Brad Keselowski Secures Top Five Finish At New Hampshire Motor Speedway

LOUDON, N.H. — The goal was to finish first at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for his first win of the season but Brad Keselowski’s car just wasn’t fast enough.

NASCAR Cup Series driver Keselowski may not have captured the win, but his No. 6 car was good enough for fifth, his fourth top-five of the season.

“We just kind of were that 10th place car all day,” Keselowski said after the Crayon 301 on Monday. “Had really good restart speed. Got a handful of restarts at the end, and capitalized on them and I’m proud of my team for that. Our guys put ourselves in position at the end and just ran south.”

As an owner and a driver, Keselowski has a tough time reconciling what happens on the track sometimes.

“We need to claw and get everything we can get.”

NASCAR Cup Series driver Brad Keselowski

“Depends on which hat I’m wearing,” the co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing said. “My owner hat, I want both cars to be competing for wins and that’s not where we’re at. That’s frustrating. We have to find more speed. We have to get better to be the team that we want to be to contend for playoff spots and race wins and do that every week.

“From the driver’s side, I’m fairly pleased,” Keselowski continued. “I felt like we had a tenth, maybe eleventh place car today and brought home top five by being really solid on pit road, really solid with the moves we made on the track and I’m proud of that. So, I guess we’re going with competing hats today on how we feel.”

Keselowski earned 35 points Monday toward the playoff race with the top five finish after starting 9-out-of-36 from the field but still isn’t comfortable with the team’s playoff position.

“We know the next few weeks are going to be challenging for us,” Keselowski said. “We need to claw and get everything we can get. Six weeks left for the playoffs, right? We need to go at least four more weeks without a new winner, or if there is, be us to feel comfortable but until then, we’re going to keep going.”

Keselowski and his team will look for their first win when the Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway for the High-Point.Com 400 on July 23.