BROOKLYN, Mich: In the latter stages of Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Team Penske ran 1-2-3-4 with drivers Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and satellite driver Paul Menard driving for the famed Wood Bros. Racing.
However, when fuel mileage ultimately became the storyline of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, the Ford Mustangs of Team Penske found themselves without enough fuel in the tanks and sour finishes in the Motor City.
Pole-sitter Brad Keselowski had an eventful day at Michigan. While the driver of the No. 2 Discount Tires Ford Mustang wound up leading the most laps at the 2.0-mile oval, Keselowski’s race was thwarted by a spin at Lap 116 and then having to pit for fuel 10 laps from the finish.
Keselowski ultimately settled for 19th.
“Man, I want this one so bad,” said Keselowski after the race. “We got that flat tire early on and we recovered and got up to third there in the late stages and then we just ran out of gas. That is just the way it goes sometimes.”
Joey Logano contended for his third win of the season and was within 20 laps of winning the race, but when winner Kevin Harvick passed the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang on Lap 183, Logano was poised to finish inside the top-five until he had to pit with three laps to go and had to swallow a 17th place finish.
“I needed more gas,” explained Logano. “The Shell car isn’t supposed to run out of gas. The positive is we were way better than we were on Friday and Saturday. The negative is that we almost won the race but ended up finishing 17th. You win some you lose some.
“If the caution comes out we would have been in good shape, but it stayed green, and that is it. That is the gamble. We took the gamble and it didn’t pay off. Pocono we played it the other way and the caution came out. That is two races and we played it wrong both times.”
Although Blaney only led 1 time for three laps, his presence was felt at the front for a majority of the race before running out of fuel coming to the checkered flag.
“I had a really good car,” sounded Blaney who finished 24th. “Our Mustang was fast, especially later in the race. I just got off pit road too early and we ended up running out of gas. It is easy to second guess those types of decisions after the race, but I didn’t second guess anything at the time. Just the way it shakes out sometimes.”
Paul Menard finished 15th after his car sputtered coming to the white flag and while Menard didn’t run out of fuel, the problem cost the No. 21 Ford Mustang at least eight positions.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
