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]]>BK and the No. 2 crew pushed their Top 10 streak to double digits when the Deuce crossed in eighth place at the end of Sunday’s MyAFibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. After starting from P3, the White Lite didn’t quite have the same speed on race day that it had in practice. Brad still pulled off his career-high 10th Top 10 finish in a row to begin the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series postseason in a good spot, but afterward he lamented how the weekend worked out and left the team with some work to do.
“It was a decent day,” he said. “We just couldn’t get the front end to work. It is disappointing because I thought we were better than this in practice, but it just didn’t work out.”
BK posted the third fastest lap during Friday’s lone practice session, and when qualifying was rained out later that afternoon he was locked into a P3 start: his third straight in the top three.
However, as the first race of the Chase got underway, the Miller Lite machine quickly fell back in the pack, to sixth in the running order. His precipitous drop stopped when the first caution came up almost immediately at lap two, as eventual race winner Denny Hamlin spun out his No. 11 car. But on the ensuing restart, the Deuce fell back even further to eighth. By the end of the ensuing run, Brad found himself running in 11th place, while the front end of the No. 2 Ford was giving him fits.
That condition persisted throughout the afternoon, and Brad lingered outside of the Top 10 for most of the event. BK made his first pit stop of the day under green at lap 53, and the White Lite cycled out to 11th from there, before the second yellow flag of the afternoon came at lap 124.
The 2 Crew made their second stop of the day at that point, and had BK off in 12th. He grabbed one position following the next restart, but any momentum he had was stymied when an incident involving Austin Dillon’s No. 3 car quickly brought out the next yellow. The run that followed that caution was also short-lived. Brad was running just one spot outside of the Top 10 when the green flag waived, but on a wild restart, he fell all the way back to 15th before another caution came out three laps later. However he wasn’t the worst for wear after that short green flag run.
The three-lap cycle delivered a big blow to defending Cup champion Kevin Harvick’s Chase chances. After restarting in the lead, Harvick found himself fighting for position near the front of the pack on that wild restart. When Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 dove down to an attempt a pass, the two cars made contact, causing some damage to the No. 4’s rear quarterpanel. A few laps after the contact, Harvick spun out and hit the wall, the damage having caused his tire to be cut. The regular-season points leader finished 42nd, putting him in a major hole after just one race in the Challenger Round. Meanwhile Johnson survived the contact and crossed in position 11.
BK moved to 14th as Harvick bowed out, and from there the 2 Crew made their first championship-caliber strategy call of the day.
While other teams running near the No. 2, just outside the Top 10, made green flag pit stops, Brad and crew chief Paul Wolfe elected to stay out and bide their time as long as they possibly could, and that move paid off. Kes was running third behind Carl Edwards and Hamlin, when the caution came out. The Deuce pitted from third position and was third off pit road as well, allowing BK to restart in fifth.
The position was valuable, but even with some cleaner air the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford struggled with front-end handling, making it difficult on Brad. He lost fifth to the No. 24 of Jeff Gordon on the restart and dropped all the way to eighth before stopping under green once again at lap 243. As the race neared its end, the White Lite was hovering on the fringe of the Top 10 at P10 when the final yellow flag of the day came out at lap 259. That caution set the stage for a thrilling finale.
Strategies during the final yellow flag period of the day covered the gamut from staying out to come down pit road and taking four tires. Kes and Wolfe elected to strap four fresh tires on the Miller Lite Ford Fusion for the final sprint to the finish, positioning the Deuce in 11th for the final green.
The ensuing restart was Brad’s best of the day. He made a move to the bottom of the racetrack and climbed all the way up to fourth position in just one lap. Unfortunately for Brad and his team, the No. 2 car just didn’t have the speed to hold a spot in the Top 5 over the final laps. Kes did all he could to fend off the coming drivers, but the Deuce ultimately slid back and settled for an eighth-place finish.
“It looked like we were going to steal something on that final restart. We gained quite a few spots and probably weren’t quite a top-five car but almost stole a top-five,” Brad said. “We were racing real hard and just fell back. I just didn’t have the turn to run up front. I was trying to make something happen but, all in all, I guess it was a decent day.”
Our story-
Last few weeks we've been really fast & caught zero brakes.
This week not fast but caught great breaks & our 10th top-10 in a row— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) September 20, 2015
Frustrated we executed and caught the breaks to win this week but didn't have speed.
Proud to get a solid finish. https://t.co/NUtikD8e85— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) September 21, 2015
Paul made a great call!
Very proud of him and the whole #2crew for not giving up and making the most of the race. https://t.co/L7SM442y1E— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) September 20, 2015
For Brad, the 10th consecutive Top 10 extended his career-best streak and made him just the sixth driver in the Chase era to log at least 10 consecutive Top 10s. The finish also marked BK’s 19th Top 10s for the season, second only to Harvick (22) and Joey Logano (21) in the Cup Series.
Meanwhile, Hamlin captured the win and became the first driver to secure a spot in the Contender Round. BK earned 36 points for his eighth place finish and sits in sole possession of ninth place in the standings, one point behind Ryan Newman for 8th, one ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 10th and 11 points above the Contender Round cutoff after the first of three Challenger Round races.
POST-CHICAGO CHASE STANDINGS
- Denny Hamlin – 2,050 (1 Win)
- Matt Kenseth – 2,050
- Carl Edwards – 2,049
- Kyle Busch – 2,049
- Kurt Busch – 2,048
- Joey Logano – 2,048
- Jimmie Johnson – 2,045
- Ryan Newman – 2,040
- Brad Keselowski – 2,039
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 2,038
- Martin Truex Jr. – 2,035
- Jeff Gordon – 2,031
— CONTENDER ROUND CUTOFF —
- Jamie McMurray – 2,028 (-3)
- Paul Menard – 2,027 (-4)
- Clint Bowyer – 2,025 (-6)
- Kevin Harvick – 2,009 (-22)
NEXT UP
The Chase rolls on next week to another strong track for the 2 Crew: New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Brad boasts eight Top 10 finishes in 12 career Cup Series races at Loudon, including a win in last year’s summer run at NHMS. He’s also bagged three Coors Light Pole Awards at New Hampshire, most recently before this race last year. He finished seventh from that pole spot last September, however earlier this year he parlayed a P10 start in July’s 5-Hour Energy 301 into a second place finish. Those results give the No. 2 Crew confidence they can bolster their Challenge Round position this weekend.
The Sylvania 300 is set to go off Sunday at 2:15 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.
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]]>Wins reign supreme in the new Chase format, as Brad explained in his recent Ford Performance playoff promo. Kes took that to heart last year when he won the opening race of the postseason at Chicagoland Speedway—and he’ll be looking to do it again in this weekend’s MyAFibRisk.com 400.
“I want you to remember: No team has ever won a championship being content with a second-place finish,” BK said. “You win a championship by making the other team content with a second-place finish.”
BK has won a championship, back in 2012 and after missing the postseason 2013, he returned to the Chase last year and was involved in some one of the biggest storylines in the 2014 Chase, for several reasons. He entered the Chase with the most wins and as the No. 1 seed, and started the postseason with some fireworks when he pulled off a stunning three-wide pass, splitting Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson late to win last year’s Chase opener at Chicagoland.
With that win, he automatically advanced to the next round of the 16-team playoffs. NASCAR’s new postseason format, which debuted last year, features 10 races split up into four rounds. The first three rounds consist of three races each, and after those three races, four more drivers are wiped off the board, setting the stage four a four-man race for the Cup at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.
Chicago begins it all, and this round, the Challenger Round, will continue in New Hampshire and Dover. Once again this season, after that third race, the bottom four in the point standings will be eliminated. It created a tremendously tense garage, and it also made for some outstanding racing, a year ago.
“The intensity all comes down really to desperation,” Brad told USA TODAY Sports. “When guys get desperate, they take chances they normally wouldn’t take and it opens up your odds of something dramatic happening.”
BK learned that first-hand last year. He started off the second round, the Contender Round, with a 36th-place finish, then a 13th-place finish, putting the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion behind for Round 2’s cutoff. Miraculously, and of course dramatically, Kes pulled off a victory at Talladega Superspeedway, at a time when even a second-place finish would’ve left him out of the Eliminator Round.
He made that win happen, even after some on- and off-track drama at Charlotte the week before. After tension mounted on the track and on pit road, it boiled over in garage, where both Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth went to confront Brad. Hamlin was restrained, but Kenseth executed a sneak-attack in the dark between haulers, sparking a brawl between the No. 2 and No. 20 crews.
The racing soap opera carried on from there. Brad’s Eliminator Round started with a frustrating day and a 31st-place finish at Martinsville, leaving Kes desperate once again with just eight drivers left in contention. He tried to make another winning move at Texas, between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, and when Gordon tried to close the gap too late, Kes incidentally cut his tire.
BK finished third and Gordon went looking for him on pit road after the race. The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver was furious as he spoke to Brad, who simply tried to walk away from the situation. Meanwhile, the eventual champion Kevin Harvick came up from behind BK and pushed him back Gordon’s way. That push by Harvick incited a brawl involving Brad and Gordon’s crews. Kes put it behind him and finished fourth at Phoenix, but even that wasn’t quite enough to overcome the tough result at Martinsville, leaving BK out of the four-man Championship Round.
The goal this year is to be racing for a title when the NSCS circuit concludes on South Beach.
Fortunately, BK has shown late in the season just the type of consistency that will keep him in the running for the Cup throughout the Chase.
Kes comes into Chicago with a career-best nine straight Top 10 finishes, dating back to July 11 at Kentucky. That streak has included three runner-up finishes, but no wins. Brad has just one victory on the year, which came at Auto Club Speedway in the fifth race of the season, but his 18 top 10s are the third most in the Cup Series. That consistency, despite the lack of wins, has BK feeling that he’s right where he needs to be going into the postseason.
“Even though we won the most races and led a lot of laps last year, we did not win the championship. This year, we seem to be projecting toward peaking at just the right time,” Brad said. “We are here to take that next step now. We have to be good every week now and win races and not get too far ahead of ourselves.”
Brad also won at Chicagoland Speedway in 2012, which as a major part of his 2012 Cup Championship run. He led 76 laps in that victory, and he led 62 in last year’s Windy City triumph. He has two other Top 10 finishes at Chicago, and he knows full well the challenges the surface presents. Kes said tire management will be critical at the Chicagoland Speedway track. He hopes to be aggressive early and use finesse to weave his way to the front as the race gets into its later stages.
“The ability to do both well and know when to transition from one style to the other is crucial and it is something our Miller Lite Ford team does well,” Brad said. “We’ll be on a racetrack where we will have a positive attitude because we had had success there. love coming there. I look at Chicago as a place where we are one of the guys to beat. That is never a disadvantage.”
This race is also a key proving ground for the postseason. BK has long contended that the 1.5-mile tracks are categorically crucial to win a championship. Chicago is one of five mile-and-a-half tracks on the Cup circuit, joined by Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, and the championship venue: Homestead-Miami. There is at least one 1.5-mile track in each round, and dominating the intermediate tracks means dominating the playoffs.
“Mile-and-a-halfs are the bread and butter of this sport,” Kes said. “As we get into the Chase, you win the mile-and-a-halfs, you win the championship.”
Brad has used strong starting position to fuel his impressive run of late, and with qualifying rained out at Chicagoland on Friday, he’ll be in position to do so again. After logging the third-fastest time in the day’s lone practice session, he’ll start Sunday’s race from P3 behind teammate Joey Logano and defending Cup champion Kevin Harvick.
The second row starting slot marks the Deuce’s seventh Top 10 start in the last 10 races, including each of the last four. It also marks his second best starting position in the Cup Series at Chicago. He started second there in 2013, but only finished seventh. Interestingly enough, he’s had to come from much farther back to win at Chicagoland. His victories in 2012 and 2014 came with starts of 13th and 25th, respectively.
But it can’t be a bad thing that the White Lite has shown some of the field’s best speed right off the hauler. He followed Friday’s performance by running fifth in the second practice and posting the second best speed in Saturday’s Happy Hour Final Practice, behind only the No. 78 of Martin Truex Jr.
Brad will look to carry that momentum into Sunday when the MyAFibRisk.com 400 goes green shortly after 3 p.m. ET. The race will broadcast on NBC Sports Network.
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