• Brad Keselowski’s chances for a good finish at Talladega Superspeedway were taken away moments before the final restart when his fuel tank ran dry.  The frustrating turn of events shuffled the driver of the Miller Lite Ford Fusion from a top-10 finish 27th in the final rundown.  Keselowski is ninth in the MENCS driver’s standings, one point behind the cutoff position.
• Keselowski started 18th and ran well in the opening stage of the race. He was running sixth on lap 40 when he made an unscheduled green flag stop for a loose wheel.  When Stage 12 ended on lap 55, Keselowski was 34th in the running order, one lap down.  He didn’t pit during the caution that followed, opting to take the wave around back to the tail end of the lead lap when the race went green on lap 60.
• The move worked, thanks to a yellow on lap 63. Keselowski pitted one lap later for four tires and fuel and restarted near the tail of the field when the race went green on lap 66. He wasted little time slicing his way through traffic and getting to the front of the pack, moving into the top-10 by lap 82. He made a scheduled pit stops during the fourth caution for four tires and fuel and over the final four laps to score a 10th-place finish when Stage 2 ended on lap 110.
• Crew chief Paul Wolfe chose not to pit during the stage caution following the second segment of the race, moving Keselowski into the lead on lap 112. He held the top spot for the next 10 laps, then retook the lead on lap 127, staying in front for the next 11 laps. Keselowski was leading on lap 137 when the sixth caution slowed the race. He pitted one lap later for right-side tires and fuel and lined up second for the restart on lap 141.
• From there Keselowski ran solidly in the lead draft. But on lap 182, Keselowski and Alex Bowman raced side-by-side for seventh position – allowing the other leaders to pull away. The other concern for the team fuel mileage, but they calculated they could make it to the finish on lap 188.  Those concerns were amplified when the final caution waved on lap 187, forcing the race into overtime just one lap from the scheduled conclusion of the event. Keselowski made to lap 191, but not before the restart when he ran short of fuel.

“We ran out of gas from what I could tell. The 88 (Alex Bowman) was in there and he was kind of bonsai, win at all costs and just kept making moves that killed everybody else and didn’t help himself. I kept trying to get my teammates with me and every time we about got lined up somebody would bonsai them and we just couldn’t do anything.”