Rash of late cautions derailed No. 2 team’s Phoenix plan
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AVONDALE, Ariz. — With Kevin Harvick‘s desert dominance on everyone’s mind, strategy plays were the tactic of choice to potentially break up his monopoly.
The No. 2 team of Brad Keselowski tried its hand with two such ploys, but it ultimately wasn’t enough with how the cautions fell in the CampingWorld.com 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday.
Keselowski finished sixth, while Harvick won his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season and fourth straight at the 1-mile oval. Afterward, Keselowski lamented the fact that Chevrolet teams seem to have a little more speed than the other manufacturers right now.
“We just didn’t quite have enough speed,” Keselowski said. “I thought we were about a third- or fourth-place car and got shuffled to finish where we did. It was a great effort. We have to keep working to find more speed. There are a lot of Chevys up there and we need to get our Fords running a tiny bit better.”
Team Penske‘s No. 2 crew made two crucial strategy calls during the race. One worked out well, while circumstances disrupted the other.
A caution on Lap 117 saw all the front-runners come down pit road, and Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe decided to take two tires. That lifted the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion from fourth place to the lead.
From there the 31-year-old was out front for 52 laps — 41 more than he had led in the season’s previous three events. Through three races last year, Keselowski had led 69 laps and already had a race win to his credit.
“We had that one run where we got out to the lead and led like 50 laps which was second to Harvick, that is something here,” Keselowski said.
Keselowski gave up the lead for good on Lap 171, but spent the next 50-plus laps in the top three.
During his pit stop after the race’s seventh caution on Lap 227, Keselowski shook up the strategy some more. This time, pitting from third place, Wolfe and Co. elected to put on four tires. The No. 2 restarted in 17th place on Lap 234, with the hope being a lengthy green-flag run would aid their chances of getting back to the front.
However, three more cautions came out between the Lap 234 restart and the finish of the race, allowing drivers on older tires to keep track position near the front.
Keselowski rose as high as fifth place on Lap 289, but fell back to sixth by the checkered flag as a surging Kurt Busch slipped past him for the final spot in the top five.
“Everybody was on a different strategy it seemed, and it didn’t quite pan out for us to get the third or fourth we deserved but we ran really well,” Keselowski said.
For the first time all season, Keselowski led more laps in a race than Team Penske teammate Joey Logano. And despite leading 35 circuits himself, Keselowski’s younger teammate was direct in his assessment about whose car had the upper hand.
“Brad had the better car, for sure,” Logano said after his eighth-place finish. “The finishing order kind of showed that.”
For Keselowski, the sixth-place result continued his upward trajectory for the season as he has improved on his finish in each race. After a crash in the season-opening Daytona 500 led to his day ending early and a 41st-place result, he has rolled off three consecutive top-10s with a ninth-place finish at Atlanta and a seventh-place finish at Las Vegas.
The Phoenix finish also saw him rise seven spots in the point standings. Still, unlike last year, when the No. 2 crew came out firing with a win and three straight top-three finishes, something seems to be lacking in the early going. Keselowski said he knows exactly what it is.
“We just have to find some more speed,” he said. “That is the common theme.”
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