No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – Brad Keselowski
Start: 19th
Stage 1: 10th
Stage 2: 4th
Finish: 2nd
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 267/267
Laps Led: 17
Driver Point Standings (behind first): 5th (-18)
Notes:
- Brad Keselowski scored a second-place finish in the Pennzoil 400 Sunday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway behind teammate Joey Logano. The driver of the Discount Tire Ford Mustang came close to pulling off the win. On the final lap of the race, Keselowski dived under Logano between Turns 3 and 4 but couldn’t complete the pass, crossing the finish line one car length behind Logano. Keselowski claimed his second top-five in three races this season and moved up to fifth in the MENCS driver standings, 18 points behind the leader.
- Keselowski started 19th and in the Stage 1, crew chief Paul Wolfe elected to keep his driver on the track until most of the other leaders pitted. He stopped under green on lap 59 for four tires but was able to scramble his way back to 10th-place when the segment concluded on lap 80. During the stage caution, Wolfe elected to pit for right-side tires only, giving Keselowski the lead when the race went green on lap 87.
- The driver of the Discount Tire Ford held the lead for the next 13 laps before his Mustang grew tighter in the center of the corner as the run progressed. Keselowski was seventh when he made a scheduled green flag pit stop on lap 124. He rallied over the next 36 laps to score a fourth-place finish when Stage 2 ended on lap 160. During the stage caution on lap 163, Keselowski pitted for four tires and restarted sixth on lap 167.
- Over the final 100 laps, Keselowski stayed inside the top-five. He climbed up to third-place before making his final scheduled pit stop under green on lap 215. He passed Kevin Harvick on lap 227 of the 267-lap event to pick off second-place. On lap 240, Keselowski grabbed the lead from Joey Logano and led the next four laps before Logano passed him for good on lap 244. On the final lap, Keselowski was able to make one final attempt to pass Logano but came up just short.
Quotes: “That was a pretty good race. I passed Joey with the lapped traffic, caught a break there, and then lapped traffic cost me the lead and he pulled a good slide job. I tried to pull it back but I was a touch too nice to him. I’d liked to have had one more lap. It was a good battle. We were both fighting really hard for the top lane. It really seemed to come down to what the lapped cars were going to do. If they messed with the leader then the second-place guy would get a really good and that just kept happening over and over again. It was a pretty good day for our Discount Tire team and for Team Penske.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
