Topping the list is one of the most incredible clutch victories of Brad’s career—a downright fearless charge to victory with his back against the wall at one of NASCAR’s most iconic venues.

No. 1: Oct. 19, 2014
Talladega Triumph

It was the final race of the Contender Round in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and the worst fears of Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 crew had been realized.

Before the Chase began, Brad predicted that the Contender Round, featuring races at Kansas and Charlotte before the finale at the always-unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway, would be the most treacherous of the championship. And after 36th- and 16th-place finishes in the first two races, BK was left with no other option: He needed a win in the final restrictor plate event of the year to keep his title hopes alive.

But Brad rose to the challenge and not only did he race his No. 2 Redd’s Wicked Apple Ale Ford Fusion to victory—he did so in perhaps the most dramatic finish of the entire season.

Kes sustained damage to the Redd Deuce early in the race, was kicked back to the middle of the pack in the final 10 laps and had to go through two green-white-checkered finishes—but at the end of a wild day at one of the most iconic tracks in motorsports, Brad took the checkered flag and kept his season alive.

“I can’t believe it,” Brad said immediately after his victory. “Talladega is such a wild card, and to be able to win here (where) you have to catch breaks and make your own breaks, a little of both. I can’t believe we won at Talladega.”

Adding to the drama, the win came just one week after BK was at the center of a post-race incident involving Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth. But with his season on the line, Brad shut everything out and won at a track where victory can be frustratingly elusive for even the best drivers.

“I don’t think this is the first time we’ve seen Brad step up to the plate,” said No. 2 crew chief Paul Wolfe. “Seems like everyone is against him. Seems like that fires him up more. I’ve got his back 100%. I didn’t see anything that he did out of line. He does a great job and races hard. That’s why we like him driving our car.”

It was fitting that after being vilified by his fellow competitors, Kes climbed into a new black-and-red Redd’s Wicked paint scheme as he fixed his sights on Victory Lane. But that trek was not without plenty of adversity, starting at the outset of the race. The No. 2 team elected to replace the alternator on the mean Redd’s machine just before the green flag, forcing Brad to start from P38. But it was no matter, and just 20 laps into the race, BK had already cracked the top five.

At the front of the pack, Brad dueled with two other championship hopefuls—Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson—who were in the same position as he was, in need of a win to keep their title hopes alive.

The Deuce won out in the first battle between the desperate drivers when he jumped to the outside line and rocketed ahead of Dale Jr. to the lead on Lap 25. Over the course of the day, the No. 2 car held lead on five separate occasions but, as is often the case at a restrictor plate tracks, with the lead changing hands often, BK only held the top spot for 12 total laps in the race.

The first stroke of in-race adversity came at lap 58, when Brad was running near the front of the pack alongside Jamie McMurray. McMurray blew a tire on his No. 1 car and spun out in front of Earnhardt Jr. In an attempt to avoid a total spin, McMurray then cut to the left and smacked into the right side of Brad’s No. 2.

Fortunately, the damage was manageable for the 2 Crew. After a season filled with similar adversity, Wolfe and Co. were prepared, and it took them just two trips down pit road to get the Wicked Deuce repaired and because of their quick work, they miraculously kept the No. 2 on the lead lap.

“We certainly didn’t just get handed this race today. We had the incident early in the race where I think the 1 car blew a tire out,” Brad said. “He half-spun and kind of got in our door and tore that up. It was a pretty hard hit. I thought the car was torn up pretty good, but I still haven’t seen it but Paul says it was good. We maybe lost just a touch of speed, but not enough to overcome the will to win that we had today. From there it was about finding the track position, making the right moves, finding the right lanes and I thought we were in good shape having run top five, top 10 most of the race.”

After the caution caused by the incident with McMurray, the field stayed clean for awhile, creating a long green-flag run that allowed Brad to meet up with Penske teammate Ryan Blaney and draft to the front of the pack. Eventually, Kes came back down pit road—and this stop came at the perfect time. While he was on pit road, a massive wreck involving another Chase hopeful, Kyle Busch, took place.

Another yellow followed not long after, when Michael McDowell blew a tire, and that pause set up the most thrilling green-flag spell of the race.

Johnson took the restart in P1 with Brad beside him in second. After the green flag dropped, several top-flight drivers, including Kevin Harvick, Dale Jr., Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. all made moves at the 48—only to be denied. After Truex’s attempt, Kes pushed the Deuce past the No. 78 and made his own pass at Johnson. But like others before him, he didn’t get the drafting help he needed and was shuffled back. Finally, one more competitor charged at the No. 48 and where Brad and others came short, Danica Patrick and the No. 10 succeeded and passed the six-time champion for the lead.

With 15 laps to go, Brad came down pit road for his final trip, an in-and-out, fuel only stop. But unlike his previous stop, this trip came at the wrong time. Before the green-flag stops cycled through, a caution flag flew, shuffling the Deuce back to P21 behind several drivers who had not yet pitted.

In that moment, the No. 2 crew’s season was on life support, and Brad could be pardoned for feeling briefly like it was about to come to an end. But luckily he found some help just when he needed it from his teammates, the young Blaney — who Brad gave his first NASCAR opportunity in his Brad Keselowski Racing truck in the Camping World Truck Series — and the veteran Logano, who had already booked his spot in the next round of the playoffs.

“That felt like a death sentence in itself, but we kept our composure,” Brad said of the unlucky timing of his pit stop. “I worked really well with my teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney. We made kind of the perfect move together to go from 16th to second in three or four laps. That put us in position to really capitalize on the last two yellows.”

On a restart with nine laps to go, the field fanned out and Brad created his own outside line, where he was deftly followed by Blaney and Logano. That trio also received some unexpected help from Johnson, who joined their line and rocketed to the front. With just six laps left, the No. 2 was in P2.

Two laps later, another caution flag flew and that set up one of the most dramatic finishes of the season, a green-white-checkered dash to the next round. On the first attempt at a GWC finish, Brad took P1 from fellow Chaser Ryan Newman and set his sights on the checkered flag. But before the white flag could fly, Earnhardt Jr. wrecked, sparking another GWC attempt.

On the ensuing nerve-wracking restart, Newman edged Brad and took the white flag in P1. Through the final 2.666-mile lap, BK was in full-on desperation mode, slicing up and down the track, looking for someone, anyone to give him the draft he needed to best Newman.

Finally, he found that help from perhaps the most unlikely source, Kenseth—the man with whom he was wrestling between haulers just one week earlier in Charlotte. Through turns three and four, Kenseth’s No. 20 gave Brad’s No. 2 an aero push past Newman and into the lead.

As the two rivals raced through the tri-oval to the checkers, Kenseth looked for a clean route around Brad, but it wasn’t there. Instead, Kenseth finished in P2 and advanced to the next round on points, and with his miraculous victory, Brad lived to fight another day in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

After the race, Brad stood in Victory Lane, still unsure of how he pulled off the tremendous victory at Talladega when only a win would do.

“The approach for today to be completely honest with you is, we knew we had to win the race,” Brad said in an interview with ESPN after the shocking victory. “It’s just (time to) hammer down and make it happen. I’m not really sure how it happened, but it happened and we’re glad to be in victory lane with the Redd’s Wicked Apple Ale Ford Fusion.”

The win was the third of Brad’s career at Talladega, putting him in select company. Only eight drivers in NASCAR history have won three races at Dega, and the only active drivers to do so are BK, Dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon.

The win was also No. 6 on the season for Brad, sealing arguably the best overall season of his career. With six victories, he topped his career-best of five, set during his 2012 championship season. He also won five poles through the year after winning just three his entire career before this season.

His 17 top-fives were also a career-high, and his 20 top-10s trailed just the 23 he tallied in 2012. He led 1,540 laps along the way, just 19 less than the rest of his Cup career combined.

While Brad ultimately fell short of his goal: winning his second Cup title, his win at Talladega capped a fantastic year and proved to the racing world that, no matter the circumstances, the No. 2 driver is always a threat to win.

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At No. 2 is the Nationwide Series dominance by the Team Penske No. 22 team, which was paced by another fantastic season by Brad behind the wheel of the team’s championship-caliber Ford Mustang.

No. 2: Penske Supremacy

Brad’s second best moment of the 2014 season came to fruition at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the season finale, but it was a work in progress all season long.

The No. 22 Discount Tire/Hertz Ford Fusion won Roger Penske his first first Nationwide Series owner’s championship in 2013 by edging out the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing squad, headed up by Brad’s longtime rival, Kyle Busch. In 2014, they set out to defend that title from the charge of Busch and the No. 54 team.

As the two teams once again jockeyed to claim the coveted crown in 2014, it took a total team effort from both Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing to have elite-level success and create another thrilling chase, something you can’t help but respect according to No. 22 crew chief Jeremy Bullins.

“

[One thing] that gets lost a little with the owners championship is it is a team championship,” Bullins explained. “No matter who drove, who worked on the car, if you look at the Nationwide Series the last two years the 22 and 54 have separated themselves from the rest of the teams and have two teams that are 100 points ahead of everyone else for two years in a row, those are two teams that have a lot to be proud of.”

The battle for team supremacy began with Brad behind the wheel of the Double Deuce, and he had the team off to a fantastic start, finishing second and third at Daytona and Phoenix before notching the 22’s first win in the third race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, as a part of his first ever weekend sweep.

After that triumph, BK took a hiatus from piloting the Double Deuce, and Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano took over.

In the next six races, that pair hit a relative slump, missing the top three in each race. Then at Iowa Speedway, Blaney notched a runner-up finish before handing the keys back to BK, who raced to runner-up finishes in his next two turns behind the wheel of the No. 22, at Charlotte and Kentucky. Kes dominated for most of the John R. Elliot Hero Campaign 300 at KMS, holding the top spot for 138 of 200 laps. Still, the team couldn’t quite replicate the combination of execution and luck it experienced in Las Vegas and settled for second place, just missing out on yet another NNS-NSCS sweep.

However, BK’s performance behind the wheel at Kentucky set the stage for another milestone weekend when he jumped back into the No. 22 in New Hampshire two weeks later. With the Loudon Lobster on the line BK drove the Double Deuce to Victory Lane on Saturday and, just like in Sin City, followed it up by taking the checkered flag in the Sprint Cup Series race at NHMS the next day. Brad led 296 laps between those two victories.

Three weeks after the New Hampshire win, Brad won again in Iowa, a victory that helped to ignite a remarkable run to the crown.

Kes led a race-high 146 laps in his third win at the Midwestern track, one of his favorites on any circuit. After parking the Discount Tire Double Deuce in Victory Lane, he surmised that the No. 22 team had clicked into high gear—and he was right.

“Our Discount Tire Mustang had great speed, and my Team Penske crew did a great job all weekend, especially considering that I didn’t get to practice the car much at all,” Brad said. “The No. 22 team is hitting stride, and I could not be more proud of the effort and the results tonight.”

It continued three weeks after Brad’s third win, when Blaney became the second driver to take the Double Deuce to victory, winning at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Kes raced the No. 22 three more times, all in the final four races of the season—and his efforts over that finale cemented the team’s championship.

First came a win at Charlotte for Brad, followed by a second-place finish by Logano in Texas.

The next time out, Brad won again at Phoenix, giving the team a massive lead for the season finale in Miami. That victory was perhaps the most thrilling for Brad on the Nationwide circuit in 2014. Busch had dominated all day long, leading 187 of 206 laps and a win would have given the No. 54 team a shot at stealing the crown in Miami. But somehow, someway Brad made sure that wouldn’t happen.

Kes made a stunning pass on the final lap, leaving onlookers, and Busch, stunned as the No. 22 finished that 206th lap in P1—all-but sealing the owner’s crown.

“Kyle was really fast and probably had a tenth or two on everybody and then that yellow came out and I don’t know what happened,” Brad said. “It’s like we grabbed a gear or he slowed down, I don’t know which one happened but either way we were able to get to victory lane with the Discount Tire Ford Mustang and get another win with this group.”

At Homestead, essentially all Brad had to do was finish the race, but he went ahead and added another Top 10 finish to the team’s record, crossing the finish line in eighth to seal Team Penske’s victory over the No. 54 JGR crew for the second consecutive season.

When Brad first joined Team Penske, he urged Roger Penske to add a full time program in NASCAR’s second series, which he believed would be crucial to the team building consistent championship contenders at the Cup level. So far that has proven to be correct. Team Penske tallied 11 wins on the Cup side between Kes and Logano last season, and both drivers were popular picks to take NASCAR’s biggest prize.

Meanwhile, the team’s Nationwide program has been a crucial factor in the development of up-and-comer, Ryan Blaney, who was the only driver other than Brad to win in the Double Deuce this year. Blaney’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed: He earned a part-time Cup ride for Wood Brothers Racing next season.

“The Team Penske Nationwide program has been an integral part of the success of this organization both in the Nationwide and Cup series,” he said. “I am happy to be a part of this team and proud that we were able to give Roger another Owners’ title.”

Alex Tagliani and Michael McDowell joined the trio of Brad, Blaney and Joey in piloting the No. 22, and together they posted some incredible numbers.

All season long, the quintet finished outside of the Top 10 just twice. They racked up six victories, 10 poles, 25 Top-5 and 31 Top-10 finishes in 33 races. Brad was responsible for five of those wins, four poles, 10 Top-5s and 11 Top-10 results

“It is an honor to be a part of this team and be able to drive this car,” Brad said. “This No. 22 Hertz Ford team has done a remarkable job of preparing this Mustang all year long. The pit crew has been solid all season long. We’ve had five different drivers in this car – that is impressive in itself.”

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Coming in at No. 3, Brad’s slays Chicagoland for his second straight win and becomes the first driver to advance in NASCAR’s new Chase for the Sprint Cup elimination playoff format.

No. 3: September 14, 2014

The Windy City Split

Brad Keselowski’s win at Chicagoland Speedway to start the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup could be summed up in one word: confidence.

BK headed to the Windy City for the Chase’s first race with a gust in his sails after a dominant victory at Richmond in the final weekend of the regular season. That win gave Brad the No. 1 seed in the Cup playoffs, and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion squad was firmly positioned as the team to beat for the championship.

The confidence built by those accomplishments played a huge role in the No. 2 Crew’s chase-opening win. It allowed Kes to charge from a P25 start all the way to Victory Lane, and it helped his tire changer when he faced a make-or-break decision after a pit road mishap.

But in the end, what it did most was motivate Brad to make the pass of the season, splitting two competitors to roar to victory.

“You couldn’t ask for a better way to start the Chase,” Brad said afterward. “It was phenomenal the way things played out. I’m not sure if we were the fastest car…but we just fought, we climbed and clawed. We just put it all together and that was very, very special.”

After victory came rather commandingly for BK and Co. in Richmond, the start to the weekend at Chicagoland ensured that the No. 2 team would not have it that easy as the Chase got underway.

Mother Nature gave the No. 2 team its first shot of adversity on Friday. After BK turned in a poor time in the first practice, qualifying was called off due to rain, and as a result, the Miller Lite Ford was stuck starting in 25th position. Still, the White Lite couldn’t be snuffed out. Within 25 laps of the green flag to start the race, Brad had made up 10 spots to P15, and moved to P13 before the first round of green-flag pit stops less than 50 laps in.

The No. 2 broke the Top 10 at lap 60, and BK kept moving forward from there. At lap 107, the Deuce grabbed the lead and held it for 39 laps until a caution flag flew at lap 182 of the 267-lap event.

On this stop, front tire changer Hunter Masling failed to tighten one of the wheels of the No. 2. Rather than trying to sweep the mistake under the rug, Masling alerted crew chief Paul Wolfe, and Brad came back down pit road to remedy the issue.

It looked like the miscue would end Brad’s hopes at victory, as it forced BK to restart in P16 and at the back of the field. However, the confident 2 Crew overcame the issue without worry. And after the race, Masling earned high praise for his actions from both Wolfe and car owner Roger Penske.

“The real winner today is the young man who changes the rear tire who put his hand up and said, ‘Hey I screwed up. The wheel might be loose.'” Penske said. “Paul had the guts to say, “Look were not gonna run it and find out, we’re gonna come in now.” Those were two of the critical calls.”

On the ensuing green-flag run, the No. 2 was white hot, as it burned through the field and up to P8 before the end of the pit cycle. Wolfe called for Brad to wait until the end of the cycle to head down pit road, and a caution came out while Kes was in the pits. The decision gave Brad four more spots, and with just 15 laps left, he was in third with the lead in his sights.

Eventual Rookie of the Year Kyle Larson and eventual Cup champion Kevin Harvick battled side-by-side for the lead, and Kes bided his time until an opening came. When the window creaked open, Brad darted between the No. 4 and the No. 42 and into first place.

“I just saw a hole and I went for it,” Brad said of his critical pass. “The 4 and the 42 were racing really hard and doing all the things they needed to. It just opened a hole. I didn’t know if my car would stick or not, but I knew I would regret it if I didn’t try it.”

One more caution came late in the race, forcing Brad to fend off Larson and his No. 42 Target Chevrolet, but from the inside line on the final restart, Kes rocketed to the lead and ran away with a comfortable victory.

The win locked Brad into the second round of the Chase and solidified the No. 2 team as one of the biggest title threats in the field.

“I want to enjoy the moment, and I feel conflicted because I know there are still nine weeks left to go,” Kes said. “We have a bit of a hall pass for the next two, which is great. But those other seven, nobody cares that we won at Chicago. It keeps resetting, and you have to reset yourself and keep developing the car and pushing as a team. So I want to be thankful for today, but I know there’s a long way to go. Today was about as much of a statement as you can make after one week, but there are nine weeks to go.”

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Down at No. 4 is Brad’s first victory and first sweep of the season, a crucial win that penciled his name on the Chase for the Sprint Cup roster.

No. 4: March 8-9, 2014

KES DOUBLES DOWN IN VEGAS

Each driver approached the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit knowing that wins were valued above everything — the new Chase for the Sprint Cup format, which placed an increased emphasis on winning races, made sure of that. And after winning just one race and falling short of the Chase during the 2013 season, a disappointing follow-up to his 2012 championship season, Brad Keselowski had victory on his mind from the outset of the 2014 campaign.

It didn’t come easily, as BK came tantalizingly close to, but fell short of, wins in the first two weeks of the season at Daytona and Phoenix.

But as the NASCAR season headed to Las Vegas for the third weekend of the season, Brad put all of his chips on the table and won everything in sight.

First Brad dominated the Nationwide Series event, the Boyd Gaming 300, leading 144 of 200 laps in the Discount Double Deuce on the way to his first NNS victory of the young season and the 28th of his career. Then BK doubled down with a last-lap pass of a fuel-failing Dale Earnhardt Jr. to claim victory in the Kobalt 400 and all but lock up his spot in the 2014 Chase for the Championship.

NNS JACKPOT

It’s been the same old story for a number of years in the Nationwide series: Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch battling furiously for victory whenever the two run a race in NASCAR’s second series. 

It came to fruition again in the third NNS race of the 2014 season, and like always, the battle provided plenty of entertainment as an appetizer for Cup Sunday.

Busch is the winningest driver in NNS history and always comes prepared to claim victory in the Nationwide Series, evidenced by his win one week earlier at Phoenix. But in Week 3, it was BK—who finished the season at No. 5 on the all-time series wins list—that tallied the win in Sin City.

“It looked like Kyle and I were pretty equal,” Brad said. “Kyle was coming hard at the end. I tried to get through the lapped traffic and keep the distance between us.”

But of course, it wasn’t easy for Kes. In addition to fending off Busch through traffic late, he overcame a pit road mishap and a bad battery in his No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang to notch the Boyd Gaming 300 win.

“We found every way we could to make it hard,” Kes said. “I didn’t feel that good about the car in practice, but when they dropped the green (flag) it was an amazing car.”

Brad finished second at Daytona and third at Phoenix to start the NNS slate off strong for the Double Deuce team, but in Vegas, he led nearly 3/4 of the race, including the final 38 laps, to notch a perfect driver 150.0 rating and a win.

In addition to the electrical issues facing the No. 22, Brad overshot his pit stall during the race’s third caution at lap 148, forcing him to restart fifth for the final stage of the race.

After another quick caution, Busch restarted first with Brad in second at lap 162, and Kes rocketed to the lead from the inside line. When BK reached lapped traffic, KB caught up and made it interesting—but Brad sliced through the congestion and claimed the win by a 0.34-second margin.

“That’s all we had,” Busch said. “(Brad had) probably the best car — he was really good.”

GOOD CUP LUCK

After the Nationwide win, and with two third-place Cup results in his back pocket, Brad took a wealth of confidence with him to the table for the Kobalt 400.

And when the afternoon was over at the 1.5-mile tri-oval, Brad had doubled down for the first weekend sweep of his career, and the first sweep at Vegas since Jeff Burton did it in 2000.

But most importantly, the win all but locked Brad into the Chase and took a major weight off his shoulders after he missed the postseason in 2013.

“I’m proud to get the Miller Lite Ford in Victory Lane,” Brad told Fox Sports’ Krista Voda as he wiped Miller Lite from his face in Victory Lane after the race. “That’s a big deal. We’re very happy and locked into the Chase early, so I don’t have to hear that crap all year about not being in the Chase.”

Brad’s No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion was strong all weekend, but a win in Las Vegas wouldn’t have been complete without a little luck. It looked like Kes was going to have to settle for second, as he trailed Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the white flag.

But during that final lap, Dale Jr.’s No. 88 Chevrolet ran short on fuel, allowing Brad to fly by on the high side and take the checkered flag.

Kes and No. 2 crew chief Paul Wolfe had set themselves up with a strong strategy throughout the afternoon. That process started during the race’s third caution at lap 156, when Wolfe kept the White Lite on the track while others headed down pit road.

“We were on a little different strategy from time to time with everybody, but the things that have made the No. 2 team successful over the last few years is being aggressive.” Wolfe said. “We’re going to be aggressive this year. That’s what we did today, and it paid off for a big win for us.”

This allowed Brad to run out front, grab clean air and really see what his Miller machine was made of. Then, at lap 222, Wolfe and Co. made another fuel stop that proved to be the winning move.

Kes drove on from there with a full tank, while Junior, Carl Edwards and others made their gamble by staying out.

He restarted seventh, and with just 20 laps to go bested Edwards for second.

From that position, he was able to keep applying pressure to the No. 88, which was light on fuel.

BK kept the White Lite right on the 88’s bumper, and when it sputtered in Turn 2 of the final lap, the No. 2 roared by on the high side and cruised to victory. After the win, Brad commented on the No. 88 team’s decision to risk running out of fuel for a shot at victory.

“The chance that Dale and Stevie

[Letarte, crew chief of the No. 88 team] took with the 88 car was way out there, and it was a good risky move on their part because they had nothing to lose because of this format,” Brad said.

That new format was the key. Winning, and preventing other competitors from winning, was the best possible option. And after notching a win himself, Brad looked forward to making similar decision, and hopefully piling up victories as the season went along.

“I think that shows some of the opportunities that come up and how they can be stress-free days,” Kes said. “I’m looking forward to being able to take those same opportunities because, believe me, I’m not scared to take them, and I know Paul’s not, so look out. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

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Once again, Team BKR will field two full-time truck entries. BK will be the part-time pilot for his No. 29 Ford, which will carry Cooper Standard, and its Careers For Veterans program, as its primary sponsor for the 23-race season. Meanwhile, Team BKR’s No. 19 Ford F-150 will be sponsored by Broken Bow Records and Cequent Performance, represented by Draw-Tite, Reese and Bulldog brands. 

“I feel extremely fortunate to have Cooper Standard, Broken Bow Records and Cequent Performance partner with Brad Keselowski Racing again in 2015,” Brad said. “Together we are a team in every sense of the word and I’m looking forward to a successful season.” 

Tyler Reddick will take over full time behind the wheel of the No. 19. The 18-year-old made 16 starts in 2014 and amassed nine Top-10 finishes while capturing two pole awards. He notched fourth-place finishes at Talladega Superspeedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway. Six of his Top 10s came in his final eight starts of the season. He’ll once again have Doug Randolph running the No. 19 crew.

“The way we closed out the 2014 season was quite a statement for us as a team,” Reddick said. “We were able to do some really good things toward the end of the year. It was a great way to end the season and keep the momentum rolling into 2015 as we compete for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. It’s great to work with everyone at Cequent and Broken Bow Records again this coming season.  I can’t wait to get started.”

Reddicks’ full-time gig in the No. 19 means a switch to the No. 29 for Brad’s part-time gig in his truck. Ryan Blaney will also run part-time in the 29 after driving the Cooper Standard F-150 to a runner-up finish in the Truck series last season. Blaney talled 16 Top-10 finishes and one win on the Truck circuit in 2014, including Top-10 results in each of his last seven starts. Brad and Blaney will be joined in the 29 rotation by 2014 Sprint Cup Championship qualifier Joey Logano and up-and-comer Austin Theriault. Chad Kendrick will be back as the chief of the Cooper Standard crew.

Theriault will return after spending the 2012 and 2013 seasons as a developmental driver for Team BKR. The Fort Kent, Maine native previously ran as a driver in the Southern Super Late Model Series, while also working full-time in the BKR shop. The 20-year-old will run the bulk of the schedule for the No. 29 team, competing in 13 of the 23 races.

“I’m really, really excited to be coming back to BKR,” Theriault said.  “I’m coming back to where I started as a part of the late model development program.  It’s huge for me to be behind the wheel of the Cooper Standard Ford F-150.  I’m looking forward to sharing this truck and soaking up as much information as I can from them and being a better driver.  BKR is so strong and to be a part of this organization is a humbling opportunity for me.”

BK shares the enthusiasm of his young drivers. It has long been Brad’s belief that strong developmental programs, particularly in the Camping World Truck and Xfinity Series, pave the way for future Sprint Cup Series success—and he is anxious to see continued development from both Reddick and Theriault.

“One of the things I wanted to do at BKR is give talented young drivers an opportunity,” Keselowski said. “Both Tyler and Austin are perfect examples of what I’m trying to accomplish. We saw a lot of improvement with Tyler in 2014. He really stepped up his game during the second half of the season and I certainly think he can compete for wins and challenge for a championship in 2015. Austin was part of our driver development program so for him to have an opportunity to drive for us in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is pretty special.”

The 2015 Camping World Truck Series season kicks off on February 20th with the Nextera Energy Resources 250 at Daytona.

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Coming in at No. 5 is Brad’s second Nationwide-Sprint Cup sweep of the season: a dominant and memorable weekend in New Hampshire.

No. 5: July 12-13, 2014

LOUDON LAUREATE

Winning a race is difficult. To come out on top of a field a competitors all with the exact same objective is a challenge, no matter the level of racing. 

To emerge victorious twice in one weekend then, at the two highest series in stock car racing, is one of the most difficult tasks in racing. In fact, prior to 2014, no driver had ever checked off that objective in the history of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where the Sprint Cup Series has run annually since 1993 and twice annually 1997. Until Brad Keselowski and Team Penske did just that in one fell swoop during the second weekend in July of this year.

Brad captured victory in the Hertz No. 22 during the Nationwide Series Sta-Green 200 on Saturday, then came back in the Redd’s Apple Ale Deuce on Sunday and won the Sprint Cup Series Camping World RV Sales 301 to cap an incredible weekend and become the first to complete the Loudon sweep.

“This was just such a phenomenal weekend, and these don’t happen that often, and that’s what makes it special,” Brad said. “You try to appreciate them and enjoy them and hope that there’s more but not count on it, because these are big deals, winning races at the Sprint Cup level – sweeping a weekend, and it’s all possible because of the hard work and effort from everyone at Team Penske. I can drive the heck out of a car, but you can only do so much. You’ve got to have a good horse, and we had that today. I’m just really, really thankful and happy with the form we have.”

STRONG START

Brad started the weekend with a dominant performance guiding the No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang to triumph from pole position in the Nationwide Series.

Kes led 152 of 200 laps in the Sta-Green 200, including the final 56 to mark the Double Deuce team’s second win of the season and first since Kes won to start a sweep at Las Vegas four months earlier.

“What a hell of a Saturday,” Kes told the media after his NNS victory. “I am going to need a little time to soak it in. It has been a really busy day and sometimes on these really busy days you get so caught up in the action that you really can’t appreciate all that has transpired.”

That busy Saturday included practice sessions in both series that had BK trekking back and forth between the NNS and NSCS garages to keep up with his schedule. After spending the morning in a practice whirlwind, Brad grabbed the Nationwide pole by edging out longtime rival Kyle Busch—and the BK-KB battle waged on throughout the weekend, as it often does when the two tangle on the NNS circuit.

Once the race got underway, Busch swiped the lead from Kes on the first lap and held it until the two met lapped traffic 34 laps later. With some other competitors finally in the mix, Brad found a window and took back the top spot.

BK stayed in either first or second through the entire race, and crew chief Jeremy Bullins called for a two-tire stop on the final pit-road trip of the day.

By the end of the day, Busch’s No. 54 Toyota was tuned up to match the Double Deuce, and when the two reached traffic again, Kes was understandably concerned.

“The car was really fast at the beginning and it seemed we leveled off to Kyle the last run,” Brad said. “I thought he might have been a little faster than we were but it was all about getting through lap traffic which was a bit of a dogfight and personally that may not have looked it on TV but it was one of the most challenging races I have ever ran. Knowing you have Kyle Busch behind you, and he is a tiny bit faster, and you have to fight through lap cars and there was always something coming at us.”

With Busch breathing down his neck, Brad weaved masterfully through a gaggle of lapped competition and completed the 200-lap battle in P1 with a 1.88-second cushion.

“This is really satisfying,” BK said. “This team has deserved to win a few races and things just haven’t quite gone their way and it is nice to put it together here at Loudon with a strong car and great team.”

SHELL FINISH

After a hard-fought victory Saturday, Brad got a little rest before yet another grueling test awaited him on the same track Sunday.

BK’s No. 2 Redd’s Apple Ale Ford Fusion was clearly the best machine on the track, but it seemed as though the racing gods were conspiring against him. Seven cautions came out on the day, and they always seemed to come at the wrong time, as Kes explained afterward.

“This might only be a 301‑lap race but it felt like a 1,000‑lap race,” Brad said. “Every yellow kept coming with I think 40 laps on tires, which put the field in a position to take two, to take none, to take four, and no matter what call we made, it was going to be a struggle, and that’s always frustrating because there was no right or wrong call, I guess, and that’s really tough on Paul. And then the yellow comes out while we’re leading the race and dominating with two to go, and you’re like, geez, can I just catch a break?  And that stuff wears on you mentally.”

Fortunately, the rapport built between Brad, crew chief Paul Wolfe and the 2 Crew shined through.

The No. 2 team was forced into tough calls throughout the race, but stuck with their strategy and elected to take four tires on most stops while other teams called for just two-tire stops, granting them better track position.

However, the faith the 2 Crew had in each other and their machine paid off. Brad led 138 laps on seven different occasions.

Brad regularly was able to use fresh tires and a dominant Ford to slice past as many as 12 cars in 20 laps or less. It wasn’t an easy task, and it only become more difficult as more teams had their cars tuned in late in the race.

“It seemed like each and every time, it kept getting a little harder, guys keep working on their cars getting a little bit better,” he said. “From our perspective, our car was so fast you hate to do anything to it because something could happen.  That was kind of how I was feeling about it.”

The final strategy call came during a caution at lap 250.

This time, rather than stick to the four-tire plan, Wolfe’s team changed right-side tires only and sent Brad back out in P9. With just two fresh tires and a field of tough competitors in front of him, this jaunt to the front took a bit longer.

But by lap 270, Brad got the job done, and took the lead for good.

After the win, Kes finally could take a deep breath and just enjoy the phenomenal weekend. The win was Brad’s third of the season, tying rival Jimmie Johnson for the series lead, and he made sure to bask in the afterglow for a little while and savor his signature sweep at Loudon.

“Where do I start?” Brad asked. “The team was just really on it today. It really feels like we’ve hit our stride, and I’m kind of quiet and somber because I want to soak it all in. I don’t want this moment to go away so quick. It seems like you get in Victory Lane and you’re rushed around left and right you don’t really get a chance to soak it in.”

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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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Coming in at No. 7 is an overwhelming short-track victory that put Kes as the No. 1 seed going into the postseason.

No. 7: Sept. 6, 2014
Strut To The Chase

With the Chase for the Sprint Cup looming, Brad Keselowski sucked all the drama out of the air at Richmond International Raceway as the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford team made a loud statement about their title aspirations in the final race of the NASCAR regular season.

The Deuce was dominant and led 383 of 400 laps in the Federated Auto Parts 400 to notch BK’s fourth victory of the season and move the No. 2 to No. 1 on the Cup Series Chase Grid to start the postseason.

“What a night,” Brad said, doused in Miller Lite after the triumph. “I pulled into Victory Lane and I pinched myself once to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. These are nights you don’t forget as a driver, and you live for. The Miller Lite Ford Fusion was just flying, and I couldn’t ask for a better way to enter the Chase than to win and take the first seed. We’re ready. We want to run for another Cup. We feel like this team has it. Team Penske is clicking.”

It all started with yet another exceptional qualifying effort. With a swift time trial run of 21.324 seconds, Brad bested Jeff Gordon to win his fourth Coors Light Pole Award of the season.

BK then led the first 43 laps under the lights at Richmond before the White Lite began to lose its rear grip, allowing Kevin Harvick to slip by for the lead. Harvick was the only other driver to take the top spot all night, leading on two occasions for just 17 total laps.

Harvick led the way for just seven laps before a competition caution at lap 50. At that time, crew chief Paul Wolfe called for a tire pressure adjustment to fine tune the No. 2. On this stop, and throughout the night, the 2 Crew showed the amazing strides they had made throughout the year.

After making changes to the crew in the offseason and then shuffling some members around in the early stages of the 2014 season, the No. 2 team hit its stride in the late summer and began consistently churning out championship-caliber stops every week. The first stop at RIR was an example of that, as Brad was off pit road in P1.

“It was just a phenomenal night for our team here and everyone at Team Penske,” BK said. “Car was fast. Pit crew was flawless. We put all the pieces together tonight.”

Brad was also fantastic on restarts, allowing him to take and keep ahold of the top spot for another 63 laps. During that span, he crossed the single-season 1,000-lap milestone for the first time in his career.

Harvick again briefly claimed the top spot from Kes, but didn’t hold it for too long thanks to another caution. A yellow for debris sent the field down pit road once again, where Wolfe signaled for a chassis tweak to the Deuce, and BK once again exited the pits in position No. 1.

“This team has shown a lot of speed all year long,” Paul said. “There’s been some races over the summer months where I feel like we didn’t put all the pieces together, like Brad said.  We had some other dominating performances, but we had races where we felt like we had a shot to win and we made mistakes or didn’t put all the pieces together right. Last week I told Brad obviously it was going to be important that we have the speed in our cars, but we have to be able to execute.  To be able to come to Richmond tonight and do that, the race before the Chase starts, says a lot about what we’re capable of and what our team can do as we get into the Chase.”

After holding off Harvick and Co. for the top spot on the ensuing restart, Brad couldn’t be beat. He led every lap from then on, cruising to victory.

The win, which was No. 14 for Brad’s career and No. 4 on the season, was a milestone victory for Team Penske, as well.

“It’s the 400th win for Team Penske and this feels so lucky to have such an incredible team and a car like we did tonight and be able to execute it and not have any bad luck,” he said. “We’ve had plenty of bad luck over the last few weeks, but wow, what a night.”

The win was a breath of fresh air for the 2 Crew, which — despite all of their progress — had encountered some misfortune in the month of August, most notably the week prior to the run at Richmond. Kes was in position to challenge for the win at Atlanta Motor Speedway but was clipped by a lapped car, sending him into the wall and giving him his only DNF of the season.

It was also especially fulfilling for BK to be the top seed in the Chase after missing it entirely in 2013, a disappointing follow-up to his 2012 championship campaign. One year after having that misfortune come to a head at Richmond, when he fell short of the win he needed to get into the Chase, Kes not only made the Chase, but entered it as the leader, giving him a mountain of momentum to ride into the 10-race run to the title.

“I think working with Ford and getting another year under our belt, certainly some major progress there,” Brad said. “I think last year was a bit of a kick in the butt, not the way you want but it was enough to really push us all and find another level. We did a great job in 2012, but in the sports world you’ve got to keep progressing, and everyone else progressed and we didn’t. We didn’t progress enough last year, and this year we really have upped our game, and man, this is an incredible team. I feel lucky to drive, I feel lucky to be in the Sprint Cup Series.”

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At No. 8 came one of his most dominant performances of the year that was highlighted by a strange champagne mishap in Victory Lane.

No. 8: June 28, 2014

Bluegrass Blowout

Brad Keselowski always flies the stars and stripes out of his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion after a victory, but at Kentucky Speedway one week before Independence Day, BK did a double star spangled burnout.

After starting on the Quaker State 400 pole, Brad led 199 of 267 laps to notch the first wire-to-wire victory of his Sprint Cup career, and he did it while sporting a special red, white and blue paint scheme on his Miller Deuce.

The win was Brad’s second of the season, erasing all doubt and locking him into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. It also came as his fourth top three finish in five races, making a loud statement that he and the No. 2 team were nearing the elite form necessary to compete for their second NSCS title.

“Our car was awesome,” Brad said. “The team did a great job and I’m just really thankful to have a car this good. I don’t know how else to put it. The Miller Lite Ford Fusion was hauling and I just can’t wait to get deeper in the season and the post-season. I think this is where we need to be to have a shot at another championship, so I’m just real proud of everyone right now.”

This victory was memorable, not just for how dominant Kes was in the triumph, but for the celebration afterward.

After slapping on his second victory sticker, Brad was wielding a bottle of bubbly and attempted to knock the cork off using the edge of the metal trophy stand. But the force caused the bottle to explode, cutting his right hand badly.

Kes was rushed to the infield care center, where he was stitched up and sent back out to talk to the media. Fortunately, Brad was none the worse for wear and returned to joke with the media about the mishap. He was also able to race the next week at Daytona and won again a week later in New Hampshire.

“We were playing around with some champagne bottles and as I told my good friend, ‘We should have stuck with beer,'” BK told SportsCenter after the race. “We were having too much fun with champagne and one of the bottles broke and I cut my hand open. It’s no big deal.”

It was especially easy for Brad to let the champagne mishap rolled right off his back after an incredible night on the track. 

The weekend started successfully when he won his third Coors Light Pole Award of the season, matching his career total prior to 2014. After leading the field to green, Kes owned the first half of the race. In just the first 20 laps, the No. 2 lapped 11 other cars and ripped its way to a 4.2-second lead. The dominant performance continued as the Deuce led the first 78 laps and 120 of the first 127. And for the few laps that Kes wasn’t leading, Team Penske teammate Joey Logano was. The duo led 236 of the 267 laps on the night.

While the Red, White and Blue Deuce was the fastest car in the field by far, the rest of the competitors didn’t make it easy on BK, and neither did pit stops. Kes lost the lead while on pit road three times throughout the night, as his crew—which at that point in the season was still coming together—struggled to keep up. 

However, despite the setbacks, Brad never had trouble making his way back to the lead. He passed Logano for the lead five times over the course of the race.

The bad luck bug also bit late in the event. With 53 laps to go, and in the middle of a green-flag pit cycle, an untimely caution flag flew while several drivers, including Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman, were already on pit road. As a result, they cycled to the lead under yellow, and Brad was shuffled back to the third row for the restart. At the time, it was a here-we-go-again moment for the 2 Crew.

“It was kind of one of those races where you know you just have a really fast car and you’re just waiting for something to go wrong,” Brad told TNT. “And it did there on that last yellow. It just caught us out of sequence and we re-started sixth.”

Misfortunate had spoiled BK’s shot chances at a second victory a few times already in the 2014 season, but victory in Kentucky was simply meant to be. After the reset, it took just seven laps for Brad to move from sixth to second. From there, however, Kes still had a massive 2.5-second gap between his No. 2 and the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota driven by Busch. But when Brad’s longtime rival hit lapped traffic 20 laps into the run, Kes made the winning pass—one he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make if it weren’t for his incredibly strong Miller machine—with 20 laps to go.

“I knew it was going to be a dogfight to get back to Kyle and then race him,” Kes said. “We got there with a really fast car and I hit the perfect run on him with traffic. Next thing I knew, we were there. It feels really good to get that second win.”

It was the No. 2’s second win of the season and second Cup victory at Kentucky in just four races on the rough cement surface. It also continued a four-year winning streak at the track between the Cup and Nationwide Series.

Brad garnered the elusive perfect driver’s rating in the win. Afterward, he talked about the momentum-building win that came amid a stretch of 15 top eight finishes in the final 24 events of the Cup slate.

“I really want another championship and I think this team – we’re getting closer to that position if we keep running like this,” Brad said. “I think when you hit this mark in the season some cars might show a little bit more development but not a lot. You pretty much get to where everyone has almost what they’re gonna have to finish out the year around this time. And when you can run well at this point in time in the year, it bodes well for the final half of the season.”

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But even though he didn’t quite make it to the table, he seemed to be near the center of it all, just as he was all season long.

It was an extraordinary season, which featured the new Chase Grid playoff format, which split the final 10 races into four rounds.

The new format created an incredible amount of tension and drama for the drivers and brought unmatched attention to the sport—and BK was right in the middle of the calamity all the way through the postseason.

While different, the new format was fairly simple: Four drivers were eliminated after each of the first three, three-race rounds, setting up a four-driver race for the Cup at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

However, at the Cup banquet, host Jay Mohr had a bit of a different explanation.

“You start with 16 drivers, after each round of races, four drivers are eliminated—and then one of those drivers has to fight Brad Keselowski,” Mohr joked.

The quip drew cheers and laughs from throughout the ballroom, including from Brad and his girlfriend Paige, as well as Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, who were involved in an incident with Brad at Texas Motor Speedway during the penultimate round of the Chase.

Hosting the banquet for the fifth time, Mohr unloaded on all of the top drivers in the sport and sent several jokes Brad’s way. However, he also took the time to pay the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford driver a big compliment.

“You have to love the emergence of Brad Keselowski as the man in the black hat,” he said. “You and I have always gotten along really well, but this year, you just sort of became the bad guy—the guy people love to hate, and I’m going to tell you a quote and I mean this from my heart.”

“Reggie Jackson, Brad, once said, ‘Fans don’t boo nobodies.’ Six wins, 17 top fives, you my friend are a big ol’ somebody.”

He also provided a hilarious new look at the fight between BK and Gordon, as well as Harvick.

While Harvick, as the Cup champion, was the man of the weekend, Brad came home with one major honor from Thursday’s NMPA Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon: The Coors Light Pole Award.

Kes won five poles in 36 Cup races, started inside the top 10 30 times, inside the top five 22 times and was on the front row for the start of 13 races.

Brad was also one of the top 10 vote-getters for NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the award for the 12th straight year. BK was joined in the top 10 by Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart and Josh Wise.

During the NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series banquet Nov. 17 in Doral, Fla., Brad Keselowski Racing driver Ryan Blaney was named the NCWTS Most Popular Driver. Blaney finished second in points to champion Matt Crafton while driving Brad’s No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150.

On the same night, the Team Penske No. 22 Discount Tire/Hertz Ford Mustang team was honored for winning its second straight NNS owner’s points title.

RELATED LINKS

• Jay Mohr roasts absent Danica Patrick, others at Cup banquet (Fox Sports, Dec. 6, 2014)
• NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards 2014 (Jayski, Dec. 5, 2014)
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins most popular driver for 12^th straight year (USA Today, Dec. 5, 2014)
• Elliott, Crafton take center stage at banquet (NASCAR, Nov. 17, 2014)

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