Brad Keselowski overcome an early race incident to score a 10th-place finish Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway. The driver of the Detroit Engines Ford grabbed his sixth top-10 of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season and his 14th in 23 races at Pocono. Keselowski remains 10th in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings, 210 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.

Keselowski started 18th and immediately began moving toward the front. He was up to 11th at the time of the first caution on lap 10. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins chose pit for right-side tires and fuel. Keselowski restarted 24th on lap 12 but found trouble when he got into the back of Cole Custer just as the field completed lap 14. The contact damaged the front nose on the No. 2 Mustang. Keselowski pitted for repairs before the race went green and was credited with a 20th-place finish when Stage 1 concluded on lap 25. Bullins made the call to stay out during the stage caution and Keselowski restarted ninth when the race went green on lap 29.

Keselowski and the Detroit Engines team did a good job to earn valuable stage points during Stage 2. The driver of the No. 2 Mustang was running sixth when the fourth yellow slowed the race on lap 54. Keselowski pitted during the caution for four tires and adjustments and restarted 11th on lap 57. Adjustments by Bullins improved the balance of Keselowski’s Ford and capitalized on a two-lap dash to end the stage to claim a 10th-place finish when the segment ended on lap 77. Keselowski remained on the track during the stage caution and restarted 10th when the race went green on lap 81.

Keselowski got shuffled back to 17th on the restart and when he was stuck in traffic the balance on his Mustang was very tight. Bullins called his driver to pit road for a scheduled four-tire stop under green on lap 91 for another set of tires and to get Keselowski into clean air. He said his Mustang fired off strong, but the balance built tighter and tighter during the run.

But the eighth and final caution on lap 109 was the break that Keselowski needed to get in position to score a respectable finish. He was 18th prior to the yellow flag then pitted and restarted 21st on lap 111. Keselowski used his fresher tires to slice through traffic and climb up the leaderboard. He completed his late-race rally with a pass around Tyler Reddick with five laps to go to grab 10th-place. The driver of the Detroit Engines Ford moved up 11 positions over the final 19 laps.

“Our Detroit Engines Ford was really good” said Keselowski. “I got into the 41 (Cole Custer) early in the race and that got us behind.”