Team Penske announced on Tuesday that REESE and Draw-Tite will serve as main sponsors for Brad and his No. 2 Ford Fusion for two races during the 2018 season. The Deuce will don the new lead sponsors in March at Martinsville Speedway and in September at Richmond Raceway. REESE branding will also be showcased on the No. 2 Ford throughout the 2018 MENCS season.

The agreement is part of a multi-year partnership between Team Penske and Horizon Global towing and trailering brands. The company will also serve as a full-season associate sponsor on the car driven by Simon Pagenaud in the Verizon IndyCar Series this season.

“Horizon Global is a Michigan-based, automotive-focused company, like Penske Corporation, and we welcome them to the Team Penske NASCAR and INDYCAR programs beginning this season,” team owner Roger Penske said. “We look forward to helping build the company’s REESE and Draw-Tite brands through motorsports and they’ll have some great opportunities working with two series champions in Brad and Simon.”

Horizon Global designs is based out of Troy, Michigan, not too far from where BK grew up in Rochester Hills. This company has been known for distributing an extensive list of towing, trailering, cargo management, and other accessory products for the automotive aftermarket. BK has been involved with Horizon Global since 2012, partnering with the company for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where they sponsored his trucks for the majority of their runs.

As a result, Brad’s strong relationship with Horizon Global Americas President John Aleva helped the two sides come together for the possibility of extreme growth.

“We couldn’t be more enthusiastic to expand our motorsports involvement with Team Penske in 2018,” said John Aleva, President of Horizon Global Americas. “Over the past six seasons, we have developed a strong relationship with Brad and have seen first-hand how beneficial motorsports has been to our company. Taking the next step to grow our program with Team Penske is something we couldn’t pass up.”

BK will join the Horizon Global team at the North American International Auto Show on Thursday, January 18th, in Detroit.

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For the second straight year, BK raced the No. 19 F-150 to a second place finish in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway. After last year’s second in the Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky he went on to finish seventh in the Nationwide, but took the top spot in the Sprint Cup race. A repeat performance would suit Brad just fine.

But on Thursday night, his focus was on the truck race alone and though the second place finish — his fourth in the only NASCAR series he’s never won in — was frustrating, he had a deep appreciation for the effort that went into it.

“We had an interesting night for sure, had a couple ups and downs. It just didn’t come together,” he said afterward. “We still had a shot at it and I think that just goes to show how everyone on this team is fighting hard to get a win. It would mean a lot to me. We’ve got a lot of these second

[place]’s but we don’t have a win. It’s coming soon. I just appreciate everybody’s hard work.”

The No. 19 Reese Towpower / Advance Auto Parts team had to rally back from early race adversity just to get into contention for the victory. Early on, he experienced a tire issue that caused him to drop back in the field after starting 12th.

“The truck wasn’t drivable early on,” he said. “I thought something was wrong and thought I might have screwed it up, but when I came in and put new tires on it, then it was okay. I don’t know if we had a bad set of tires or something.”

After the issue was corrected in the pits, Brad was able to run in the top 20 and eventually climb to within a spot of the lead thanks to a pit strategy that saw them take only two tires instead of four, but events throughout the race kept Brad from ever being able to take the lead.

“We drove back through a little bit, got our track position back and had something happen to our gas guy on the last stop,” Brad said. “He got fuel in his eyes, had to go to the care center and we didn’t get fuel in the truck. Just kind of one of those days. But we put on a great effort. We were really fast in practice, just came up a little bit short to [race winner Ty Dillon], who did a great job. I made one or two bad moves that hurt us, and we needed to be just a little bit better in a couple of other areas.”

Overall, however it was a good night for Brad Keselowski Racing. Along with Brad’s second place finish in the No. 19, Ryan Blaney drove the BKR No. 29 Cooper Standard F-150 to a fifth place finish, making for a historic mark for BKR.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Dillon Edges Keselowski, Busch at Kentucky truck race (USA Today, June 27, 2013)
• Dillon holds off Keselowski to win Trucks race (Lexington Herald, June 27, 2013) 
• Dillon outruns Keselowski, Busch for Kentucky truck win (The Sports Network, June 27, 2013) 
• Ty Dillon wins at Kentucky (ESPN, June 27, 2013) 
• Sweep Hopes End For Keselowski, Busch (NASCAR.com, June 27, 2013)

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Across three days at one of his favorite tracks on the circuit, Brad will race in the Camping World Truck Series, Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series. Last year, BK ran the triple to near unparalleled success at Kentucky.

He finished second in the Truck Series race, seventh in the Nationwide event and then went on to win the Cup race, a victory that kick stared a red-hot summer on his way to the championship in NASCAR’s top series.

According to Brad, his success at Kentucky comes from a comfort level on the track, which he believes suits his style.

“Kentucky is such a rough racetrack and that just seems to fit my driving style,” he said. “There aren’t many of those tracks left on the schedule. The groove is very wide which comes with being an older surface.”

In his first race of the weekend at Kentucky, Brad will be the owner/driver of the No. 19 Reese Towpower Ford F-150 for Brad Keselowski Racing.

“I’m excited to get back into the Reese Towpower Ford,” Brad said. “Kentucky is a great track for us to breakthrough with a win this season.”

Last year’s second place finish in the UNOH 225 is Brad’s best finish ever in the camping World Truck Series and as he jumps into the a Ford F-150 for the second time this year, he’ll be looking once again to drive to victory lane and join his father Bob Keselowski as the only father-son duo to each win in the Truck series.

“A chance to win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series would be an incredible feat,” he said earlier this season. “It would be great to rewind to the beginning of my career and become the only father-son combination to win in the Truck Series.”

Brad is one of two drivers attempting the tripleheader this weekend as he and Kyle Busch will become the 28th and 29th instances of a drivers running the three series trifecta. Busch is the only driver ever to sweep a tripleheader, which he did at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2010.

“Those guys are brave doing it at Kentucky, because it’s one of the hottest places we go, it seems like,” Nationwide Series points leader Regan Smith told NASCAR.com. “Would I do it? Absolutely. We’re all racers. It doesn’t matter how hot or cold it is. We want to be in the race car and making laps and learning what we can. Certainly, the more races the better.”

Indeed by the time both drivers get done on Saturday night, they will have each spent somewhere between 12 and 16 hours on the track at Kentucky Speedway. But as Busch knows, there is plenty of benefit to spending that much time on the track as grueling as it may be.

“It’s a busy schedule, and you are running back and forth between garages, and it’s typically hot there in Kentucky,” he told NASCAR.com. “The biggest thing you get to work on, and enjoy, is essentially the on-track time and getting to figure out the bumps there, and you get extra track time to figure out if you need to get through them better or if you need to get your guys to give you a better setup to get through the bumps. I have three divisions worth of chances, and three crew chiefs who have different mindsets that, by the time I get to Saturday, I have a feel for what I need to win.”

The weekend starts on Thursday morning with practice for Camping World Truck Series UNOH 225 at 10:30 a.m. and noon, qualifying at 5 p.m. EDT on SPEED. After qualifying for the truck race, BK will also have to jump briefly into his Nationwide ride for a practice run at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Then it’s back into the truck for his first race of the weekend, the UNOH 225 under the Thursday night lights, at 8 p.m. on SPEED.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Three Kentucky Races, One Goal For Keselowski (NASCAR.com, June 26, 2013)
• Keselowski aiming for personal mark in trucks (NASCAR.com, May 14, 2013) 
• Brad Keselowski Racing Kentucky Preview (BKR, June 25, 2013) 
• Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski top NASCAR’s triple threats (Sporting News, June 26, 2013) 
• Keselowski calm heading to Kentucky for 3 races (Associated Press, June 26, 2013)

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