Although he led laps early in Stage 3 and finished third at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday night, Brad Keselowski was disappointed with his top-five outing.
“We had a car capable of contending for the win, we were leading and got tore up,” Keselowski told PRN Radio. “Got the most speed out of the Miller Lite Ford but had to settle for third which isn’t what we wanted, but not a bad day, just not the win I thought we could have been able to get.”
Keselowski qualified 13th on Friday afternoon and it didn’t take him long to get to the front in Stage 1. The Team Penske driver finished eighth in Stage 1 and eighth again in Stage 2.
The No. 2 driver worked hard all night to get the front dodging accidents. It wasn’t until the final stage when we saw Keselowski up front for good, swapping the lead multiple times with Kyle Busch. Keselowski managed to get out front on Lap 265 and led for 85 laps. He took the lead three more times while battling side-by-side with Busch.
From that point on, he was trying to catch the race leaders in search of this third Bristol victory. However, Keselowski will have to wait another year to do so as he wound up with a third-place finish. He is currently fourth in the playoff points standings, -138 behind leader Kyle Busch.