As a huge Brad fan, I pay a lot of attention to what he does in races. Sometimes I’ll even listen along to his audio on the NASCAR web site, which gives you a whole other take on what’s happening, the strategy and what not. I wasn’t able to do it for Martinsville, so my thoughts on the race are really just from paying attention on TV.
There were a bunch of key moments in the Gas Booster that could have made a difference for Brad. I’ll break them all down here. (The videos below all start at different times when you play them FYI.)
Lap 90
This was a bad-ass move my Brad. One of the most underrated qualities of Brad’s driving, in my humble opinion, is his ability to steer through traffic. You don’t hear about BK wrecking a lot and that’s because he’s so on top of things when he’s behind the wheel. On Lap 90, Clint Bowyer spun out right in front of the No. 2 car. Brad just kind of eases around the whole thing, but if you really pay attention, you can see Brad anticipating the wreck because his car slows down right as the accident starts to occur.
Lap 279
I love the way Brad keeps his position throughout a race. He seemed to be bugged by the way the No. 20 car got in front of him, so he pushed past Kenseth to get to the front of the pack.
Lap 449
This was a joke. On 449, Brad was pitted when a NASCAR official gave him a penalty for being out of the pit box. If you look at the replace, you can see that they just blew the call. Fortunately, it didn’t affect BK too much.
Final Lap
Jimmy Johnson had the race in the bag, but Brad and Kyle Busch were in a WAR for fifth. It was pretty cool. Kyle seemed to have the edge, but on the final turn Brad took a great shot at grabbing fifth. He came about as close as you can come to getting the lead without getting it. Still a great finish for Brad, even in sixth.