Brad Keselowski – Fontana Advance
Team: No. 6 Violet Defense Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Twitter: @RFK6Team, @RFKRacing and @keselowski
Race Format: 400 miles, 200 laps
Practice – Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
Qualifying – Saturday, Feb. 26 at 2:35 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
Race – Sunday, Feb. 27 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
ADVANCE NOTES
Weekend Format
· With practice and qualifying back on the horizon for the NASCAR Cup Series, with it comes a unique format. For Fontana, the field will be separated into two groups who will each have a 15-minute warm-up/practice.
· Immediately following that brief session, qualifying will begin, also split into two groups, with the top five fastest cars in each group transferring to the final round. The final round of qualifying to determine the pole sitter will feature 10 cars, as all qualifying this weekend will include just one lap per car.
Keselowski at Auto Club Speedway
· Keselowski makes his 13th Cup start at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, a track where he has six-straight top-10s, five of which were inside the top five. Overall he has a 13.7 average finish.
· The 2012 Cup Champion is the 2015 winner at the 2-mile track having led the final lap for his first victory at Auto Club. Since that race, he has finished ninth, second, fourth, third and fifth, leading a combined 48 laps in the last two events.
· Keselowski carries an average starting position of 12.8 with four starts inside the top-10, including a career-best second in 2014.
· In Xfinity Series competition, Keselowski made 13 starts with six top-10s including a best result of second in 2010. Keselowski also made two truck starts at Fontana with a best finish of 16th in 2006.
Matt McCall at Auto Club Speedway
· McCall enters the weekend in Fontana with four top-10s in six starts for an average finish of 10.5. He most recently led Kurt Busch to a third-place run in 2020 – the last time NASCAR visited the venue.
· He also has two sixth-place finishes – one with Busch in 2019, and another in 2017 with Jamie McMurray.
· McCall is coming off his best qualifying effort at the track – fourth – which came in 2020 with Busch. He carries an average starting spot of 14th, and has two additional top-10 qualifying efforts (eighth – 2017, 10th – 2016).
QUOTE WORTHY
Keselowski on racing at Fontana:
“Fontana starts a long stretch of racing on the West Coast, but we’re excited for it and glad to have momentum as a company coming off Speedweeks. Despite we have not been to Auto Club in a couple of years, it is a track I have been fortunate to be strong at the last few outings. We’re looking forward to getting things going in the Violet Defense Ford come Saturday, and are excited for the weekend.”
Last Time Out
The No. 6 team is coming off a highlight week in Daytona, having won the first Duel race Thursday night, and finishing ninth in Sunday’s Daytona 500. Keselowski led a race-high 67 laps with top-10 finishes in both stages, and is tied for first in the points standings entering the weekend in California.
On the Car
Violet Defense returns for its first points race of 2022 and second appearance overall. Fontana marks their second of four scheduled primaries on the No. 6, and they will also be the primary twice on the No. 17 car.
About Violet Defense
Violet Defense uses UV disinfection to protect everyday spaces from harmful pathogens by killing up to 99.9% of E. coli, Salmonella, MRSA, C. diff., Norovirus, C. auris, and coronavirus. Violet Defense’s technology is the only known Pulsed Xenon solution that can be installed into a room full-time, creating a continuous way to address disinfection needs of all types of settings. For more information, visit www.violetdefense.com or follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn (@violetdefense).
