony Stewart, who retaliated by reversing and slamming into the nose of the No. 2.

BK then drove through the garage, where he was met by Hamlin, both drivers still in their vehicles. As Kes tried to drive away from Hamlin and back to his hauler, he briefly spun his wheels, leaving burnout marks in the garage.

Shortly after, Hamlin exited his car and attempted to confront Brad, but he was held back by his crew members. Kes walked away from the situation and back to his hauler.

As he walked down the alley between his and teammate Joey Logano’s hauler, he was confronted by Kenseth. The two wrestled for a few seconds before No. 2 crew chief Paul Wolfe pulled Kenseth away. Pushing and shoving between crew members of the No. 2 and No. 20 teams ensued for nearly a minute before the fight dissipated.

The incident was a signal that the Chase was truly on.

LONE STAR SHOWDOWN

Brad went on to pull of a miraculous win at Talladega and advance to the Eliminator Round, where the drama only increased. With eight drivers remaining, each felt that their shot at a title was so close, but still so far away—and that each spot in each race mattered that much more.

Just like in the Contender Round, Brad’s start to the Eliminator Round was marked by bad luck. A broken part at Martinsville Speedway ended BK’s hopes for a solid finish and ensured that the 2012 Champion’s quest for a title would be anything but mundane.

The following week at Texas, one of the wildest moments in NASCAR history took place.

On the first of two green-white-checkered finishes, Brad restarted behind in Row 2 behind Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports teammates. During the reset, Gordon slid up the track, opening a window for Kes to drive through and attempt to take the lead.

Gordon quickly realized his mistake and tried to close the door on Brad, but instead he rubbed his right-rear tire against the No. 2. Seconds later, Gordon’s tire went down, pulling the trigger on another GWC restart, and ultimately resulting in Gordon’s P29 finish.

Brad went on to finish third, and immediately after the race, Gordon drove over to the 2 Crew’s pit stall and confronted Kes.

The two shared some words, and the argument appeared to be dissipating as Brad walked away from the No. 24 driver—until Kevin Harvick came into the picture.

The No. 4 driver and eventual Cup champion pushed Brad back toward Gordon, allowing the No. 24 driver to grab the collar of BK’s fire suit. When this happened, a brawl ensued.

Several crew members from Brad’s team, Gordon’s team and Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 team, were in the middle of the melee, along with reporters, NASCAR officials, photographers and others. Both BK and Gordon came way with facial lacerations and bruising.

The incident was the talk of the sport from then on out and all the way through the postseason banquet. But Brad, though embarrassed by the post-race fight, always was adamant that what he did on the track was the correct move with the championship on the line.

“The opportunity was there for the other individuals to get out of it scot-free and they didn’t capitalize on it. I hated it ruined their day, but I don’t feel bad or feel the need to apologize for laying it all out there and trying to win a race,” Brad said after the season. “A baby seal doesn’t want to get eaten by a whale, but a whale’s got to eat, you know? And then when he (gets eaten), should he be mad at the whale, or should he be mad he wasn’t the fastest swimmer?”

Brad certainly never took to the track looking for a fight, and he was never proud that he and his crew were involved in such extra curricular activities.

But there is no doubting that, no matter how ugly they might have been, the incidents in the Chase involving BK were some of the most exciting and attention-drawing moments, not only of this season, but in the recent history of the sport.

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Despite starting in 17th position in the Bank of America 500, Brad Keselowski worked his way to the lead on three separate occasions. But by the time the dust had settled at Charlotte Motor Speedway, BK was only able to bring home a heavily damaged No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion with a 16th place finish.

“First off, the Detroit Genuine Parts Ford was good today,” Brad said following the race. “I thought we were gonna have a fourth- or fifth-place run and just didn’t catch a break in so many different ways, but I’m really proud of everyone at Team Penske.”

It was an uphill battle from the start for Brad, as he and the No. 2 team used every second of track time they could during the week to find a winning package at the 1.5-mile quad oval.

A blown tire last week at Kansas Speedway—coupled with an unpredictable racetrack in Talladega Superspeedway looming next week before the Chase makes its cut for the Eliminator Round—made a win at Charlotte, or at least a top-five finish, almost a necessity.

However, the 2 Crew found themselves 31st after the first practice and just 17th in qualifying—just their second start outside of the Top 10 in the last 13 races. But the work began to pay off on Friday, as the Deuce recorded the seventh- and fifth-fastest times in the final two practice sessions.

Early in the race, Brad’s position remained relatively static as he reported loose handling and a lack of rear grip in the DGP Ford Fusion. A NASCAR-mandated competition caution at lap 25 allowed the No. 2 Crew its first opportunity for tweaks, and the chassis and air pressure adjustments made on that first stop paid dividends immediately.

BK restarted 15th at lap 30, but jumped into the top 10 just seven laps later. At the end of this green-flag run, Brad claimed the lead—for the ninth consecutive race—and earned a bonus point before making his second stop.

The No. 2 team made some more adjustments during that trip down pit road and afterward, the Light Blue Deuce began to take off.

With a stronger car, Kes became the aggressor and at lap 110, he bolted ahead of Kurt Busch, putting him into the Top 5 for the first time in the race. Just 10 laps later, he had cracked the top three. He even moved into the lead for the second time at Lap 189 and held it for two laps.

However, as track conditions changed and night fell on Charlotte Motor Speedway over the course of the 334-lap event, the DGP Ford became progressively looser, a condition that haunted Brad late in the race. As the trend continued, BK lost the lead again and dropped back to 10th place by lap 200.

Kes had faded to 12th at lap 240 just before a wreck involving his Penske teammate Joey Logano and Danica Patrick. While Logano regained control of his car, Patrick couldn’t and she made contact with Ryan Newman.

This set up a key strategy call for crew chief Paul Wolfe when the next caution flag flew at lap 266. But while the other leaders pitted, the No. 2 Crew elected to have BK, who was running in fourth, stay out and assume the lead. He held that advantage through the caution period from Lap 268 to 271, but upon the ensuing restart, the trouble that carried on well after the race was over began.

While he battled for the lead with Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 on that Lap 272 restart, Brad was clipped in the right-rear by Matt Kenseth, who was attempting to make a pass on the high side. Though it didn’t take either driver out of the race, the contact set in motion a hectic finish on and off the track.

After the contact, Brad lost the lead to Hamlin, and ultimately, both the No. 2 and Kenseth’s No. 20 fell off the lead lap. BK fell back due to the damage and his old tires and made his final pit stop off sequence under green with 37 laps to go. When the rest of the field cycled through green-flag stops, BK cycled back to the fringe of the Top 5. Though running on old tires as the race came to its conclusion, Brad fought hard to stay up front before the final yellow flag came out with seven laps left.

At that point, he appeared primed for a strong finish that would put him in better position going into the Contender Round’s final race at Talladega.

However, while the race was still under yellow ahead of a green-white-checkered finish, Kenseth made contact with the nose of the No. 2 while taking his wave around to the lead lap. The contact caused further damage to the Deuce going into the final restart and ultimately may have both cost BK a Top 5 finish and caused his late race issue with Hamlin.

“Through the whole sequence of events – I think the 20 car got in back of me on one of the restarts (at lap 271)– it was just a racing deal and I wasn’t mad at him,” Brad said, explaining his side of a wild night race at Charlotte. “But when the last yellow (flag) came out he got the wave around and when he came by he swung at my car and tore the whole right front off of it. When we restarted fifth with no right front on it, we fell all the way back to 16th and it ruined our day. That gave us a big Chase hurt, which is unfortunate.”

On this final green-white-checkered restart, BK was racing for every position he could muster, while dealing with a loose-handling Deuce thanks to the move by Kensrth under yellow. While attempting to maintain his position on the track and salavage a Top 10 finish, BK made slight contact with Hamlin, which caused both drivers to fall back even further. Eventually Hamlin’s No. 11 crossed in ninth and Kes finished 16th.

The middle-of-the-pack finish came just one day after Brad took first in the Nationwide Series BCBS Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte. Brad edged two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers—Kyle Busch and Kenseth—for the win that moved him into the Top 5 on the all-time Nationwide Series wins list.

However, he couldn’t parlay that momentum into Saturday night and earned just 29 points to bring his total to 3038. he heads to Talladega next Sunday 18 points behind ninth-place Kenseth and 19 points out of the eighth and final in the Eliminator round, currently held by Kasey Kahne.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

After the race, during the cool-down lap, Hamlin expressed displeasure with the contact his No. 11 took from the No. 2 on the final restart and break-checked Brad.

Kes responded by bumping the left-rear of Hamlin.

“I don’t know what that was all about and he swung and hit at my car. So I figured if we were gonna play car wars under yellow and after the race, I’ll join too,” Brad said immediately after the events unfolded. “Those guys can dish it out, but they can’t take it and I gave it back to them. And now they want to fight. I don’t know what’s up with that.”

Then, as the field headed down pit road, BK found Kenseth looking to send a message that he wasn’t happy with the No. 20 hitting him under yellow before the last restart. Kes rubbed alongside the No. 20 Toyota and, in the process, the two bumped into the back of Tony Stewart.

In retaliation, Stewart gassed his car in reverse and caused heavy damage to the hood of Brad’s No. 2, also causing Brad to back into Patrick.

BK then drove to the garage, where he was met by Hamlin, both drivers still in their vehicles. As Kes tried to drive away from Hamlin to his own hauler, he briefly spun his wheels, leaving burnout marks in the garage.

Shortly after, Hamlin got out of his car and attempted to confront Brad, but was held back by his crew members while BK walked back to his own hauler.

He then walked down the alley between his and Logano’s hauler, where he was confronted from behind by Kenseth. Kenseth wrestled with Brad for a few seconds before No. 2 crew chief Paul Wolfe pulled Kenseth away. As the two drivers were separated, crew members from both sides jumped into the fracas, which lasted nearly a minute before dissipating.

The ordeal, from the frustrating finish to the altercations after, was a frustrating affair for the 2012 champion. The next day, he took to Twitter to explain his thoughts and feelings following the events in Charlotte.

NEXT UP

Brad now faces what is essentially a win-or-go-home situation as the series heads to Talladega for the final leg of the Contender Round.

The unpredictable nature of the restrictor-plate race at Talledega leaves very little room for error and a victory as BK’s only viable shot at advancing.

On the bright side, ‘Dega is one of just four tracks where Kes has multiple wins for his career. In 11 starts, he has two victories, six Top 10s and three Top 5s.

His first win at the track came in 2009 and was also his first career NSCS victory. He also won the 2012 spring run at Talladega on the way to his Cup Championship that season. However, BK hasn’t finished better than 15th in his last three starts at Dega.

He’ll look to break that trend and stay alive in the Chase Sunday. The Geico 500 is set for a 2 p.m. ET start and can be seen on ESPN.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Kenseth, Keselowski fight after Charlotte race (USA Today, Oct. 12, 2014)
• Disappointing 16^th place result for Keselowski (Team Penske, Oct. 12, 2014)
• Kenseth tangles with Keselowski in Charlotte (MotorSportsTalk, Oct. 11, 2014)
• Saturday night fight: Emotions spill over for Kenseth, Keselowski (Fox Sports, Oct. 11, 2014)
• Keselowski, Hamlin make contact in garage (NASCAR, Oct. 13, 2014)

The post Chase Tension Rises After 16th Place Finish At Charlotte appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

A blown tire at Kansas Speedway last week resulted in a 36th place finish that put Brad 22 points off the eighth-place cut line, giving him just two races to win or make up the points gap to move on to the Eliminator Round.

With the final race of the round coming next week at the always unpredictable and crash-filled Talladega Superspeedway, BK and the No. 2 team are preparing for the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the knowledge that a Saturday night victory is their best chance at qualifying for the next round—and they believe they have what it takes to complete the climb back to the top.

“The first thing that comes to mind is that we won this race last year. That is a nice confidence booster,” Brad said. “We have a strong intermediate track platform, and the No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts team has been performing well this season.”

Over the last two years, the 2 Crew has become accustomed to looking adversity in the eye and coming out on top, and using Charlotte to do so. Amid an arduous 2013 season, the defending Sprint Cup champ led 11 laps in last October’s Bank of America 500 on his way to his only victory of 2013.

Earlier this season, Kes fell below 10th in the points standings for the 10th and 11th races of the season at Talladega and Kansas, but turned in a 10th-place finish at Charlotte, sparking a scorching finish to the regular season.

However, climbing out of a hole midway through the regular season and doing so with two races left in a round in the Chase are two entirely different challenges. Kes acknowledged the importance of a good performance this Saturday—likening the pressure to do so as similar to the season finale at Homestead. But he noted that the No. 2 Crew is used to shining in these difficult situations.

“It does feel as though Homestead came early this year – subsequently we need a big weekend in order to keep our season alive,” BK said. “This team thrives with adversity, and I am not one to back down when challenged, so I feel as though we are ready for this one.”

Though some uncertainty surrounds the No. 2 team’s prospects to advance after last week’s letdown, crew chief Paul Wolfe doesn’t want his team to lose their focus in light of the Chase’s new rules and their changed position in the standings.

Instead, Wolfe intends to use the intense nature of the playoffs to the team’s advantage.

“This new Chase format does create new challenges, but it also brings new opportunity,” he said. “While it is easy to get caught up in thinking about the Chase and this Contender Round in particular, we can only do one race at a time.”

It’s also important for all involved to keep in mind that the No. 2 crew is not far removed from by far their best stretch of the season. Before a frustrating finish in the bottom eight last week, The Deuce was routinely finishing in the Top 10, including six of the previous seven weeks. That stretch included victories at Richmond and Charlotte and runner-up finishes at Dover and Bristol.

Including the win at Charlotte last year, Brad has finished 11th or better in four of his last five starts at the 1.5-mile quad oval. He also has 10 Top 10 and five Top 5 finishes in the Nationwide Series at the track, including two wins. BK is set to run the NNS race Friday at CMS, which will give him a good deal of extra practice ahead of Saturday night’s all-important Cup event.

That practice could prove vital on a Charlotte track that will take a lot to handle. Wolfe commented this week that the 2 Crew may be forced to shift their strategy due to the unpredictable road conditions. This, however, does not deter the crew from trying to snag one of the remaining seven spots in the playoffs.

“Charlotte is a very temperature sensitive track and this is a long race so keeping up with the changing track conditions is key,” Wolfe said. “Since it is a long race, it seems as though alternative strategies often come into play. We have done a pretty good job so far this year, and we know what we have to do to keep it going. Racing here at home kind of adds a little something to mix as well. I am looking forward to it.”

Brad will also call upon his Penske teammate Joey Logano for a helping hand. The No. 22 driver won last week at Kansas, locking him into the Eliminator Round and the information Brad can get from Logano and his crew could prove crucial to the No. 2’s chances of joining the 22 in the next round.

Together the Team Penske duo has 10 victories on the season, and they are the only two drivers with five wins apiece.

BK will aim to make it 11 for Penske as he climbs into his light blue Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion for the weekend. This will mark the second time the Deuce has been draped in light blue this year. Kes previously ran the DGP Deuce at Richmond, where he qualified second and finished fourth.

Ahead of one of the most important weekends of his career, Brad has been a busy man off the track. He has played host at his home to several guests from down under in New Zealand and Australia in support of Team Penske’s new trucking partnerships.

Wednesday, Brad made good use of his time in North Carolina before practice and preparation, when he took some time to make appearances at Discount Tire and a Wal-Mart in Concord.

Brad and the 2 Crew struggled a bit on their first day on the track at Charlotte, posting just the 31st best time in the first practice and the 17th best qualifying time. However, that starting position could prove insignificant. In this race last year, BK raced to Victory Lane after starting 23rd. 

Drivers get two final practice sessions on Friday at 3 and 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Finally, the main event—the Bank of America 500—is set for a 7:46 p.m. ET green flag Saturday and will be broadcast on ABC.

The post Brad Faces Near Must-Win Scenario At Charlotte appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

The post My Take on the Finish appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

“We did it, boys.”

After starting from an unenviable 23rd position and later leaving his pit stall with the jack still underneath his car, Brad and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford team finally overcame the type of adversity that had seemingly defeated them week after week during the 2013 season to win the Bank of America 500 on Saturday night

The immense hardship Brad and his team endured all season long prepared them to finally triumph in the end, as the defending Sprint Cup champion notched a season-defining victory under the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway, one of the premier tracks on the circuit.

Following Brad’s radio proclamation to his team, crew chief Paul Wolfe chimed in by thanking Brad for his persistence through the season.

“It’s been a tough year, man, appreciate you hanging in there,” Wolfe radioed to Brad. “Everybody on this team has been working hard. Hopefully, we’ve turned the corner here. Thank you.”

After completing a victory lap, BK pulled over near the entrance to pit road, where he was met by a member of his crew holding the American flag. Brad grabbed Old Glory, and went back around to the finish line for a long, smoky burnout at CMS.

When Kes finally parked the Blue Deuce in Victory Lane, he jumped out and reflected on the hard-fought win.

“It was just a never-give-up night,” Brad as he was showered with confetti. “We had a lot of struggles tonight.  We didn’t qualify well, but we kept working our way forward. I knew we had a good Miller Lite Ford Fusion.”

The monumental first win of 2013 for the Blue Deuce crew was a weight off the shoulders of the entire Penske Racing organization and owner Roger Penske talked afterward about keeping faith in Brad through the trying season.

“We knew we had good cars, and we’ve got the best drivers,” Penske said. “It was a matter of executing. I never lost confidence, and I’m a glass half-full, not half-empty guy. I wanted to see Brad get a win. He didn’t want to go through this season after being a champion

[not winning]… At the end of the day, we knew he was the guy that gave us a championship last year.”

A championship wasn’t in the cards for the No. 2 team this season, but they’ve entered every race since missing the Chase determined not to end the 2013 season winless.

That was again the case at Charlotte, where the Blue Deuce looked good early as BK worked his way through a crowded field on the 1.5-mile North Carolina track after starting 12 rows back in 23^rd position.

The race stayed green through much of the race and the No. 2 Ford showed speed throughout. Through a pair of green-flag stops in the early running BK moved up into the Top 15 by lap 73.

But it wouldn’t be a 2013 Cup Series race for the No. 2 team without some adversity and shortly after his second stop, Brad reported a vibration in one the rear tires of the Blue Deuce. A timely caution came out on lap 83, allowing BK to dip down into the pits and get four fresh tires, however, when he left the pit stall, the jack was still attached to his car, go back down pit road after a lap around the track to have it removed.

In addition to two unscheduled stops in his pit stall, Brad was penalized for leaving the box with pit equipment, the combination of factors dropping him all the way from eighth place to the rear of the field. 

It was another “here we go again” moment for the Blue Deuce crew in a season where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. ESPN’s race commentators even commented, “One of those years this team, isn’t it?” But BK said afterward that previous bouts with adversity prepared him to rise above the latest issue.

“There’s been weeks where we’ve had the execution, not as many as we want, but we haven’t always had those pieces together, and then there’s been weeks where we’ve had the speed and execution, we’ve just had some rotten luck,” BK said. “It’s just been one of those years where you say, ‘How much more can they throw at you?’ I think we ran out of things for them to throw at us … with the jack and we still found a way to win, so that was very special.”

Despite restarting at the back of the lead lap, it didn’t take Brad long to work his way back through the field in the lightning-fast Blue Deuce, which was now handling as good as it had all night. With the jack issue in the rearview, BK began picking off competitors and drove back into the Top 15 by lap 160.

He was all the way up to eighth on lap 230 and on the cusp of the Top 5 following a pit stop on Lap 278 with one of the fastest cars on the track.

Brad’s excitement at a chance for the win was briefly tempered by the news that he would be a few laps short on fuel if the race went green the rest of the way. But shortly after receiving that news, the Blue Deuce crew got the break that had been eluding them all season long when a caution flag flew for debris on lap 307.

With just 27 laps to go in the race and fuel mileage becoming an issue, the entire field elected to come down pit road for one more start to pick up fuel and fresh tires. But while most teams elected to take just two tires, Wolfe made the call for four rather than two and a few minor adjustments that would set BK up to race for the lead. Despite adding two more tires to his car than many of the leaders put on their cars, the No. 2 pit team got Brad out so fast he was able to restart in sixth as one of the top cars with four tires.

Afterward BK lauded Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 and Kasey Kahne’s No. 5 cars and credited Wolfe’s four-tire call as a major factor in his speed at the race’s end.

“I’m not sure we were as good as the 48 or the 5 (cars),” Brad said. “I never got to really race them until the end and they had two tires, so I think we were probably pretty even.  When (crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) made the call to take four tires and I saw we were that close to the front, I knew we could get them.”

With four tires and elite speed, Brad carved his way past Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon into second place with 16 laps remaining. From there on out he and his Blue Deuce were locked in a pulse-pumping battle with Kahne’s No. 5.

Brad battled hard with Kahne and made the pass on the inside with nine laps to go, but the fight wasn’t over. Kahne made one final pass attempt the following lap but Brad held him off from the outside.

The next lap, the two leaders caught up to lap traffic and BK gained enough separation to cruise through the final few laps without issue as he raced to the checkered flag and a season-changing win. A thrilled Kes commended Kahne for how he battled hard but clean at the race’s conclusion.

”I love hard racing and there are a handful of guys who can’t race hard and they freak out – he’s not one of them,” he said of Kahne. ”He’s an excellent driver. He ran me hard but ran me clean and that is great racing. He did a hell of a job and deserves a lot of credit for it.”

With the win, BK ended a 37-race drought and picked up his 10th career Sprint Cup victory. He also made some history for Penske Racing as now every Penske driver has logged a win this year in their premier series. After the victory, Brad reflected on how Penske, the No. 22 Nationwide team’s success and the hard work of his No. 2 Sprint Cup team were rays of hope in an otherwise cloudy season.

“I think when I look at Roger (Penske) and putting together the 22 Nationwide team and the success we’ve had over there, that re-instills confidence in myself,” Kes said. “I think I look at some other things that have happened – the truck team runs really well, that makes me feel good – and I know too in the back of my mind that we’ve had strong runs with this car and with this team and we just haven’t finished it off enough times this year. You know it’s there. You know that all you have to do is put all the pieces together.”

Brad is the first non-Chase driver to win a Chase for the Championship race since Kahne back in 2011. With the win, BK moved back to 14th in the NSCS standings, the top spot among non-chase teams.

NEXT UP

Brad and the No. 2 Miller Lite team will try to carry the momentum from Charlotte over to Alabama as they aim for 2013 win No. 2 at the always-unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway next weekend in the Camping World RV Sales 500.

BK finished 15th in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega earlier this season and seventh in the fall restrictor plate event at Talladega last season. He does have a win at Talladega under his belt from the 2012 Aaron’s 499 in the spring of his championship season.

Going into this race and looking even further ahead toward 2014, Kes will have one factor that hasn’t been easy to find this year: hope.

“It’s like this great big jigsaw puzzle and you start to make progress on it,” BK said. “Am I frustrated it didn’t all come together (this season)? Absolutely. But you start to see hope.”

The Camping World RV Sales 500 will go green at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday and can be seen on ESPN.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Bank of America 500 Results (Jayski.com, October 12, 2013)
• Keselowski wins first race of year (Fox Sports, October 12, 2013)
• Breakthrough win gives Brad Keselowski boost for 2014 (USA Today, October 13, 2013)
• Brad Keselowski saves the day at Charlotte (Sporting News, October 13, 2013)
• Brad Keselowski passes Kasey Kahne late for win at Charlotte (Yahoo! Sports, October 12, 2013)
• BofA 500: Brad Keselowski outduels Kasey Kahne to return to victory lane (Charlotte Observer, October 13, 2013)
• Brad Keselowski savors first win of season (Jacksonville.com, October 13, 2013)
• Keselowski wins; Chase gets hotter (ESPN, October 13, 2013)

The post BK Fights Adversity Again and Wins at Charlotte appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

Brad Keselowski finally made his way back into Victory Lane Saturday night in Charlotte! This has been a long time coming, and it has never felt so sweet. I knew he would be the first non-Chaser to win a race, but I didn’t know when and where it would come, and when Brad had a jack problem mid way through the race (it being left under the car and dragged all the way around the track), wasn’t thinking that we would see it Saturday night.

The hard, clean racing we were seeing out of the No. 2 and No. 5 was incredible, and the type of racing we should always see between two professional drivers.

I can’t even explain how overwhelmed I am with emotion right now, but bear with me.

There was an enormous amount of complaining over Twitter throughout the race, even from media members, for the “lack of excitement.” But as soon as that last debris caution was called with 25 to go, the race was on! Brad restarted around 6th with four fresh tires, and when they took the green, the 2 car was like a rocket ship. He took off like I haven’t seen that car move in over a year. He flew past the points leader, Matt Kenseth, and then set his sights on leader Kasey Kahne, who had a sizeable lead. Kahne’s lead was becoming shorter and shorter by the second, Brad quickly reeled him in. They fought for first place for several laps. For those complaining about the race prior to the last caution, they now had nothing to complain about.

The hard, clean racing we were seeing out of the No. 2 and No. 5 was incredible, and the type of racing we should always see between two professional drivers. Brad would run the top while Kasey would run the bottom, and then they would switch. Kahne even pulled the crossover move on BK! But that wasn’t the end. When Brad cleared Kasey for the second or third time, I knew we had it. But I stayed completely silent and focused. I didn’t want to get my hopes up like I had quite a few other times this season. When I heard the guys in the booth finally say Brad Keselowski was spoiling the Chase party, I knew it was safe to celebrate!

YOU ARE THE MAN @KESELOWSKI! THE CHAMP IS BACK IN VICTORY LANE! YES, YES, YES!

I was planning on sharing what went on over the radio between Brad and the team after he took the checkers, but I was too excited to write it all down. The gist of the radio communication was many thanks, cheers, and praise. The No. 2 team deserves this win. It’s been way too long and now they finally have one under their belt for 2013.

I paid close attention to everything that was happening from Brad, from grabbing his American Flag that he flies in victory, to him pulling into VL, to him standing taking his victory photos. It was then that I saw something incredible and very interesting. I could be overanalyzing this, but I really want to believe it was something significant. Brad was standing with the BoA employees for one of the photos, and I saw him take a big breath in, and then let out a huge sigh of relief. It really caught my attention. It was like I was witnessing a weight lifting off of his shoulders.

The pressure is somewhat now off of Brad and the No. 2 team. No one will be talking about how they haven’t won in 2013 after coming off of a championship. They can now go out here and win Talladega, Martinsville and every one after that. There’s no stopping the No. 2 team. From here on out, they are only going to be building momentum to go into the 2014 season!

It feels like all right is in the world again. I’m wearing my CHAMPIONS sweater shirt loud and proud today!!

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