News

Track:  Charlotte Motor Speedway
Race:   NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race
Date:   May 16, 2015
 
No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – Brad Keselowski
Start:  3rd
Finish: 9th
Status: Running
Laps Completed:  110/110
Laps Led: 49
Points Position (behind leader):  N/A
 
Recap: Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion ran at the point for much on the night, finishing first in two of the four 25-lap segments, but ultimately came home with a disappointing ninth-place finish in the NASCAR Sprint All Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Keselowski started the five-segment, 110-lap event from the third position based on results of the unique All-Star Race qualifying format, which includeed a pit stop with no pit lane speed. Once the race began, Keselowski showed speed in his Ford Fusion.  The throwback Miller Lite Ford led 49 total laps and finished first in both the second and third 25-lap segments. Following pit stops prior to the final 10-lap segment, Keselowski was judged to be too fast leaving pit road as he pushed to pass pole sitter Denny Hamlin.  Subsequently, Keselowski had to drop to the back of the pack for the last restart. He drove from 19th to ninth in the final 10 laps to finish out the event.

Quote:  "Whoever gets the clean air with this format and this rules package is gonna drive away.  We've seen that for the last three years and with this particular car it's probably even more so.  I thought the 41 (Kurt Busch) and the 4 (Harvick) were probably two or three tenths faster than everybody without clean air and it doesn't matter. I knew when I came out of my pit stall and the 11 (Hamlin) was pulling out with me that I either beat him to that line or lose the race, and the penalty was I was three-tenths of a mile an hour over the speed limit, but I told my crew chief I'd rather go down swinging than take a strike and wonder what might have been. I swung and missed. The 11 team did a great job. Congrats to Denny. Their pit stops were phenomenal.  They easily won him this race, but they've got a lot to be proud of and so does my team.  We've just got to keep working to be better." 
 
 
No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion – Joey Logano
Start:  11th
Finish: 8th
Status: Running
Laps Completed:  110/110
Laps Led:  0
Points Position (behind leader):  N/A
 
Recap:  Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion recovered from a bad fourth segment in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race to finish eighth in the exhibition event on Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.  Logano started the race in the 11th position and raced his way to seventh at the end of the first 25-lap segment.  The Shell-Pennzoil Ford continued to get better each round and finished fourth in the second segment and fourth again in the third segment.  In the fourth segment, while running sixth, Logano got extremely loose and made an incredible save but lightly brushed the wall, falling back to 16th as the checkers flew on lap 100.  Coming out of the pits in sixth for the final 10-lap shootout, Logano raced his way to fourth.  But a loose left rear wheel forced Logano to lose ground over the final few laps, eventually coming home in the eighth position.
 
Quote:  "We were trying really, really hard and you're right on the edge the whole race.  You're basically running qualifying laps out there all night and you've got nothing to lose.  We made a couple adjustments that made it better, then made an adjustment that made it worse, and then I got out of control and about wrecked.  That hurt our car a little bit, but then I started to recover and got back to fifth there in the last run and then the left rear wheel was just falling off and I just limped it home."