FORT WORTH, Tex.: Brad Keselowski valiantly battled to a second-place result at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday—his sixth consecutive top-10 finish at the 1.5-mile track.
For Keselowski, it took not only a team effort but a little luck, as the veteran drove the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford from 22nd at the start of the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 to be in contention for the end game.
As the race went into double overtime, Keselowski masterfully maintained a podium position over the final 17 laps as contenders fell by the wayside.
“We didn’t have a ton of speed,” Keselowski said. “Honestly, I’m more frustrated than anything, because I feel like we have a great team and we don’t have the speed to go with it. We’re doing all we can do to overcome that.
“The driver in me is frustrated because I feel like these are races I’m good enough to win, and we don’t have the speed to do it. Only reason I am mad as hell is it’s my fault for not making the cars faster.
“Still proud of the team that we have, the pit stops, strategy, execution to put ourselves in position to get a finish we probably didn’t deserve but earned with some kind of never-give-up spirit.”
Keselowski fell to 28th at the end of the first stage on Lap 80. With a number of adjustments, a solid pit stop by the No. 6 crew, Keselowski climbed up to sixth by the end of Stage 2 on Lap 165.
“The track came to us,” Keselowski said. “That was helpful. Then we had some good strategy calls. And then some guys took themselves out of contention. All of those things kind of came together.”
Trouble was all around the No. 6 Ford. The race featured a record 16 cautions—most for a 400-mile event at any intermediate track—and tied the number of cautions for a 500-mile race at Texas. After the second stage, the venue resembled a minefield, with a succession of drivers spinning out of line or into the wall nine times over the final 111 laps.
“It takes a good understanding of how the track changes and putting yourself in position,” said the 39-year-old racer. “The track changes and you can get into trouble. You have to be really careful with that.
“It was very treacherous. You couldn’t miss your marks at all or this place would punish you big, and we had a very smooth day.”
On Lap 234, race winner Chase Elliott took the lead for a second time. With 22 laps remaining, a battle ensued between Elliott and Denny Hamlin. As Hamlin grabbed the lead, Keselowski took the air off of Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 Toyota slid out of fifth place and the No. 6 gained a position. When Ricky Stenhouse spun off of Turn 2 on Lap 254, Keselowski was running third.
Over the four final cautions, pole sitter Kyle Larson was eliminated followed by Hamlin, who was challenging Elliott for the lead before losing control of the No. 11 Toyota in Turn 4 on Lap 266 to force the race into overtime. Harrison Burton collided with Kaz Grala for the 15th caution, then coming to the checkers, William Byron made contact with Ross Chastain, who had been running second.
Throughout the mayhem, Keselowski stood strong and moved from third to second coming to the line.
“It was positioning,” Keselowski said. “You’re kind of predicting and knowing where to go from experience where the calamity is going to happen and being prepared for it.”
With Ford Performance—and Keselowski—both searching for their first win of 2024, the driver is thrilled to be headed to Talladega Superspeedway next weekend where he leads the current Cup drivers with six-career wins.
“Our cars are not where they need to be—any of the Fords are not where they need to be to win these races—except for the superspeedways,” Keselowski said. “We’ll have a really good shot there and we need to capitalize on it.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
