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THE RACE

AAA 400
Dover International Speedway
Sunday, September 28

THE RESULTS

The No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion
Driver:  Brad Keselowski
Starting Position: 4
Finish Position: 2
Driver's Points Position: 1

THE RACE REVIEW

· Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Wurth Ford Fusion team started Sunday’s AAA 400 from the outside of Row 2 in the fourth position. The strong qualifying effort marked Keselowski’s 19th top-five start of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

· By lap three of the 400-lap third race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Keselowski had made his way up to the second position in the order. The top-ranked driver and team entering the weekend, Keselowski and the Wurth team held that spot through lap 125 when they fell to third place as the No. 2 Ford Fusion began to handle loose entering the corners over the long run.

· A lap 125 caution allowed the Team Penske pit crew to make adjustments to improve the handling of the Wurth Ford. When the action resumed at lap 129, Keselowski was still scored in third place.

· Not content to just run inside the top three, Keselowski drove to the front as he claimed the lead of the race at lap 148. He led 25 laps before dropping back to second place as he reported that the performance of front end of the car fell off late in the run.

· During the green flag stop at lap 248, the Wurth Ford team made further adjustments to their Fusion. The effort was rewarded at lap 152 when Keselowski once again took the lead. He would lead two times for a total of 78 laps over the course of the 400-mile race.

· As the race progressed, it became apparent that the No. 2 Wurth Ford was fast on the short run, but its performance diminished a little over the long run. The final 140 laps of the AAA 400 were contested under green flag conditions which did not play to the strength of Keselowski’s machine. He did his best and brought home a second-place finish.

· The finish mirrored his result at Dover earlier this season, and it also marked his fourth second-place, his ninth top-two and his 13th top-five finish of the 2014 season.

· The strong finish allowed Keselowski and the No. 2 Wurth Ford team to maintain its status as the top seed as they advanced to the Contender Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
    

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

BRAD KESELOWSKI, NO. 2 WURTH FORD

A STRONG RUN TODAY AND SOLID EFFORT THROUGH THE CHALLENGER ROUND. HOW DO YOU FEEL AFTER TODAY’S SECOND-PLACE FINISH?

“We’ve had a really good start. I guess we can’t really complain that much having won a race, a second and a seventh, but it’s hard to look at that. All I could think about is how I wanted to win all three races, and now it’s time to move forward. Three more races, a new start and what we were able to do in these last three, other than getting us to this next round, really means nothing. We’ve got to keep our head on straight and push forward these next three like we have these last three.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THESE NEXT THREE RACES WITH KANSAS, CHARLOTTE AND TALLADEGA?

“In some ways all the brackets are survival brackets, but that particular bracket is probably more so than the others. At Talladega, it’s going to be a crazy place to finish that bracket out and certainly there will be a lot of guys on the bubble and it’s probably all gonna change on the last lap and the last corner. But looking at Charlotte and Kansas you can control your destiny more so at Charlotte than any other race track, which is good. We’re putting an emphasis on that race, but then I look at Kansas and say that since that track has been repaved it seems to be very, very sensitive to aerodynamics and getting in a pack and spinning out with a really hard tire, so anything could happen there. It’s almost like a mini-Talladega in that sense, but all in all it’s going to be a real challenge. If you can survive all three of these brackets and go to Homestead and win this thing, you’ve certainly earned it.”