Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Report - BristolAugust 20, 2017Track: Bristol Motor Speedway No. 2 Autotrader Ford Fusion – Brad Keselowski Start: 17th Recap: Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Autotrader Ford Fusion team were forced to deal with difficult circumstances to finish 29th in Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After starting the race from the 17th position the race was significantly altered for the team following an incident on lap five. While trying to avoid another competitor that had brushed the wall another car made contact with the left side of the Autotrader machine, cutting down the left-rear tire. Keselowski immediately came to pit road for four fresh tires, but with the quick lap times turned on the fast half-mile oval he returned to the track four laps down to the race leaders. Keselowski was quickly able to pass the leader to gain one lap back before the first caution of the night was displayed at lap 61. The caution, however, put crew chief Paul Wolfe in an impossible position to either pit and stay out following the end of the first, 125-lap stage, or to stay out for the wave around in hopes of a quick caution that would allow him to bring Keselowski down pit road for service. The team elected to take the wave around to get back to two laps down to the leaders but, unfortunately, the caution never came before the end of the first stage and Keselowski was again passed by the leaders to finish the stage three laps down. Despite showing solid speed over the course of the race the team was never able to find themselves on the positive side of the track-position battle. Over the remaining laps of the race, Keselowski was able to pick up a few more positions to cross the finish line in the 29th position. Quote: "Tonight was one of those races that no driver likes to have here at Bristol, but they can happen from time to time. When you have to pit under green that early in the race and lose that many laps it makes for a long night. Credit goes to my Autotrader Ford team as they never gave up but we were in a big hole after that and could not claw our way out of it." No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion – Joey Logano Start: 8th Quote: "The handling just really wasn't consistent tonight with the Shell-Pennzoil Ford. We'd find times where we'd fire off and go and then we'd lose the center turn, at other points we lacked entry security. Then we'd have 10-20 lap runs where the car handled great and we could pick up positions. The guys kept digging all night and we made some big adjustments on the car in the second half of the race. We'll keep fighting on to Darlington." Back to previous page.Copyright ©2008-2016 Penske Racing. All rights reserved |