Brad Keselowski was committed to prove to the naysayers that his first Sprint Cup win at Bristol Motor Speedway last August was no fluke.
Still, with two laps remaining in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Keselowski couldn’t resist asking his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, if he was nervous despite the No. 2 Miller Dodge holding a six-car lead over Matt Kenseth.
By then, Keselowski was confident that his second Bristol win — and fifth career Cup victory — was in the bag.
“Anybody got a flag down there? Hell, yea,” Keselowski said as he approached the flag stand after leading a career best 232 laps in one race.
But the immediate message from Wolfe to the team was to stay the course.
Wolfe, who led this Penske Racing squad to fifth place in the 2012 Chase for the Sprint Cup during his first year as a Cup crew chief on the Blue Deuce, was able to make marked improvements on return trips throughout the season. And this year’s effort feels very similar.
Not surprisingly, on Saturday night before the Bristol race, Keselowski tweeted “Cup car for 2morrow is best car i've ever had in cup.”
The very humble Wolfe was more confident with the trophy in hand.
“I knew if we kept on like we have been we’d get our win, and I’m proud of everyone coming back strong this year,” Wolfe said on the team radio after the race. “I’m more excited about the gains that we’ve made at other tracks. So, let’s go to the next one.”
Keselowski led a commanding 232 laps on the way to his first win of the season. He passed former Cup champ and two-time Bristol winner Kenseth on Lap 390 and held the point over the final 111 circuits. Having battled Kenseth last August, he knew the final restart on Lap 484 of the 500, which came following Tony Stewart’s wreck, would be the difference between winning and second.
Certainly Keselowski’s accomplishment is a testament to talent and acquiring the practice of patience.
“Matt Kenseth is the best long-run racer in Cup,” Keselowski said. “I'll go ahead and say that. There's not a question in my mind. I've had a year or two now in Cup to kind of evaluate some of the drivers.
“I was not very comfortable that we were going to be able to win. I didn't feel bad about it, but I was 50/50 that I was going to be able to pull off a win with him behind me with a very, very long run to finish the race.
“So that being said, I knew that when the caution came out, as long as I could beat him on the first lap, that I had a good enough car, and I felt like I was a good enough driver to drive away.”
And despite a charge from the Michael Waltrip Racing trio of Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers, who finished third, fourth and fifth respectively, that trio couldn’t come close to factoring into the contest in the closing laps.
For Keselowski, racing has always been about the challenge. As a youngster, his father Bob always pushed him to elevate his game to the next level. That’s why he would never allow Brad to stay at one track for too long.
“I do enjoy the challenge, for sure,” Keselowski said. “That's what I like about racing in general. I tell this all the time. Racing's the one thing — Paul could probably get a pretty good laugh out of this — is the one thing that makes me get up in the morning. That's how I know it's special. Maybe not on his timeline, but I still get up earlier than noon. I may get up at 9 a.m. That's because it's special.
“I love the challenge, I love the fight that you have to put up, the man versus machine or man with machine, against other machines and men. It's cool as hell to me.
“When somebody challenges me, whether it's fans, media, other drivers, I think that I have the desire beforehand, but it helps me focus in for sure. Of course, it means nothing if you don't have a great team that you're surrounded by. I feel very fortunate to have that as well.”
Numbers game
2: Top-10 finishes for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s Jamie McMurray (seventh) and Juan Pablo Montoya (eighth) — their best combined finish of the year.
4: Different manufacturers have won the first four races.
8: Positions gained in points standings by Bristol winner Brad Keselowski (13th) and lost by Carl Edwards (14th), who was involved in the seven-car wreck on Lap 24 and finished 39th — a career worst finish at Bristol.
12: Points separating Roush Fenway Racing teammates Greg Biffle, who leads the standings and finished 13th on Sunday, and third-place Matt Kenseth, who finished second at Bristol.
54: Laps led by AJ Allmendinger at Bristol — more than he led in 2011. Despite a loose wheel, Allmendinger salvaged a 17th-place finish and moved up four positions to 26th in the standings.
Say what?
Perhaps the only benefit to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s altercation with Jeff Gordon is that it will likely quiet ciritics who felt a rivalry was brewing between NASCAR's Most Popular Driver and Mark Martin.
"Well, at least we won't have to hear about me and Mark Martin anymore,” Earnhardt said over the radio.
