Keselowski looks to defend Talladega win
TALLADEGA, Ala. –
The winningest lively driver at Talladega Superspeedway simply would possibly be capable to save his season on Sunday by defending final yr’s victory.
Brad Keselowski is not banking on a seventh Talladega win, although. But when it is in attain, nicely, Keselowski will not maintain again in quest of his first victory since leaving Group Penske for an possession stake at RFK Racing.
“We have a terrific shot,” Keselowski stated. “If we’re wherever shut, I’ll go away all of it out on the road.”
A penalty for unlawful modifications made to the No. 6 Ford has devastated Keselowski’s first season as a driver-owner and knocked him to backside of the Cup standings, decrease than every other full-time driver. It took him a month to climb from thirty fifth in factors to thirtieth — a mark he hit final week at Bristol that makes him eligible for the playoffs ought to he win a race.
His finest probabilities at victory are doubtless at Daytona or Talladega.
Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher every received a qualifying race at Daytona Worldwide Speedway in February, however the RFK group has not received a Cup factors race since 2017. The staff received twice that yr — each races on a superspeedway, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sweeping the 2 stops on the Alabama monitor when the staff was often called Roush Fenway Racing.
The group has not received on any sort of monitor in addition to a superspeedway since a 2014 win by Carl Edwards at Sonoma.
So the speedway races appear to be Keselowski’s finest shot to increase his streak of playoff appearances to 9 consecutive years.
“I believe there’s most likely slightly little bit of fact to that, however actually I am trying on the subsequent month and I am actually excited concerning the races we’ve got,” Keselowski stated. “I believe we will win any one in every of them. We have a number of great things coming down the pipeline. We’re beginning to determine some issues out and discover a few of the lacking puzzle items, so I am not able to say that we’ve got to win on a (superspeedway) to advance to the playoffs.
“I really feel like we’re beginning to discover our sport at different tracks, too. We have now lot extra confidence within the vehicles, and the staff is studying quite a bit.”
GAME OF NUMBERS
Keselowski will begin fifteenth on Sunday because the Ford camp struggled in qualifying. Joey Logano, his former Penske teammate, was the highest-qualifying Ford driver at thirteenth.
However the Ford camp was most organized your complete week of Daytona, the place groups and drivers should work collectively to navigate via the pack and get to the entrance of the sector. It led to a win for Penske rookie Austin Cindric and 7 Fords within the high 10.
Chevrolet driver William Byron received in March at Atlanta, the place the reconfigured monitor raced like a superspeedway, and is not certain if the rival producers have as stable a plan because the Ford group. He name-checked Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott and Erik Jones as aggressive Chevy drivers who may help the model beat Ford on Sunday.
“There’s some actually aggressive Chevy drivers. I believe there’s some actually good drafters that we will work with,” Byron stated. “I felt like at Atlanta we have been higher. We have been improved. That is most likely the closest factor to this weekend. I do know (Ford) can tandem rather well, even at Atlanta for a lap or so they may keep linked, and that is one thing that we’ve got to work on. However I believe we have the aggressive guys to push one another as a lot as we have to.”
Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr. led a Toyota lockout of the entrance row for Joe Gibbs Racing in qualifying, however the Sunday plan should be excellent to get the Japanese automaker into victory lane. Of the 39 vehicles within the discipline, solely six are Toyotas; Chevrolet, in the meantime, has 17 entries and Ford has 16.
“We’ll attempt to work collectively nearly as good as you possibly can and what occurs, occurs,” Kyle Busch stated. “There’s actually no overcoming energy in numbers.”
NECCESSARY AGGRESSION
Keselowski was aggressive in his ninth-place end within the Daytona 500 and his pushing induced two completely different crashes. He stated he is not proud however “actually, it was time to go and my automobile may have took the identical push that I gave these vehicles.”
However when he arrived at RFK, he warned his new staff that “I am most likely going to wreck out of plenty of races this yr.
“It may be for good motive. Each time, I’ll push the automobile as exhausting as I can push it and doubtless overstep it. One thing goes to occur after which we’ll come again and we’ll make it higher,” he stated. “So long as these failures are coming from a push and never a foolish mistake, I am OK with that, whether or not it is me or anybody else within the firm. We have to push actually exhausting if we’ll get the place we wish to get. We have room to go.”
ODDS AND ENDS
Ryan Blaney is the 10-1 favourite to win Sunday, per FanDuel Sportsbook. Blaney is a two-time winner at Talladega and was racing Austin Cindric for the win within the Daytona 500 when Cindric threw a block that put Blaney into the wall. … There are 10 earlier Talladega winners within the discipline, and Logano at three victories trails Keselowski amongst lively drivers. … The late Dale Earnhardt holds the document with 10 victories. … Talladega Superspeedway holds the all-time document in inexperienced flag passes for the lead in a single Cup Collection race with 219 lead adjustments in 2013.
