BK led the first 28 laps of the Hollywood Casino 400, and throughout the day he rebounded from a scrape with the wall to pass Jeff Gordon at the start/finish line to steal a second consecutive ninth-place finish.

“It was a long day,” Brad said. “Kind of like last week, we weren’t very fast. Everyone on the Miller Lite Ford team and everyone at Team Penske worked really hard to get through it. We just fought and didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot any more than me driving the car, but came out with a Top 10.”

Brad captured his 10th career pole, his second of the season and his first in Kansas City to start the weekend. He paced the field through the opening stage but was passed by both Kevin Harvick and his teammate Joey Logano at lap 29, just before a J.J. Yeley wreck brought out the day’s first caution.

While BK started in first place, he didn’t get his choice of the best pit stall. The week prior, both he and Tony Stewart received their fourth written warnings from NASCAR, and as a result, the two were last to select a spot in the pits. That poor positioning hurt him on the first stop. He pitted from third place but was off in sixth. While it hurt his standing early, BK said after the race that the pit stall didn’t alter the outcome.

“It was a good storyline, but we weren’t fast enough to hold the first through third or fourth positions for it to really make a difference,” Kes said.

On the ensuing restart, he drove his No. 2 back up to fifth, but was passed by Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson to fade back to seventh by lap 62. Two laps later, Tony Stewart spun out, bringing about the second caution.

Some strategy from Paul Wolfe put the White Lite back in solid positioning. The 2 Crew changed just right-side tires, vaulting Kes from seventh to second. Unfortunately, the strategy call didn’t stick. Brad battled a rough handling car on the next run, at one point telling his team that he was just doing what he could to keep the car off the wall, and he fell back to ninth place.

Brad took two tires during the next caution and restarted second at lap 62. He was passed by multiple cars out of the restart and slid back to sixth at lap 73 as he was passed by Logano. Kes fell down to ninth by lap 98, suspecting that he might have a flat right-rear tire.

“There just ain’t any groove or tactic that’s working,” Brad radioed to his team. “I’m tight in 1 & 2 and snapping loose off. I’m deathly loose in the center of 3 & 4 and loose off there.”

As BK detailed his car’s poor handling to his crew chief, a much-needed caution came when Kyle Larson lost control at lap 109. BK pitted from ninth, took four fresh tires and an adjustment and restarted in 10th. Still fighting with his car, he fell back as far as 14th after the restart but eventually settled in. When Austin Dillon wrecked to bring out the fourth caution at lap 155, Brad was back up to 12th.

Just before this stop, BK reported to Wolfe that his car was much better entering Kansas’ corners, but it was still tight in the center and snapping loose on exit. The following run was a short one. Clint Bowyer had a hard wreck just 10 laps into the run. As a result the leaders stayed out, and Brad was the first to pit from position 11.

On the ensuing run, Brad was digging to find any speed he could. After seeing his Team Penske partner Logano running the high line with success while battling for the lead, BK tried his hand at running up high. However, at lap 188, he got loose and scuffed the wall, dropping him to 14th.

However, the damage was minimal, and the White Lite inexplicably became better after the incident. He also got some help when to Chasers had issues during green-flag pit stops at lap 216. Harvick was penalized for pulling his gas tank out of his pit box, and Martin Truex Jr. was penalized for an uncontrolled tire.

With around 40 laps remaining, BK cycled out to position 10 but was passed by Carl Edwards back to 11th with 31 laps to go. Two more quick cautions followed. Brad had passed Ryan Newman to eighth place before Matt Kenseth spun out while battling with Logano for the lead at lap 262.

BK pitted from eighth hoping that fresh tires would help him on the green-white-checkered finish. He restarted in 12th place, and he had to battle his way back up. He passed Newman again for position 10 and right at the checkered flag, he edged Gordon by a matter of inches to log a ninth-place finish for the second week in a row.

“We want more than Top 10s,” BK said. “We need to be winning races. We know that. But we’re not in the worst of positions going into Talladega, and we need to have another solid day there.”

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BK currently sits eighth in the Chase standings, and only the top eight drivers will move on to the next round. That means that between this week’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas and next week’s race at the always-unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway, Kes must at least hold on to that eighth spot, if not improve his position, to guarantee his spot in the Eliminator Round for the second straight season.

The best way to do that is to win.

As he aims to do just that, Brad will be back in his familiar No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion this Sunday. From the seat of the White Lite, he’ll be attempting to follow Penske teammate Joey Logano, who locked his spot in the next round with a win at Charlotte last week, to Victory Lane.

“We’re in a reasonable spot heading into Kansas this weekend,” Brad said. “Right now Team Penske has one car locked in to the Eliminator Round and we have a shot to get the Miller Lite team to advance this weekend, which is all you can ask for really.”

In the early stages of race weekend, Brad has already shown the speed to compete for victory. He was fastest in Friday’s first practice session, with a time of 27.785 seconds at an average speed of 194.349 miles per hour. He was the only driver in the 27.7-second/194.3 mph range.

Brad is also building on a history of success at the Kansas City tri-oval. He booked his lone victory at Kansas back in 2011, in only his third career Cup start there, and his first Cup run there in the Deuce. Though he hasn’t found Victory Lane since, he’s still been relatively steady and successful. In fact, Kes has led laps in each of his last four starts at Kansas, including a career-high 52 in this event in 2013, which he finished in position 17. Earlier this year, the Deuce led 43 laps and finished seventh, marking BK’s fifth top 10 finish at the 1.5-mile track.

Brad has led 611 laps in total this season, similar to the pace he set during his 2012 Cup championship season, but far off from the 1,540 he led in 2014. He also likely won’t match the win totals from either year. He won five times in 2012 and six times last year. However, his ninth-place finish last week was his 20th in the Top 10 this year. That matches the 20 he had a year ago, and puts him on pace to top his career-high of 23, set in 2012.

“We haven’t necessarily got the results that we’re looking for with respect to laps led, wins, Top 5s, but our consistency this year has been as good if not better than any other year,” Brad said. “Our Top 10 percentage is slightly better, so I think that’s probably where I’d generate that conclusion from.”

Despite his on-track consistency this season, Kes will be entering Sunday’s race at a slight disadvantage. NASCAR issued punishment this week to the No. 2 and No. 14 teams after both earned their fourth rules warnings of the season at Charlotte Motor Speedway last week. As a result of that punishment, regardless of where the Deuce qualifies, Brad’s pit crew won’t have the right to choose its own pit stall. They will instead be forced to pick between the last two available stalls.

While Brad could attempt to play it safe in an effort to reach the Eliminator Round, he doesn’t plan to. He wants to win his way to a second Sprint Cup title. Even though he hasn’t won a race since March, Brad believes he has a good a chance of any car at winning the Sprint Cup.

With that in mind, Kes said his drive to win is as high as it has ever been.

“I think that would perhaps more solidify, not just in other people’s minds, where our team is, but in my own. And that would be a tremendous feeling for me personally, considering where we’ve come from and how far we’ve come,” Kes said.

The NSCS will qualify at 6:15 p.m. ET on Friday. After determining their starting spot, the 2 Crew will then have two more practice sessions to tune-up their setup on Saturday. The morning session will be broadcast at 11:30 a.m on MSNBC and Happy Hour final practice will air at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

Finally, the Hollywood Casino 400 will go green around 2:15 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air on NBC.

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Fox’s Jay W. Pennell wrote about the plan of the Team Penske duo for the Contender Round.

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Brad was running in sixth at lap 161 when his right-front tire blew without warning, sending the Deuce crashing into the outer wall at Kansas. The 2 Crew was able to patch up the Miller Lite Ford and send it back on the track, but by that time, 38 laps had gone by, and it was all could do Brad did all he could over the final stretch of the race to secure a 36th-place finish.

“We blew the right front tire. I am not sure why. We didn’t have an aggressive setup or anything, we just blew the tire,” Brad said. “It was just Russian roulette and it was our turn.” 

Several other drivers took their turns throughout the day as well. Roughly 40 laps before BK’s incident, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was running in position No. 1 when his right-front blew, whice sent him to a 39th-place finish. Not long before that, defending champion Jimmie Johnson was caught up in a wreck deep in the field, and he finished 40th.

Numerous other Chasers, including Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne also endured rough days due to various issues, including tire vibrations and spinouts. But despite seeing several other top contenders have rough days, Kes was upset at the Hollywood Casino 400’s overall outcome.

“I don’t enjoy seeing anyone have to go through what we did and it looked like there were a handful that did,” BK said. “I feel like the losers are the people that want to see us race 100 percent and when you try to race 100 percent you blow a tire. Those are the people that lost today.” 

While the Chase was shaken up in a big way for Brad and several other drivers, the day’s big winner was Brad’s Penske teammate Joey Logano, who took his fifth checkered flag of the year and second of the Chase, securing his spot in the next round.

Both Brad and Joey looked strong through the early week preparations. Logano qualified fourth and Brad qualified sixth, continuing Team Penske’s qualifying success. It was BK’s 24th top-10 start of the year and his 11th in the last 12 races.

Early in the race, Kes battled for position with Aric Almirola, Earnhardt Jr., Brian Vickers and Jaime McMurray, and despite battling a White Lite that was loose driving through traffic, BK managed to hold a spot right outside the Top 5 for the first long run of the race. Brad even piloted the Deuce to the lead for two laps before making his first pit stop at lap 50 under green. By staying out to lead, he earned an all-important bonus point.

But the decision wasn’t without a trade-off. After running the Deuce on several laps with old tires, others who pitted sooner gained position on Brad, and a slow 14.3-second stop caused him to cycle back to P12. But wasn’t stuck in that spot for long as the first yellow flag came out at lap 72 for debris on the frontstretch. Once the dam was broken with the day’s first caution, the floodgates opened and a steady stream of yellows followed.

Through it all, BK battled his way back and was on the cusp of breaking back into the Top 5 when disaster struck in the form of blown tire while he was going through Turn 2 on Lap 161.

After the wreck, the No. 2 Crew attempted to do some quick work on the Miller Lite Ford Fusion in the pits to keep Kes in contention. But crew chief Paul Wolfe eventually elected to take the Deuce behind the wall and to the garage for more extensive repairs.

However, rather than just calling it a day, the No. 2 team worked hard to fix the battered car and put it back on the track. The crew had to cut away the bent front suspension and replace the right-front upper control arm, as well as the right splitter.

When the crew had the Deuce patched up enough to get back on the track, BK went back out for the final 68 laps running in 37th postion, 38 laps down. He managed to gain one spot to 36th before the checkered flag.

Although it may seem that the gains made by getting back on the track were minimal, Brad noted that the work done by the 2 Crew could prove to be vital later on. Their swift repairs allowed Kes to make it back out in front of Johnson and Earnhardt Jr., giving him a few extra points that could wind up being the difference in the standings.

“Hopefully we can win one of the next two races and those three points don’t matter,” Kes said, “but it could come down to one point at Talladega and if it does my guys deserve a lot of credit for getting us back out on track.”

Brad made it past Joey Gase in the running order and finished 36th, slating him 10th in the Chase Standings. He is 39 points behind race winner and leader Joey Logano and 22 points Jeff Gordon for the eighth and final spot in the Eliminator Round.

NEXT UP

As he sought to put a rough weekend at Kansas behind him and take a positive outlook going forward, BK identified a win next week at Charlotte Motor Speedway as his best option for advancement. A wild-card restrictor-plate race at Talladega Superspeedway follows the next week, making a dicey situation for BK and the rest of the contenders who had rough finishes.

“Yeah, the easiest approach is to go to Charlotte and win,” Brad said. “The bad side of this Chase is we took a big points lead in here and gave it all back to zero. The good side of it is that you can still win your way out of it and we have two really good tracks for us ahead. If we can just win at one of them we will be fine. Maybe if we have two really good finishes we will be fine. That is the good side.” 

Fortunately, Kes has had success at each of the next two tracks. First up is Charlotte, where he’ll be the defending race-winner after driving to Victory Lane at the track in last year’s Bank of America 500. He also has two career wins at Talladega, where the Cup circuit heads Oct. 19.

The 2014 Bank of America 500 is set for a 7:30 p.m. ET start time Saturday under the lights and will air on ABC.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Hollywood Casino 400 Unofficial Results (Jayski, Oct. 5, 2014)
• Blown tire dooms Earnhardt Jr., Keselowski at Kansas (USA Today, Oct. 5, 2014)
• Brad Keselowski goes into wall (MotorSportsTalk, Oct. 5, 2014)
• Keselowski third Chaser to have trouble at Kansas (SportingNews, Oct. 5, 2014)
• Keselowski loses right-front tire and hits wall at Kansas (Tireball Sports, Oct. 5, 2014)
• Keselowski runs into trouble at Kansas (Fox Sports, Oct. 5, 2014)
• Wrecks, tire problems derail Dale, other contenders (SportingNews, Oct. 5, 2014)
• Pressure builds at Kansas (Charlotte Observer, Oct. 5, 2014)

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Brad Keselowski was in a unique position in the Challenger Round, as he was able to race pressure-free at Loudon and Dover after conquering Chicago in the postseason’s first race.

But as the Contender Round begins, that win at Chicago and the rest of his series-best five wins this season are of little consolation to BK. Now he and the other 11 contending drivers are facing the same heavy odds. And although it may seem unfair that BK doesn’t get any advantage from his success through the first 29 races of the season, his team knows the challenge that faces them and they’re determined to meet it with their signature vigor.

“I knew the rules going in. It’s different. It’s much, much harder to get a foothold on the Chase this year as far as a foothold on the top,” Brad said this week. “I feel like we’ve got great cars, we’ve got a great team. If we go out there and perform, we control as much of our own destiny, considering the races in the next bracket. It’s up to us to do it, and we’re more than capable.”

With stops at Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega scheduled as the second round of the NASCAR playoffs rolls along all 12 drivers will endure equal Contender Round stress and Kes noted this week that of the remaining rounds in the Chase, the Contender bracket has as much potential to break hearts as any.

“Two of the three races are as much of a wild card as you can get in NASCAR racing these days,” he said. “One of the great teams that has a shot at winning this will probably be left at home after this series of events, because you don’t control your destiny as much as you do the other races of the season.”

Fortunately for Brad, the Contender Round begins at a familiar track in Kansas Speedway—where he won his first ever race in the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion.

In just his 13th race piloting the Blue Deuce, Kes made a pass with just nine laps left in the spring run at Kansas in 2011 to take the checkered flag. The 2011 STP 400 was just the second victory of Brad’s Cup series career and although he’s won 13 cup series races since, including five this season, racing at Kansas still holds a special meaning for BK and the No. 2 team, as they recall that spring day.

“I won my first race as the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite car at Kansas back in 2011 and that makes this track kind of special to the team and me,” Brad said this week.

Though the paint scheme is different, BK will be back in the Miller Lite No. 2 car this week looking to replicate that result after driving the No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion to a second-place finish last week at The Monster Mile.

Additionally, he and the 2 Crew will be out to make up for a mediocore finish at Kansas this past spring. Brad started May’s 5-Hour Energy 400 from P3 but got caught on pit road at the wrong time, putting him a lap down. He managed to rebound and make his way back to 13th before the checkered flag, but the result left him wanting more the second time around.

“We didn’t run as well as we would’ve liked to in the spring race earlier this year so that gives us added determination to improve our performance this weekend,” BK said. “The team has been working diligently on enhancing our platform for this race, and we should be good this weekend.”

In addition to the 2011 win, Brad has four Top 10s and two Top 5 results at Kansas, and while racing at Kansas has been largely hit-or-miss for Kes, he has finished outside of the top 20 just once, back in 2010.

The track was repaved in 2012, and ever since, the No. 2 team has been working to calibrate their machines for the changed surface. It has been a long process so far for the team, but crew chief Paul Wolfe believes the work his group has put in should continue to show at the 1.5-mile tri-oval.

“This track does provide new challenges since it was reconfigured and repaved a while back,” Wolfe says. “It has taken us some time to catch up with it so to speak. We have put a fair amount of effort into the set-ups for this track based on what we learned there earlier this year.”

While the track will certainly provide a challenge, little has been able to slow down Brad and his team lately. BK has finished in the Top 10 in six of the last seven races, a streak of consistency that includes two victories and two second-place finishes. BK has also led multiple laps in each of the last seven events.

As Wolfe said this week, if the No. 2 team can continue to race with type of consistency, they will be in excellent shape going forward.

“It becomes even more important to run well here with the new Chase format,” Wolfe said. “The team has been building great cars, and we’ve been executing well at the track. As long as we keep our steady progression of refinement and improvement both on and off of the track, we should be alright.”

That process, as always, will weigh heavily on practice and qualifying. Brad was just 18th quickest in opening practice on Friday afternoon, with a best lap time of 27.756 at an average speed of 194.553 miles per hour. But while its mock qualifying runs left something to be desired, the Deuce was outstanding in race trim with the best five-lap average in the field at 28.47 seconds.

Next up on Friday is qualifying and Kes has been fantastic in that regard this season. He has captured a career-high five Coors Light Pole Awards and has the best average start of any other driver at 6.9, as well as the most front-row starts with 13.

He’ll look to add to those numbers at 5:30 p.m. ET, when the session airs live on ESPN2. 

After Brad carves out his spot in the field, the 2 Crew will have two more practice sessions on Saturday to tweak their setup. The first of those sessions is at 11 a.m. and will air on Fox Sports 1. Then comes Happy Hour final practice— the last chance to fine-tune the White Lite— at 2 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 2.

Coverage of the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway begins with NASCAR Countdown on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. on ESPN. The green flag for the first race in the Contender round is scheduled to wave at 2:18 p.m. ET.

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Instead, another gamble by the No. 2 crew backfired and a difficult season continued for the Miller Lite Ford team.

Kansas Speedway had been the site of much success for BK the in the past — as recently as earlier this season when he finished sixth there — seemed the perfect place to turn around the bad beats that had been coming the way of the Blue Deuce crew.

For a while on Sunday, it appeared that just that would happen as Brad led the field with less than 50 laps to go in the Hollywood Casino 400. However, the cards again flipped against BK’s favor when he ran low on fuel on lap 224, forcing him to pit and ending his hopes at victory.

Despite losing two laps in the pits, BK rallied his way back to the lead lap and a 17th place finish, but that was not enough to deflect from the fact that another promising race turned into disappointment for the No. 2 team.

“We had a lot of gremlins here this weekend,” Brad said. “We had a decent Miller Lite Ford Fusion. You know, it was a difficult up and down weekend. Unfortunately, we ended it on a negative note with running out of fuel and not having the gas we needed to finish the race.”

The No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion showed speed all weekend at Kansas, resulting in an excellent qualifying run that had BK situated in fourth position at the start of the Hollywood Casino 400.

However, the Blue Deuce didn’t have the same handling under the cold and cloudly conditions on Sunday afternoon as it did under the sun earlier in the weekend. The poor grip was a concern for all 43 drivers on the track, resulting in numerous wrecks and spins for a total of 15 caution flags throughout the day.

Though Brad managed to avoid early wrecks, the handling of his car — which was getting looser with each lap — wasn’t a promising sign that would remain the case. As he put more laps on the first set of tires, Kes could feel his right-rear rubber wearing down and elected to make a pit stop ahead of the leaders at lap 38 to get four fresh tires and fuel. But shortly after his stop and before the leaders had pitted, a caution came out leaving him a lap down.

BK was able to take a wave around and prevent from losing a lap, but was sent back to the rear of the field. He began to work his way back through the field but still didn’t have optimal feeling on the rough Kansas surface, particularly in long runs. Crew chief Paul Wolfe and company made several track bar and air pressure tweaks throughout the race to adapt to the treacherous surface.

“We couldn’t get in a rhythm out there for sure,” BK said. “There were so many wrecks and so many yellows that we could never really get going out there. It was just a tough day for sure. The track was just really treacherous at times.”

Having become all too familiar with adversity, the Blue Deuce crew made the best of the bad situation and eventually, things started to look up. The numerous cautions allowed Brad and his team to make adjustments and find some of the speed they needed in the No. 2. That allowed BK to climb through the field and he took the lead when Wolfe elected not to put during a caution on lap 171.

Over the next 53 laps, Brad held off numerous competitors through several restarts, keeping the lead for all but one of those laps. He was often dueling with eventual winner Kevin Harvick, who briefly took his lead away at lap 199, though BK gained it right back on the next lap.

The Blue Deuce was comfortably ahead of Harvick’s 29 when it ran out of fuel on lap 224. As BK slid back, his tank empty, Harvick jumped into the lead and never looked back. Brad coasted down pit road with his engine dead and after filling up and completing the stop, it took several seconds to re-fire the Blue Deuce, causing BK to fall behind two laps.

To add insult to injury, the caution flag that would have allowed Brad to refuel without losing the top spot came out four laps later. BK took the wave around on that yellow and another caution at lap 244 allowed him to get the Lucky Dog and get back on to the lead lap. He mounted a late charge from there to 17th place, allowing him to remain at 15th in the Sprint Cup Standings.

BK praised Wolfe and his team for working hard to take the lead, but was ultimately disappointed by the unfortunate result.

“The 29 and 48 (cars) were probably the class of the field. One of them won, so I guess it worked out the way it was supposed to work,” Brad said. “But we were still able to put ourselves in a great position with the call to stay out and take the lead. If we hadn’t run out of fuel I think we could’ve been there at the end.”

NEXT UP

With just six races remaining, the Sprint Cup Series will head to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500 on Saturday night.

A late race wreck kept Brad from finishing the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May when he steeled for a 36th place finish. However, Brad turned in finishes of 11th and 5th at Charlotte in 2012. He also notched a Nationwide Series win at the track last season.

The Bank of America 500 will go green at 6:30 p.m. EDT Saturday and will air on ABC.

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