Recap: Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion team put together a race that exemplified their “never give up” attitude during Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Overcoming a pit road penalty following a lap 180 pit stop, Keselowski drove a determined race to score his first victory of 2016. This was the first victory of the season for Ford Performance and the 18th win in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion’s career. After starting the race from the fourth position, Keselowski settled into the top five before taking the lead on lap 87 after a fast, green-flag pit stop by the Miller Lite crew.
Crew chief Paul Wolfe elected to make only four-tire pit stops during the day and, as a result, Keselowski dropped a few spots on pit road as other drivers took only two tires. Each time, however, the four-tire philosophy paid off as Keselowski was routinely one of the fastest cars on the track at the end of a run. After the penalty at lap 180, Keselowski restarted the race from the 21st position, but he had no intentions of letting the win slip from his grasp. By lap 223, he had driven his way up to the second position. With just six laps remaining, after he had moved by his teammate Joey Logano, Keselowski worked his No. 2 Ford by Kyle Busch to cruise to the victory. Logano scored a second-place result to give Team Penske a 1-2 finish. Keselowski is now virtually qualified for the 2016 Chase for the Championship.
Quote: “This is really, really great. It seemed like there were plenty of challenges, whether it was pit road or the weather or cautions. They threw everything they had at us today but this Miller Lite Ford team was too strong and we were able to fight them off and get to victory lane. The new rules package today I thought was tremendous. I think you saw, because of the rules package, where the cars fell off a lot at the end of the run and you really had to drive them sideways. Took a lot of balance as a driver, a lot of precise footwork and accuracy with where you put your car, how you place it, which is exactly what we want. This shouldn’t be easy. This is the Sprint Cup Series. These cars should be very hard to drive. At the end of the run they were a challenge. It’s nice to be a part of that.”