NASCAR
Brad Keselowski Is Excited The Monkey is Now Off His Back with Atlanta Win
Brad Keselowski punched his ticket to the NASCAR postseason with his victory in Sunday’s Atlanta race. Though the Playoffs are still very far out, a win this early may change the outlook for the 2 team moving forward.
While in Atlanta, TSJ101Sports writer Peter Stratta caught up with Keselowski. “Brad, last year it took you until race 25 to win and get a Playoff berth. How is 2019 going to be different getting the win and the playoff berth in race 2?”
“Well, I think maybe this is a better question for Paul (Wolfe), but it just allows the team to kind of get the monkey off their back early and really focus on getting more wins rather than having to worry about points and all those things because very little of that matters once you have a win. Obviously, you still want the seeding and all that plays out at the end of the regular season, but race wins are better than that if you look at the points counted. To be able to focus on that and to be able to run the car and the team really hard and push it even further to the edge is always a good thing, I think.”
For 5 of the last 6 years now, Brad Keselowski and the Penske 2 team have won a race in the first 5 weeks of the season. The only outlier was last year, where it took Brad until Darlington to secure a victory.
2 Team’s Focus Heading Forward
With the win, Brad and his team now can open the door for trying new things. In previous seasons, some teams have gone off-sequence for a chance at another victory. Teams will also use a car that’s already in the postseason to try big changes for the hope of improvement. With a win so early on, it should greatly affect the 2’s strategy for the rest of the season.
From now until September, the Penske 2 Ford Mustang is only chasing wins and Playoff bonus points. Expect Brad and the 2 team to use some daring pit strategy calls for the remainder of the regular season. With Keselowski’s experienced veteran status, watch out for him to win multiple more times this year.
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