Kes was one of three drivers to lead 20 or more laps of the I LOVE NEW YORK 355 at The Glen, but the battle of fuel strategy left the Miller 2 Crew just a few laps short of their first road course win. Brad was in contention all day but the one final late caution he needed didn’t show, and he was hit with a penalty for driving through too many pit boxes on the empty pit road, forcing him to settle for a P15 finish.

“Tough break today for the Miller Lite Ford team,” Brad said. “We weren’t the fastest car today but we raced real hard and with a lot of heart. That put us in position. I guess I drove through too many pit stalls leaving on our last pit stop. Gosh, it’s a bummer. I hate that I cost us a top-five to a 15th. Good effort all around.”

Starting the 355-kilometer race from P8, Brad quickly worked his way up inside the Top 5, and remained there for the duration of the 20-lap first Stage. The fourth-place stage finish netted the 2 Crew an additional six points for the race. Pitting for a fresh set of tires and fuel during the caution, it relegated BK to a 14th-place start in Stage 2 behind the drivers that visited pit road prior to the yellow.

Still not having the grip on his Deuce he wanted, it slowed down the three-time WGI runner-up’s progress through the pack. Cracking into the Top 10 fairly easy, it took all he had to muscle up to seventh when Stage 2 ended on lap 40, earning him another handful of bonus points.

Going green again on lap 45 for the start of the final segment, Kes restarted from seventh—but contact with Kyle Busch through his day through a loop. Busch attempted a pass on Brad’s left side through the tight quarters of the bus stop chicane, and the two longtime rivals made contact and spun out of line. Fortunately, both stopped short of the wall and avoided major damage. Busch was upset over the radio after the incident. Brad had this to say afterward.

“This is a track where you fight for inches and we both are probably not willing to give in on it,” Brad said. “Nobody is happy when you have contact. It didn’t help my day at all either, I can tell you that. I wasn’t looking to get into him and I don’t think he was looking to get into me. We got into each other and that hurt everybody.”

After finding trouble, Brad and Co. did all they could to recover. Obtaining a vibration from the incident, crew chief Paul Wolfe requested his driver come in to replace the likely flat-spotted tires. Pitting just a few laps before the pit window opened, it put the Miller Lite team in a tough position to make the rest of the race.

The race’s only non-stage caution followed, and Brad remained on the track after pitting recently and inherited the lead at lap 54. He held the top spot for 10 laps before the fastest car in the field, Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78, won out at lap 64. Truex held the lead for 13 laps before he put in motion a bold strategy, saving fuel and allowing BK to retake the lead. Kes stayed out in front for another 10 laps, hoping a final caution would come out, but with four laps to go, Brad pitted from the lead.

After the stop, Kes cycled out inside the Top 10 with the time and power to secure a third straight Top 5 finish before spotter Joey Meier delivered bad news over the radio. Upon exit of his pit stall, BK clipped into a fourth box. Though pit road was empty at the time during the green flag run, the penalty stood and Brad was forced to perform a pass-through penalty, saddling the Miller 2 Crew with a P15 finish. Meanwhile, Truex went on to win his fourth race of 2017 and earn a congratulatory gift from BK.

With a tough finish at The Glen now behind him, Brad heads to his home state of Michigan for the Pure Michigan 400. BK’s hometown race airs live on Sunday, August 13 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

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The No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion driver boasts four finishes of third or better at WGI, including a third-place finish last season. He did so on a newly repaved surface at the upstate New York track, and he’ll have to conquer it yet again in this year’s I LOVE NEW YORK 355 at The Glen.

“My thoughts on the pavement is I think we’ve seen a pretty dramatic shift in probably the last four or five years with respect to the type of pavement that’s being used to repave the tracks,” Brad said. “We probably saw that again at Watkins Glen, where the pavement is very, very smooth. It lasts a really long time.”

Last year in the debut of the fresh asphalt, BK wasted no time in showing his prowess at the racetrack. He led late and put his team in position to capitalize on a win, though the Miller 2 Crew came up just short with a third-place finish.

Still, that marked the fifth Top 10 finish for Brad in seven starts at the 2.45-mile course. His career at WGI has been highlighted by a trilogy of runner-up results from 2011-13. In both 2011 and 2012, he came up second to Australian road racing ace Marcos Ambrose, with the latter of two producing one of the most entertaining finishes in recent history.

For crew chief Paul Wolfe, the annual trip to The Glen is a homecoming event. The Milford, New York native always enjoys coming home, and he tends to bring outstanding equipment each time the No. 2 Ford team returns.

“I’m a big fan of Watkins Glen,” Wolfe says. “Going there brings back a lot of memories from my first visits to the track when I was a kid. I still have some family and friends that are in the area, so it’s good to see them while there.”

While his crew chief will certainly be feeling right at home, Brad will also be feeling comfortable on the road. In the season’s prior road race, Brad logged a career-best third-place finish at Sonoma Raceway for the fifth Top 5 in road course competition for his Cup career.

Locked into the Playoffs with two wins to his credit, Brad is hoping to earn as many playoff points as possible as he looks to advance to the Championship 4. The best way to do that is to win.

The 2 Crew takes on Watkins Glen International’s curves for the I LOVE NEW YORK 355 at The Glen, airing live on NBC Sports Network on Sunday, August 6 at 3 p.m. ET.

DOUBLE DUTY FOR PENSKE DUO

Already an NXS winner in 2017, Brad Keselowski hops back in the REV/Fleetwood RV No. 22 Ford, the premier ride in Team Penske’s XFINITY Series program. And he’ll once again have a great chance to win at Watkins Glen International.

“Watkins Glen is a track that I picked up on fairly quickly from the first time I raced there. It’s a ‘speedway type’ road course and that fits my driving style well,” he says. “The XFINITY cars are a blast to drive at the Glen because they go through the corners so much faster than the Cup cars. You have to back up your braking points in a Cup car, but you can really race hard into the corner in a XFINITY car.”

Brad’s affinity towards the road track is clear, as he has rarely missed an NXS run at The Glen in the last 10 years. In fact, the only time BK chose to sit out the race came in 2011, just two weeks after injuring his left ankle in a testing crash, both Brad and Roger Penske felt it was best to sit out of the race, handing the car to Cup teammate Kurt Busch. Busch put the No. 22 on the pole, and won the race.

Two years after Busch’s win in the No. 22, Brad decided it was his turn to follow in the 2004 Cup Champion’s footsteps and win at The Glen. Starting fifth, it didn’t take BK long to find the lead and stay there for the most laps of the afternoon.

Saturday’s Zippo 200 will mark a few firsts for Brad. The REV Group and Fleetwood RV make their second appearance of the season after sponsoring Joey Logano’s No. 12 entry earlier this season, but it’s their first connection with Brad this year. Logano will join BK at The Glen, piloting the No. 12 dressed in Snap-On colors.

The REV Group and Fleetwood RV make their second appearance of the season after sponsoring Joey Logano’s No. 12 entry earlier this season, but it’s their first connection with Brad this year. Logano will join BK at The Glen, piloting the No. 12 dressed in Snap-On colors.

Together, BK and Logano have amassed two fourth-place finishes, one third-place finish, three second-place finishes and three wins for Team Penske at WGI. Whether under the Penske banner or in JR Motorsports rides, Brad has found success at The Glen from his first series start at the New York road course. His sixth-place finish in his 2008 WGI debut began a string of seven straigh Top 10 finishes in NXS competition, which ended just last year.

However, 2016’s 24th-place finish for BK was little more than a fluke. Team Penske fielded two dominant cars in that race, with Logano having the edge all race long, and Brad pushed his equipment as far as it could go before the rear suspension gave out. The P24 result marked his only finish outside the Top 10, and he’ll hope to keep it that way. To see how BK does this go around, tune into the Zippo 200 when it goes green on Saturday, August 5 at 2 p.m. ET, live on NBCSN.

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Drivers with more than five years of Monster Energy Cup Series experience can now only compete in seven NXS races per year—down from the 10-race restriction implemented this season. That group includes Brad, one of his No. 22 co-pilots in Joey Logano and nearly every top championship contender at the Cup level.

Additionally, every driver earning Championship points at the Cup level is barred from competition in the regular-season finale, as well as all playoff events for both the NXS and Camping World Truck Series. The full release is available at NASCAR.com.

After the announcement, Brad found himself in a familiar debate about the participation of Cup drivers at lower levels. At this point in the season, he has seven NXS starts, the maximum for 2018. He picked up his 35th career XFINITY Series win earlier this season, good enough for the fifth-most all-time. BK and his fellow Cup championship regulars have won 11 of 20 races this season.

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Kes led a race-high 102 laps and picked up a Stage 2 victory, but a late mishap on pit road cost the Team Penske crew a shot at victory as they settled for fifth place.

“We just had an ill-timed pit road penalty there at the end of the race,” Brad said. “I don’t have a much better way to say it than that.”

Starting from the second spot, Brad snatched the lead early in the opening laps and held it until a red flag for rain on lap 30. Pitting from the first position, he took right side tires in a 6.6-second stop, shaping up for a P10 restart behind those who stayed out.

Going green on lap 35, it took him five laps to claw up to seventh, and when Stage 1 ended on lap 35, BK also passed Brennan Poole and Justin Allgaier to break into the Top 5.

Kes restarted fourth on lap 52 and, seven laps later, passed Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece to claim second place. After some more time to track down the leader, lap 73 saw Brad pass Kyle Busch for the lead once again. Holding the lead until the end of the second Stage on lap 90, the Discount Tire crew led the field onto pit road, electing to take four tires and fuel in 14.5 seconds, en route to a P4 restart.

Going green on lap 97, it only took five laps this time to rise back to the top. Kes held steady out in front until the lap-170 green-flag pit stop. The stop was clean until the very end. The gas can was caught in the fueling nozzle as Brad pulled away, and the ensuing pass-through penalty forced the dominant car and driver to surrender a victory.

Despite that last mishap, Brad still powered his way to a Top 5 finish on what he called a fun day with a disappointing end.

“It is always fun being fast and leading the most laps and all, that but we just didn’t put the whole race together today,” Kes said.

After their disappointment of a finish, the 22 Team still boasts a whopping 98-point cushion in Owners’ Points over Chip Ganassi’s No. 42 entry.

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“I’m really looking forward to New Hampshire,” he said.

Kes has had great success in Loudon, particularly early in the week. He scored his first career Coors Light Pole award in 2010 at the NHMS, and he’s totaled three over his career at the 1.058-mile oval, a career-best for any track. If nothing else, those strong starts can lead to strong finishes.

His first pole led to an 18th-place result, not too shabby for the 2010 version of BK piloting Team Penske’s No. 12 entry. The next two first-place starts, in spring 2013 and fall 2014, led to fourth- and seventh-place finishes, respectively. Not only serving as a morale booster to the team, the pole position grants the ability to choose pit stalls, specifically the first one, which can simplify The Magic Mile’s tight pit road.

In 2014, the Michigan driver put up a feat of his own by sweeping the weekend in XFINITY & Cup competition. Winning both races with the dominant car, a repeat of that race is exactly what he needs to get pointed in the right direction.

“It feels like we’re the best we’ve ever been right now,” Kes said. “When a team like this starts to click, the sky’s the limit.”

In his 15 Loudon Cup races, Brad has only notched one win, but owns six Top 5’s, and nine Top 10’s. Completing 99 percent of his 4,438 possible laps, and leading 350 of them, Kes knows how to survive a race and be there when it counts.

Returning to the secondary Wurth colors this weekend, Brad looks to make up for their last outing in Dover, which ended in an unlucky wreck when Kurt Busch went spinning on the Monster Mile.

On the other side of the garage, Keselowski will be partaking in his seventh double-duty weekend of the year, piloting Team Penske’s No. 22 Discount Tire Ford in the XFINITY Series entry as well.

With eight starts under his belt at NHMS in the NXS, the 2010 Champion has two victories, four Poles, and every finish in the Top 10. Additionally, Brad has never failed to complete a lap.

The XFINITY Series Overton’s 200 kicks off on Saturday, July 15 at 4 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

Some food for thought: the last time the Monster Energy Cup Series visited a flat short track was Martinsville—and we know how that race turned out, with Kes capturing his first Grandfather Clock in the Cup series. See if BK & Co. still have their flat track program up to standards when the Overton’s 301 goes green on Sunday, July 16 at 3 p.m. ET, also live on NBCSN.

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Brad led a race-high 29 laps in the No. 22 SKF Ford Mustang and crossed first in all three stages to take the checkered flag in Pocono Green 250 on Saturday. The victory marked his first in NASCAR’s second series since November 7, 2015 and was a long time coming for the entire No. 22 crew.

“Hell of a race. Really happy for the 22 team,” Brad said. “It’s been a while. I think it’s been well documented that they haven’t been in victory lane. Discount Tire has been a part of this program for a long time. They deserve it. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have a career in NASCAR. They’re on the car today…SKF…proud of them guys. It’s good for Ford and everybody. It feels good for me, the team. They deserve it.”

Brad had made six trips to Victory Lane in the Cup series since his last NXS win, but he ended the drought in convincing fashion. Starting from eight position, it took just 22 laps for the No. 22 to take the top spot and swipe the Stage 1 win after 25 laps of competition. The SKF Ford was outstanding and required no adjustments from crew chief Greg Erwin throughout the day.

Kes went on to grab the lead back seven laps into the second stage and held on for another stage win.

While Erwin didn’t utilize any adjustments, he used some interesting strategy to help Brad grab his 35th NXS win and his 59th across NASCAR’s three series. Erwin kept Brad out on track to start the third series and brought him in under green at lap 64. The move paid off, as a yellow flag at lap 79 allowed BK to claim second place—and an opportunity for victory.

It didn’t come easily, though, as Brad was incidentally pushed out of the groove and back to 13th with 15 laps to go. But just when it looked like another NXS win would escape the 2010 series champion, he persevered and charged his way to the front, passing Kyle Larson for the win on the final lap—the first win in 46 races for the No. 22 team.

The post Brad Ends 22 Team’s NXS Drought With W appeared first on BradRacing.com | The Official Web Site of Brad Keselowski www.bk30beta.www.bk30beta.bradracing.com.

Last week, similar circumstances benefitted the Miller 2 Crew, as race leader Kevin Harvick was flagged for speeding late in Atlanta, allowing Brad to swipe the win. This week, BK was leading comfortably with just two laps to go, well on his way to a third Vegas victory, but his right-front hub assembly broke, causing him to fall back to fifth when the Kobalt 400 checkered flag flew.

“It was something pretty major, because I lost brakes and the car wouldn’t turn,” Brad said immediately after the race. “It just broke, but that’s the way it goes. Maybe we won one this way last week, and maybe we lost it this way this week. It all works out in the end. But either way, I’m really proud of everybody on the Miller 2 Crew to have a really fast Ford Fusion, to be able to run up front, lead laps and be in position to win.”

While he came up just a couple of miles short of back-t0-back wins, the P5 finish earned Brad 48 points, enough to vault him into first place in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points standings past Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, who both had issues for the first time under the Ford Performance banner, finishing 38th and 30th, respectively.

Once again, the Miller 2 Crew rolled off in Vegas with a machine to reckoned with. As the reigning race victor and winner of two of the last three Sin City events, BK confidently put the White Lite on the pole and led the first 18 laps of the day.

The first caution of the afternoon flew on lap 18 when Corey LaJoie wrecked. Using the opportunity to switch out the worn rubber, the 2 Crew changed all four tires and topped off the tank, losing the lead to Martin Truex Jr. in the process. Restarting on lap 25 from second, it took only half a lap for the Deuce to reclaim its spot as the race leader. Brad held the top spot until the next caution for Harvick’s blown tire on lap 68.

Pitting for four tires and fuel, Truex’s crew prevailed once more, setting BK up for a fourth-place restart behind teammate Joey Logano, who stayed out, and Jamie McMurray, who took two tires. Logano chose the high line in front of the No. 2, and stacked the field up, dropping Brad back to P9 on the lap-75 restart. Three laps later, he made his way back up to sixth, and on lap 79, he passed both McMurray and Kyle Busch. When Stage 1 ended on lap 80, Kes held the fourth spot, picking up seven valuable points.

Staying out on track during the Stage 1 yellow, he was able to line up third on the ensuing lap 88 restart. Ten laps into the run, Brad passed Kyle Larson for the runner-up spot and held the position until a scheduled green-flag pit stop on lap 125 for a fresh set of rubber, fuel, and an air pressure adjustment. In the process, Chase Elliott’s No. 24 crew gained a spot, dropping BK back to third, where he remained until Derrike Cope brought out another caution at lap 152. Completing a full-service pit stop, the 2 Crew produced a stop quick enough to recapture the ground from Elliott, which set Kes up for a P4 restart behind Kurt Busch and reigning Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson, who elected to stay out on the racetrack.

Taking the green on lap 164, he quickly advanced to second, where he remained behind Truex through the four-lap stint to the end of Stage 2. Staying out on track, Keselowski restarted from second place and stayed there until the next set of green-flag stops on lap 210 for tires, fuel and air pressure and wedge adjustments, again losing a spot to Elliott. On a mission to the lead, Kes passed Elliott on lap 231, and hunted Truex down on lap 244 to reclaim the top spot, reminiscent of his effortless pass of Larson for the lead a week prior.

It looked like Brad was once again going to cruise to an easy win, but the final caution of the afternoon on lap 252, brought on by a smoky engine failure on Danica Patrick’s No. 10,threw a wrench in the Miller 2 Crew’s plans. Crew chief Paul Wolfe called for his driver to pit for fresh tires with a handful of laps remaining, and the 2 Crew saved its best stop for the money stop, keeping Kes in the lead.

Restarting with only five laps left, BK built an impressive gap over Truex and was less than three miles away from the checkered flag when it all disappeared. The right-front hub assembly of the White Lite gave way, forcing Brad to limp home with a fifth place finish, edged by teammate Joey Logano for fourth at the line, just after barely missing Kyle Busch’s spinning car off the last corner.

“That’s racing, and that’s why you watch until the end, and you never know what’s going to happen,” Brad said. “It’s frustrating, but you put yourself in position to win and good things will happen. That happened to us last week and didn’t happen this week, so you just pick up the pieces and move on. You just try to make the most of what you can — every day, every second. I was still trying to get the best finish I could and still lucky to come out with a Top 5. We had a great day. We ran up front and led a lot of laps. We were the fastest car at the end and just didn’t come together. That’s part of how racing works.”

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“We had a good Discount Tire Ford Mustang today and I think with a few more adjustments we may have had a winning car,” he said. “Unfortunately we had a loose wheel right as the final segment started and it was a grind to make that track position back up.”

Starting in second place, the qualifying session wasn’t a total throwaway as BK set the new Las Vegas Motor Speedway track record at 186.220mph in Round 1 – besting his Pole lap, and former record from 2010. Once the green flag dropped, a great battle with reigning NXS Champion Daniel Suarez ensued, with the No. 19 taking the position on lap 3, dropping the No. 22 to third. Just three laps later, the first yellow of the day flew when Stephen Leicht made contact with the outside wall. Brad reported to his crew that his car didn’t have the speed it needed to contend with the potent Joe Gibbs Racing entries of Suarez and Kyle Busch, and needed some adjustments to get it there.

Racing resumed on lap 10, and from the inside line, Kes was able to overtake Suarez and reclaim the second position where he remained until Kyle Larson nabbed the spot on lap 28. After another 15 laps, teammate Joey Logano in the No. 12 Ford entry dropped Brad back to fourth where he finished Stage 1. Mentioning that his Double Deuce was on the tight side, and that he didn’t have the turn in the car he needed, the pit crew went to work via an air pressure adjustment, falling to fifth after a four-tire stop.

Taking the green on lap 51 from fifth, he took the position back from Justin Allgaier, and stayed there until the next yellow on lap 71 from a Matt Tifft spin. Restarting behind Logano in fourth on lap 75, the Team Penske duo drafted past Busch on the backstretch, allowing BK to take hold of third until Brendan Gaughan spun four laps later, triggering another caution. While most of the field came in for pitwork, crew chief Greg Erwin called for his car to stay out on the track where they assumed the race lead. The six-lap green-flag stretch took the field to the end of Stage 2, led by the No. 22 – Brad’s only Stage victory of the afternoon.

Pitting under the Stage yellow, the 22 Crew fitted a fresh set of Goodyear Eagles and filled the tank with fuel, sending him back out in P15, behind the cars that came in under the previous caution. The No. 22 Discount Tire Ford team encountered a road bump after 13 laps. BK diagnosed a loose left-rear wheel, which was later called as a cut tire as a result of running some debris over.

The unscheduled pit stop put Kes a lap behind the leaders, mired back in 31st position. In typical never give up fashion, he put his head down and went to work. Slowly but surely, he made his way through the field. By lap 122, the Discount Tire machine was marked up to 25th. On lap 137 the leaders began a round of scheduled pit stops, leaving Brad to hope and pray for a caution to fly while on the tail end of the lead lap. The prayers were answered on lap 160 when a debris caution was called, allowing BK to catch up to the leaders and put the No.22 back in contention.

Lined up P14 on lap 167, he quickly jumped up two spots after the first lap, but again returned to yellow on lap 170 when Ray Black Jr. spun. Restarting from the outside of row six on lap 175, Kes passed Brandon Jones for 11th, but another quick caution on lap 181 for JJ Yeley appeared. The lap 187 restart set up for a four lap run, where the tricky inside line bunched up and dropped BK to 14th before Tifft and Spencer Gallagher’s lap 191 crash.

Setting up for the final six-lap stint from P12, he had enough to jump up to 10th, marking his seventh straight Top 10 in the series. For Team Penske, success continued as teammate Joey Logano piloted his No.12 REV Group Ford to Victory Lane.

“Congrats to Joey on getting Team Penske to Victory Lane today,” Brad said. “It’s been a good weekend for the team so far.”

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Brad returns to the Kobalt 400 as the reigning race winner. BK captured his second career Monster Energy Cup Series victory in Vegas one year ago, though the Nevada track hasn’t always been kind to him.

“You know, we didn’t click there the first few years. 2009 we ran okay,” Brad said of Vegas. “I wrecked, my fault. 2010 we ran terrible, 2011 we ran terrible, 2012 we ran okay, and we broke a part. I think we were running second. And finally we got all that stuff pushed out, and like you said, the last three or four years, ’13, ’14, ’15, ’16 have been great for us.”

The numbers back it up. His Vegas debut in 2009 was hindered early as a blown tire on lap 3, which set the team behind the 8 Ball, shaping up for a dismal P38 finish. The next two trips in 2010 and ‘11 were mediocre races, finishing 26th, and two laps down in both of them. And then it changed.

On BK’s 2012 Championship march, it seemed like he finally figured LVMS out. Battling Tony Stewart for the win late in the going, the newly adopted Electronic Fuel Injection unit failed the Deuce during a crucial restart – sinking him like a rock through the field.

“We were going to give him a run for his money, and I was going to drive my butt off,” Brad said. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

The finish wasn’t there, but the performance was in 2012, but in the four years since, the 2 Crew has brought excellent machines and execution to Sin City. Returning in 2013, Kes claimed the Pole due to some Friday afternoon weather. But this time, he ran strong all day, leading 12 laps and finishing third, 23 spots better than his previous career-high. And the following year, he bested that finish while claiming his first Las Vegas triumph. Racing a fuel-saving Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the final laps, Brad pushed him over the limit on the last circuit, running the No. 88 out of gas.

“He was going to have to burn fuel to keep me behind him,” BK said of his battle with Dale Jr. “At that point, it was just a matter of whether a yellow (flag) came out or not, because it was just a ticking time bomb. It worked in our favor today.”

After a solid seventh place in 2015, BK bounced back to another win in 2016, again making a lead-changing pass in the closing stages of the event. Taking the lead from rival Kyle Busch with just six laps to go, the Michigan native never looked back and rolled away with his first of four season wins.

“This rules package — I love it, it’s awesome. You can be really fast at the start of the run or at the end of the run, but we had awesome speed at the end of the run. It finally started to take off with 25 to go.”

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