Brad Keselowski Tames Monster Mile for First Win and Points Lead

[media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”230″][/media-credit]Brad Keselowski, driving the No. 2 Miller Lite  Dodge for Penske Racing, not only tamed the Monster Mile with his first ever win at Dover International Speedway, but also took the points lead, now five points over Jimmie Johnson.

This was Keselowski’s fifth win of the season and his ninth career win. He has now won two of the three races so far in the Chase.

“I’m happy for our day here obviously,” Keselowski said. “We certainly were a lot stronger here than we were in the past.”

“I may not have had the best car but hung around in that top five, just kept creeping around and when you do that, you put yourself in position for good things to happen.”

“That’s what this 2 team has done the last few months.”

“That was the type of performance we needed to stay in this championship and we showed today that we’re going to continue to be there every week,” Paul Wolfe, crew chief for the race winning car, said. “This was another small step to the ten races and I’m proud to be able to come out of here in the points lead.”

One driver that needed a great run actually got it at the Monster Mile. Jeff Gordon, behind the wheel of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, held on to finish in the runner up position.

“I thought it was a solid effort,” Gordon said. “Our car was good right from the start.”

Gordon admitted he had a car that was better on the long runs, but that actually helped when it came time to finish up the fuel mileage racing.

“We struggled on the short runs,” Gordon said. “We started really struggling on the restarts and losing positions.”

“But that played to our favor because we could come in and top off,” Gordon continued. “It gave us the opportunity not to have to save fuel.”

“I thought me and Mark Martin were going to be battling for the win”, Gordon said. “We just got a little too tight at the end.”

Although Gordon is still 48 points out in the Chase, he has moved forward into the tenth spot after race three of the Chase.

“This is nice to follow up with what we had last week,” Gordon said. “We’re just taking a few steps in the Chase each week.”

“It was a great day all around.”

Wily veteran Mark Martin, behind the wheel of the No. 55 Aaron’s 2000^th Store/Bronx NY Toyota, finished third for Michael Waltrip Racing.

“I don’t know if everybody really noticed but we had a rocket ship,” Martin said. “Super fast car.”

“We battled from behind all day,” Martin continued. “We were just passing cars left and right.”

“It was a hard fought battle by a great race team,” Martin said. “I had a really, really fast race car.”

“It feels really good, regardless of the points, to run good.”

Jimmie Johnson, in the No. 48 Lowe’s /Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, not only lost the points lead but had to finish off the race in fuel saving mode, for fourth.

“It’s a tough situation to be in, but I’m more focused on the big prize,” Johnson said. “I’m very happy we got to the finish line.”

“We had clean air but I had to give it up because of saving fuel,” Johnson continued. “Today we were fourth, which is not bad.”

Johnson acknowledged that it was difficult to let cars pass, especially those Chase competitors, just to have to save fuel.

“It’s tough,” Johnson said. “But you have to race on all fronts and we had a decent day today.”

Once known as ‘Concrete Carl’, the driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford finally had a good day on the concrete banks of the Monster Mile, finishing fifth.

“That was a decent run for us,” Edwards said. “We had a lot of good luck.”

“If I can’t be winning the race, I enjoy seeing the battle out there,” Edwards continued. “We’ve got some work to do and we have to keep working on these cars.”

“We didn’t drop the ball and we had some fun,” Edwards said. “It’s fortunate we came home top five.”

Some Chase contenders salvaged a fairly decent day; however others had dramatically difficult days. Among the latter was Matt Kenseth, who hit the wall twice and finished a miserable 35^th in his No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford.

“Today was a struggle,” Kenseth said. “This is probably the worst we’ve run here for as long as I can remember.”

“From the first lap on the track to the last lap on the track, we were pretty much junk.”

Kenseth had the distinction of being the worst finisher of the Chasers and fell into the basement position in 12^th, now 72 points behind leader Keselowski.

Other Chase contenders fared better than Kenseth, including Martin Truex Jr., who finished sixth; Denny Hamlin in eighth; Clint Bowyer in ninth; Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in eleventh; Kevin Harvick in the 13^th spot, and Kasey Kahne who finished 15^th.

The remaining Chase drivers, Greg Biffle, who had a tire issue and a major meltdown, and Tony Stewart, who was just off all day, finished 16^th and 20^th respectively at Dover International Speedway.