News

THE RACE

Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway (2.66-mile superspeedway, Talladega, Ala.)
Sunday, May 4, 2013

THE RESULTS
 
The No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion
Driver: Brad Keselowski
Starting Position: 13
Finish Position: 38
Driver's Points Position: 11
 

THE RACE REVIEW

· Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford team started Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway from the 13th position after just missing the final round of elimination qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

· Keselowski found trouble early in the 188-lap race.  As Keselowski attempted to pass the No. 10 machine driven by Danica Patrick for the race lead, the two cars made slight contact and the Miller Lite Ford unfortunately took a wild ride down the apron of the front stretch and up the banking into Turn 1.

· While Keselowski managed to avoid making heavy contact, the flattened tires on the No. 2 Ford damaged a cooling system line as the veteran driver nursed the wounded machine back to the pit lane for service.

· Once in the pits, the Miller Lite crew went to work fixing the severed line, though the time spent on repairs resulted in Keselowski losing six laps to the lead pack.

· The team fought back valiantly over the course of a long race that saw no less than three multi-car accidents.

· At lap 137 Keselowski was involved in another incident as he lost the rear of the car in turns 3 and 4 and the contact resulted in considerable damage to the No. 2 Ford Fusion.

· After taking the Team Penske car to the garage, the Miller Lite mechanics worked hard to repair the heavily damaged Ford and were able to get Keselowski back on track late in the race.

· The effort paid off as Keselowski, a two-time winner at Talladega, was able to pass five cars over the closing laps of the race to finish 38th on the afternoon.

· With Sunday’s tough results, Keselowski fell to 11th in the standings, now 53 points out of first-place.
 

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

BRAD KESELOWSKI, NO. 2 MILLER LITE FORD
IT A ROUGH AFTERNOON. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MULTI-CAR INCIDENT?

“I just spun out in front of the whole field. I don’t know why, if I just busted my butt on my own or lost a tire, but I feel bad for everyone that got torn up.  We had a really fast Team Penske Ford. I feel bad for the whole Miller Lite team. We were just racing really hard towards the front half of the field. I was trying to get my lap back and those guys are trying to lead laps. There (was) obviously a long way to go and I just had to get to the front and try to stay up there to try and get my lap back. I was racing really hard for that, but for some reason the car took off on me and I spun out.  I don’t know why, but I feel bad that we tore up a bunch of cars.”  

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST INCIDENT? 

“We took the lead there and made a really aggressive move to take the lead and then it all just kind of bottlenecked from there. I don’t know if I cut somebody off or got ran over, but just enough to get spun out and tear the car up. I’m not really sure what happened. I made an aggressive move to take the lead and the next thing I knew I was spinning, so I’m not really sure. Obviously, there was some kind of contact but I don’t know what happened.”