I immediately got on the phone and spoke with some of the great people of The Chase including Heather. I asked for some information, basically to see where and when I will have to line up to get a wrist band to meet him. Unfortunately, the appearance was going to be a private event and if there were time available, BK was going to meet as many people as he could after the event, however there was no guarantee. She then asked me how big a fan I was.

I said, “Well, I’m NASCARDO.”

I’m just kidding. But I said I would be coming down from Canada even if there is the slightest chance to see him. She told me to hold on a sec, and she put me on hold. She came back on and asked, “How would you like to have dinner with Brad and have a chance to get his autograph?” I was like, “Umm ya, how do I get to do that?” She asked for my name and said she would leave me two tickets and I could come pick them up when we get into town. I couldn’t have thanked Heather enough, and man, I couldn’t wait for Thursday. I called my brother and asked him what he was doing for dinner on Thursday and wondered if he wanted to have it with the Champ!

We arrived at the bar, and to be honest, really didn’t know what to expect. It was a great place. It even had a real race car that Rusty Wallace drove a couple years ago. We spoke to a waitress, and sure enough a couple tickets were waiting for us. Now I was really pumped. A few minutes later we were allowed to go to the second level of the bar where the event would be held. The place had all kinds of stuff set up for BK to sign for some of the employees, and a huge bucket full of Miller Lites and Redds Apple Ale. We grabbed a seat and a Miller Lite, and were told by the staff that BK would stop by each table and talk with you. A few moments later, the Champ arrived to the delight of the crowd. He came in a signed all kinds of stuff for employees and family and then he began to make his was to each table.

When he arrived to our table, I had set up my NASCARDO hat to see if BK recognized me from the Crew Challenge. He came and said, “How’s it going guys?” I was like awesome man, thanks for coming out tonight. He began to sign a couple cars and the big poster I got last year in Miami at Wild Wings. He commented on my Miller Genuine Draft custom car that I made — he thought it was really cool and done really well. He also noticed my NASCARDO hat. I told I him who I was, and BK chuckled and said, “That’s cool man, thanks for participating!” He took a picture with me and my brother and my favorite part of the whole deal was he put his hand out, and I shook his hand and he THANKED ME for being a fan. Just another example of the kind of driver he is, one who appreciates his fans. He continued on to other fans and grabbed a beer and a couple slices of pizza and continued to mingle with the crowd.  

He also had a brief Q and A. He was really funny as usual, especially when a question was asked who was his favorite, Ricky Bobby or Cole Trickle. He chose Cole Trickle because he had Nicole Kidman, and BK mentioned how he learned about drafting from a famous scene in Days of Thunder. (I’m sure most of you know what scene I am talking about.) When BK was on the way out, to head down to the bar and serve some beers to everyone, he stopped by our table to sign a couple more autographs for other people and he had put his beer down on my table. He continued on forgetting his beer. I was like, “BK, you forgot your beer,” but he didn’t hear me, he was walking and talking to other people. A guy beside us was like hey you need to put that on Ebay, and I was like, “No way, that’s going with my collection.” And as soon as I move into my new house in July, it will be happily placed beside the White Deuce die cast I got at the track.

Overall, like always it was another amazing time getting a chance to see BK.

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In Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 on his home track at Michigan International Speedway, the 2012 Sprint Cup champ posted his third consecutive top-three finish of the season. It was another solid performance that fell just shy of dominant, as Brad spent almost the entire day running inside the top seven and led for three brief stretches, a total of four laps.

“It was a good day, not a great day. Third is nothing to hang your hat on,” he said. “To be really happy, I’d want to win here today, especially on Father’s Day. It would be really special for me and my family here at my home track in Michigan.”

Though pleased that his team has been consistently at the front, Brad would prefer to join the list of drivers with multiple wins.

“We have consistency, which is good. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean much right now at this time of the year in the sense of points, but it does mean a lot to us in the sense of overall morale and our ability to really make a push as the fall months come in the Chase. So that’s important to us even if it might not show a tangible result in the short term. So I’m happy for that.” 

The Blanco Deuce was moments away from making it three straight runner-up results, but Kevin Harvick, whose No. 4 car was running on much fresher tires, went charging by both the No. 2 and Paul Menard’s No. 27 with five laps remaining, and Brad crossed the finish line in third place.

After the race, BK praised the powerful Hendrick motors, which were featured in six of the first eight machines to cross the finish line, but he had his Penske Racing Ford poised to top the pack of Chevrolets. That is, until the eighth and final caution of the day compromised a winning strategy.

Brad brought the White Lite into the pits during a caution on Lap 125 while running in second position, just 10 laps after the entire field pitted on a previous yellow. He dropped six places on the restart, but by sacrificing position he set the Deuce up to make just one final stop before the race’s end.

But it was too much to hope for a long green run to the end. After BK had worked his way back up to third, debris brought out the yellow flag on Lap 148. The caution set the stage for the entire field to be on the one-stop plan Kes and Co. were already prepared for.

That planning process began around the halfway stage of the race. After caution No. 4 on a lap 108 restart, BK took the outside line behind leader Kevin Harvick and followed the No. 4 past Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. into second place. Now thriving in cleaner air, two quick cautions gave Brad the chance to battle with Harvick on consecutive restarts, but Harvick won both battles and Brad entered fuel save mode.

Kes successfully conserved several laps’ worth of fuel and caution No. 7 came just in time at lap 123. Kes pitted from second place, taking just fuel. He was first off pit road and was set up to go the rest of the way on just one stop. 

Brad made quick work of several competitors, eventually besting Matt Kenseth for third place at lap 130. On the ideal strategy while making his way to the front, BK was in perfect position to grab his first win at Michigan, until the eighth caution flag flew at lap 148. At that point, he took two tires and was first off pit road once again, though Jamie McMurray, Johnson, Menard, Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon stayed out on the track, sending the Blanco Deuce back to sixth.

Brad moved back into second as that group went in for its final stop. Then at lap 174, BK went down pit road for the last time for a splash-and-go stop. When the entire field cycled through pit road, Brad was in second behind Johnson with just 10 laps remaining. Unfortunately, the No. 2 was several seconds behind Johnson’s No. 48 at that point and simply didn’t have the speed to make up that kind of ground.

“We just didn’t have the speed really all weekend to be a front runner in the sense of contending to win based on speed,” Brad said. “But the guys did a great job with execution. I thought we executed really well.”

Brad qualified in sixth—his first time out of the Top 3 in a points race since Talladega. After the race, he reported that he felt he had a third-to-fifth-place car, given the relatively modest speed displayed in qualifying and practice. Once the event went green, he was battling vibration issues that caused the car to be loose on Turns 3 and 4, as well. The pit crew worked on it throughout the day, but Kes still had trouble in traffic.

Before the race, Brad spoke with Penske teammate Joey Logano about their chances for the week. The duo knew that they lacked the speed of the Hendrick cars and said they would need to work for every position possible. The Penske pair did just that, and Logano joined BK in the Top 10, finishing ninth.

“We needed a good blue collar today, and that’s of what today was for us,” he said.  “We kind of trudged through it and came away with another top three effort, which is good but not great.  We want the wins, especially here at Michigan.”

Johnson made his third trip to Victory Lane in four races and the fifth straight for Hendrick Motorsports. Brad claimed his seventh Top 5 finish of the season. He’s tied with Dale Jr. for the most Top 5 results and remains fifth in the series standings, now trailing leader Jeff Gordon by 47 points.

NEXT UP

The Sprint Cup season hits the road this week for the first time this season as the series shifts to Sonoma Raceway in California for next Sunday’s the Toyota/SaveMart 350.

The race is the first of two road courses on the Cup schedule. Brad has three runner-up finishes in eight career Sprint Cup road races, but all three have come at Watkins Glen, and he owns just one Top 10 result in four Sprint Cup visits to Sonoma. BK led seven laps in last year’s Toyota/SaveMart 350, but settled for a 21st place finish after getting caught up in an accordion crash on a late-race restart.

The annual weekend at Sonoma begins on Friday with a pair of practice sessions at 3:30 p.m. ET and 6:30 p.m. ET, both to be televised on Fox Sports 1. Qualifying is Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The Toyota/SaveMart 350 is Sunday afternoon on TNT with coverage beginning at 2 p.m. The green flag will fly at approximately 3:19 p.m. ET

RELATED LINKS

• Johnson makes it 3 of 4 with win in Michigan (USA Today, June 16, 2014)
• In NASCAR, it’s Hendrick Motorsports, and then everyone else (Oakland Press, June 15, 2014)
• Best in class: Keselowski leads Ford charge at MIS (FOX Sports, June 15, 2014)
• Hometown Success Eludes Brad Keselowski Again (Speedway Media, June 15, 2014)
• Six-time Sprint Cup champ Jimmie Johnson finally ends MIS drought (The Detroit News, June 15, 2014)
• Brad Keselowski knows speed wasn’t there, settles for third at MIS (Detroit Free Press, June 15, 2014)
• Brad Keselowski says Hendrick teams have horsepower advantage (Sporting News, June 15, 2014)
• Brad Keselowski once again comes up short at Michigan (NBC Sports, June 15, 2014)
• Michigan driver Brad Keselowski comes up short on his home track (The Detroit News, June 15, 2014)
• Larson: ‘Just made too many mistakes’ (NASCAR.com, June 15, 2014)
• Johnson gets first-ever win at Michigan (NASAR.com, June 15, 2014)

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Brad enters this weekend’s race with as much momentum as any driver on the Sprint Cup circuit following consecutive second-place finishes at Dover and Pocono over the last two weeks.

“Brad has been doing a great job behind the wheel and our Miller Lite crew has been executing well at the track,” crew chief Paul Wolfe said. “All the people back at the shop have been building solid cars and our Ford Fusions have been fast. With this being a home race for Brad and for Roger (Penske), as well as just missing those last two, we want this one real bad.”

More than halfway through the Cup regular season now, the No. 2 crew is looking strong. The Deuce has qualified third or better in 10 out of 15 races, including an incredible eight front row starts. He’ll start sixth on Sunday.

The No. 2 crew’s in-race performance has been solid as well. The Miller Lite Ford Fusion has been one of the most consistently fast machines in the field all season, allowing BK to lead at some point in 13 of the 14 races so far this year. Kes currently sits fifth in the series standings with his win in Las Vegas and five other Top 5-finishes.

“Our Ford Fusions have had great speed lately and we’ve been really close to winning the last couple of races,” Brad said this week. “We are ready to move up that one last spot and get a victory at home.”

One area that has improved through significant changes before and during the season is the work in the pits. The Miller Lite team has seen an uptick in the performance of their pit crew in recent weeks, which contributed to their back-to-back second place finishes to Jimmie Johnson at Dover and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Pocono.

“Our recent results have been pretty decent,” Wolfe said. “Still we are constantly working to improve in all areas of our program. I tend to look at the race results like a report card, if we finish up front we’re doing all right, but we always have room to get better.”

Brad did admit this week that it took a few days for him to move on from the sting of last week’s finish at Pocono, which saw him be passed for the lead by Earnhardt Jr. with four laps remaining while trying to remove debris from the front of his car. He had dominated the race, leading 95 laps.

“I’m not going to say that I got over it right away, because that’s not the case,” Kes said this week. “But for me knowledge is power, and getting over something like that is knowing what I could have done better or should have done differently, researching those things and finding the answer…I think that’s where I find the ability to move on.”

Brad had a similar learning experience last year at Michigan when he came close to taking the checkered flag in the Quicken Loans 400, when a miscommunication with the crew left the Deuce short on fuel after the last scheduled pit stop and dropped Kes from the Top 5 with two laps remaining to a 12th place finish.

The No. 2 team repeated that result in the 2013 Pure Michigan 400 at MIS last August by taking a more conservative fuel strategy despite leading the field with less than 30 laps to go. But this time around, BK wants nothing more than to make good in front of friends and family.

“Racing in Michigan holds that touch of added significance as it is a home race for me,” he said. “Since we’ve yet to win here, there is additional motivation to get to Victory Lane.” 

The wide, sweeping corners, high-banking turns and long straightaways of the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway  make it the fastest track on the Sprint Cup circuit. That bodes well for Brad, who has the fastest average green flag speed on the year, according to NBCSports.com.

“This weekend will likely see some of the highest speeds of the season,” Kes said. “The track surface along with the aero characteristics of these cars ought to combine for what I expect to be record-breaking speeds.”

As part of his homecoming this weekend, BK had a busy day on Thursday with a visit to the Ford headquarters in the afternoon and a stop at The Chase, a bar in Jackson for a Miller Lite appearance on Thursday night. The media blitz continues after the Quicken Loans 400 as well. He will visit Los Angeles on Monday to tape another appearance on the TBS TV show “Sullivan and Son.”

But the hectic scheduled couldn’t slow BK on the track at Michigan on Friday. He was eighth fastest in the morning practice session at MIS with a best lap time of 35.706 seconds and average speed of 201.647 miles per hour. He followed that up by qualifying in sixth position 

The No. 2 crew gets two more chances to tweak their setup on Saturday with practices at 9:30 a.m. ET and 12:30 p.m. ET, both airing on FOX Sports 2.

Coverage of Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 begins with Countdown to Green at noon ET on TNT. The green flag will fly at approximately 1:16 p.m. ET.

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