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On lap 33 of the Great American Race, a logjam at the front of the field created a wreck in the middle, and Brad Keselowski got swallowed up in it. Unavoidable contact with Juan Pablo Montoya and then Kevin Harvick left the front ends of Blue Deuce torn up.

But Brad’s crew did an excellent job of putting the car back together and getting the Miller Lite Ford back out on the track at the tail end of the lead lap. He ran near the middle of the field for another 100–plus laps before another logjam and a wreck with David Reutimann and Trevor Bayne.

This time it was the tail end of the No. 2 that got the brunt of the damage as, after being struck hard by Bayne’s No. 21, the 2 drifted down to the apron and bottomed out leaving Brad with a car that didn’t want to go in the direction he was turning it. At a track like Daytona, where the simplest setback can become a colossal blow, involvement in two wrecks is essentially a death knell.

The crew of the No. 2 car saw it that way as well and went to work during the caution. Brad made a pit stop each time around as the crew steadily made repairs while keeping their driver in contention. He noted after the race that his strategy was simple.

“You drive it. You don’t ask, you just drive,” he said. “You don’t want to make excuses for not being successful — you could do that or you can go out there and put it all on the line and try to win.”

The Blue Deuce once again re-started at the back of the field, but keen pit strategy, which involved the Miller Lite Ford topping off every time it came in for repairs paid off and with 29 laps to go Brad was at the front of the field with a chance to win the Daytona 500 for their first time in his career.

“We got real fortunate because we caught a big break when the yellow came out and we had just pitted,” Brad said. “That got us to the lead.”

Brad knew that if he could ride the high line at the front for the rest of the race he would have a chance to go to Victory Lane despite all the bumps his car had taken earlier in the race. He led for 13 laps before another caution doomed his hopes.

This yellow wasn’t even for a wreck that Brad was involved in, but it put him in a position to have to race the low line with strong cars like the 48 of race winner Jimmie Johnson above him.

“We caught a bad break when the yellow came out as we were battling with Jimmie,” he said. “He was an inch in front of me when the yellow came out and that gave him the high line on the restart and there was nothing we could do. We weren’t strong enough to hold our own there on the bottom…We wrecked about three times today and still had a shot at the win and I took it, we just came up short.”

Johnson took the lead on the restart and held it for the remainder of the race. Though Brad and the rest of the low-line got shuffled back on the restart, he managed to swoop through the top 10. In the final stretch, he got in line behind Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to slingshot toward the front and drive the Blue Deuce — covered in black tape and Bare Bond on the front and rear — to a fourth place finish.

NEXT UP
Brad and the crew now head West for the second race of the 2013 season, the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday afternoon.

In seven career Sprint Cup races at Phoenix, Brad has a Top 5 and two Top 10’s. He came from the 28th position at the start to finish fifth in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 last year. It was the first of 13 Top 5 finishes for BK in his championship season.

The green flag drops just after 3 p.m. EST on Sunday in Phoenix and the race can be seen on FOX.