Kes maintains top standings position while Logano now trails by one point
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LOUDON, N.H. – Brad Keselowski almost pulled off an amazing comeback, rallying first from a loss of track position due to pit strategy and then bouncing back after nearly bouncing off the wall.
There were no more tricks in the magic hat for the Team Penske driver or crew chief Paul Wolfe during the closing stages of Sunday's Sylvania 300, however.
"We had a lot of adversity," said Keselowski, who saw a two-race win streak end when teammate Joey Logano took the checkered flag. "I made a few mistakes that got us behind, but Paul ... and the crew did a great job of getting us back in position.
"It was kind of an up-and-down day and I guess we ended on an OK note."
The pole winner and fastest in two of the three practice rounds leading into Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Keselowski was battling Logano for the lead on a Lap-269 restart when Logano's Ford got loose and the two made brief contact, allowing Kevin Harvick to shoot past and into the lead.
"I got ran into," the 2012 Sprint Cup champion said after his seventh-place finish. "I think that's pretty self-explanatory, but I don't know if I was the fastest car."
Subsequent restarts brought on by a flurry of late cautions kept him within sight of the leader, but a final green, white, checkered push didn't play out as hoped.
Having won a week earlier at Chicagoland Speedway, Keselowski is already guaranteed a spot in the Contender Round, a three-race stretch that consists of stops in Kansas, Charlotte, and Talladega. That being the case, Wolfe said, it allowed the No. 2 team to "try something a little different."
"We're in a position where we can be aggressive with getting our win last week," he said. "We did that some today. ... If we knew we had to get a top-five finish, we might have played it a little different, been a little more conservative.
"That's the beauty, I guess, of this new (format); it gives you options of different things you can do and we're just taking advantage of it."
After leading the first 37 laps, the team opted for a four-tire stop under a competition caution at Lap 37, and the move put Keselowski back in traffic 16th on the restart. He fell as far back as 22nd before finally beginning to slowly inch his way forward, and was back inside the top 10 just past the 100-lap mark.
Almost 100 laps later, he was still in the top 10, but spun out while battling Matt Kenseth for position.
"I knew we were probably going to be the only car on four (tires); it just didn't seem to work today," Wolfe said of the early call. "I guess the track temp wasn't up enough for four tires to really be a big gain there. We had a bad start and it took us forever to battle back. We worked through it and worked on our strategy and were able to get ourselves back in position to have a shot at it.
"That one restart there we got jumbled up with the 22 (Logano) and lost a position; from there it was kind of hard to get back by him."
Keselowski maintained his position atop the points standings, while Logano moved up to second, one point behind.
That both he and Logano are guaranteed to advance, Keselowski said, "is great for everyone at Team Penske.
"We certainly have a lot to be proud of, but there's still a lot of work to do."
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