Brad Keselowski scored a 10th-place finish in Sunday afternoon’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The driver of the MoneyLion Ford grabbed his eighth top-10 of the season and called he and the team’s effort “a blue collar day.” It was Keselowski’s ninth top-10 in 14 starts at Atlanta. He is remains 10th in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings, 213 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.
Keselowski started 14th in the 260-lap race and was able to move his way up the leaderboard during Stage 1 until the balance of the No. 2 Mustang went away near the end of the opening 80-lap segment. To make matters worse, a lapped car made contact with Keselowski midway through the stage, causing right side damage but he overcame the challenges to post an 11th-place. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins made air pressure adjustments when Keselowski pitted during the stage caution on lap 83. Good work by the 2 Crew moved Keselowski up to ninth for the restart on lap 86.
In Stage 2 Keselowski held his own and was rewarded with an eighth-place finish. He pitted twice during the segment and by end of the stage on lap 160 the balance on the MoneyLion Ford was loose. Bullins made the call for four tires and another round of air pressure adjustments during the stage caution on lap 163 but the race was red flagged for track repair before going green.
When the final stage went green on lap 170 after a 19-minute delay, Keselowski used a great restart to climb up to fifth place. Unfortunately, the move was short lived as the loose condition returned to the No. 2 Mustang. Keselowski fell to 10th position when he pitted on lap 193. He made his last stop under green on lap 211 but despite his best-efforts Keselowski could get no closer to the front and was left with a 10th-place finish at the checkered flag.
“That was a blue collar day for our MoneyLion team” said Keselowski. “Our guys had a great day on pit road, and we had a great day on restarts. We just needed a little more speed.”
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