NASCAR Cup Series
Pitfalls: Troublesome stops hinder Keselowski's chances of winning
NASCAR Cup Series

Pitfalls: Troublesome stops hinder Keselowski's chances of winning

Published Jul. 12, 2015 12:17 a.m. ET

In NASCAR, the fastest car doesn't always win. If you don't believe it, just ask Brad Keselowski, who finished a respectable but disappointing sixth in Saturday night's Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.

Keselowski's Team Penske Ford was clearly the fastest car in the race, seemingly able to pass at will for most of the night. But time and time again, he lost critical track position and in the end, it came back to bite him.

After winning two of the first four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Kentucky, as well as Friday night's NASCAR XFINITY Series race, Keselowski started on the outside of Row 1 and took the lead on the opening lap.

Keselowski surrendered the lead for the first time on Lap 32 during a competition caution because he took four tires and those in front of him took two.

ADVERTISEMENT

After going back out front on Lap 95, Keselowski lost the point again on pit road on Lap 124, when his tire carrier fell in front of his car.

Keselowski rejoined the race in 12th and started marching forward again. He passed Carl Edwards for second on Lap 151, only to see another caution period for debris. This time, Busch and most of the leaders stayed out, while Keselowski pitted for four tires.

Under the yellow, Keselowski restarted 18th, with Busch leading Edwards on the Lap 157 green flag. Fifteen laps later, Keselowski fought back to sixth. On Lap 184, Keselowski passed Kevin Harvick for third.

On Lap 187, NASCAR threw a yellow flag for debris, once again sending the field down pit road. Keselowski's front-tire changer had an air gun switch from off to on while changing a right-front tire. The result was a 17.2-second pit stop that killed Keselowski's hopes of a victory.

Again, he began passing people over the final laps, but he was only able to get back to sixth at the end.

Afterward the 2012 Sprint Cup champion was philosophical.

"It's easy to play the Saturday evening quarterback," said Keselowski. "But it just didn't come together for us. There's certainly some things I could have done better and we didn't have the best day on pit road, but it's something to build off of.

"I thought Kyle and I both had pretty good cars, we just didn't put it all together when it counted, so we'll keep working on it."

VIDEO: Kyle Busch wins at Kentucky in dominating fashion

share


Get more from NASCAR Cup Series Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic