Brad Keselowski heads into playoffs with "complete battery recharge"
“It makes going to the race track fun, knowing that you’ve won and you can win,” said Brad Keselowski and it’s doubtful the 2012 NASCAR champion felt he couldn’t win, only acutely aware that he hadn’t.











But now he has and the playoffs are drawing closer and Keselowski is a Southern 500 champion.
Pack up the swagger and head on out to Indianapolis, site of the final regular-season stop on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
It’s not been an awful season for the No. 2 Team Penske outfit by any means, but for a group that’s used to winning and contending, not being in Victory Lane could be a bit unsettling. Particularly when others were stockpiling victories.
Sunday’s ice-breaker at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway will go a long way in making the team feel better about itself. Not that they were in jeopardy of being left out, but confidence is a pretty powerful tonic.
“It’s been a tough year,” crew chief Paul Wolfe said afterward. “Usually we’ve won a race by now, and you start to feel that season coming to an end and yeah, we were kind of locked into the playoffs on points, but you know most of us on this team are here to win races.
“That’s why we do this. That’s why we get up every day and go to work – to win races, whether we’re in the playoffs or not.”
It isn’t a requirement to win races in order to qualify for NASCAR’s 10-race playoffs, and a driver could actually win the championship without going to Victory Lane.
That has yet to happen and no one wants to be the first.
As Wolfe noted, teams show up to win.
And since 2010, Keselowski’s first full season at Penske, the No. 2 team has done just that. Multiple wins for Keselowski, 34, on most occasions. Sunday night’s victory was his 25th at NASCAR’s top level.
The victory guaranteed Keselowski a spot in the playoffs but what did it say about how his team will perform once the playoffs start?
The good teams are so close today, the smallest things can make a difference and that seemed to be the case Sunday when Keselowski beat Kyle Larson off pit road. That put him in control of the restart and was enough of an advantage that he was able to maintain the top spot for the remaining 22 laps. Even though Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet had dominated the race up until that point.
The race off pit road was won in part because of another seemingly small maneuver – a tweak to the team’s pit-road process.
“We’ve had an up-and-down year on pit road,” said Wolfe. “We continue to try to work on that and be better. We did some things different tonight and we’re still learning but it’s a good bit of confidence for those guys … going into the playoffs.”
Wolfe said the change can be detected if one looks, but for now he’ll keep it close to the vest. It was not a personnel change.
“I think you’ve got to look at the strengths and weaknesses of all your guys going over the wall now and decide how you want to make your plays there," he said.
“If you watch close enough, you’d probably see a difference, but I’m not going to talk about it a whole lot.”
The benefits of having won with the playoffs looming are many, from earning bonus points to being able to eliminate the nagging question of “why hasn’t your team won this year?’ "
Victory in itself is confirmation of all the hours of hard work and effort.
“Moments like today are just so refreshing,” Keselowski, the 10th different driver to win a points race this season, said. “They recharge your batteries so much because the season is such a death march, especially when things aren’t going well.
“This is a complete battery recharge for myself and my team.”

Another close loss "stings" for Kyle Larson but there is a bright spot
Martin Truex Jr. on pit road issues: "We have to clean it up"

Latest news
Diriyah E-Prix: Buemi claims pole in 100th Formula E start
Sebastien Buemi claimed pole for his 100th Formula E race, coming from behind in the opening two sectors to beat Jake Hughes in an evenly-matched Diriyah E-Prix qualifying final.
Farfus says BMW could have reliability edge over LMDh rivals
Augusto Farfus has dismissed concerns about BMW's apparent lack of pace in the build-up to the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and feels the German manufacturer could have an edge when it comes reliability.
How Formula E's new emergency braking system will work
Formula E has introduced an emergency braking kit for the Diriyah E-Prix as a failsafe should the rear powertrain stop working over the course of a race weekend.
Maserati MSG not yet "consistently fast" with Gen3 FE car – Mortara
Edoardo Mortara says the Maserati MSG outfit still has to understand how to be "consistently fast" with the Gen3 Formula E car following a difficult Mexico City E-Prix.
The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team
Saddled with uncompetitive Minardi machinery, Tarso Marques didn't manage to score points in his three partial seasons of Formula 1. But now the Brazilian has the chance to show what he can do in NASCAR, and explains the story of his comeback with new Cup Series entrant Team Stange
The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car
NASCAR’s new stock car generation is encouraging an influx of fresh blood into its top tier. But there are concerns that parts are in short supply as the entire paddock tries to build up stocks at the same time
How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style
After holding his nerve and hip-checking his teammate on the run to the line, Austin Cindric made a perfect start to life as a full-timer in the NASCAR Cup Series by winning the Daytona 500. Here's how the Penske Ford man emerged first across the line in the first points-scoring race for the much-anticipated Next Generation cars
Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season
There are plenty of uncertainties ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup season as an all-new fleet of cars take to the track for the first time. Ahead of this weekend's Daytona 500, our experts explain what you need to know
How NASCAR had to learn a harsh lesson ahead of Next Gen arrival
The NASCAR Cup kicks off with the Daytona 500 this weekend, but a major engine overhaul and a subsequent mountain of work has been required to be ready for the arrival of the Next Gen cars.
How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory
From villain to hero, Kyle Larson had to reach his lifelong goal the hard way and go through a very public shaming after a ban for using a racial slur, but his talents shone long before his name grabbed the headlines...
How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022
It’s not just Formula 1 that’s set for upheaval in 2022, as the NASCAR Cup series adopts its Next Gen cars that will cast any in-built advantages aside and require teams to adopt a totally new way of operating. Far more than just a change of machinery, the new cars amount to a shift in NASCAR's core philosophy
Why Bubba Wallace’s Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR
Bubba Wallace claimed his maiden NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Monday to become the first Black victor in the category since Wendell Scott in 1963. Both Wallace and Scott had faced obstacles and racism in their paths to their breakthrough wins, and NASCAR is trying to put it right with its range of diversity programmes
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.