Brad Keselowski doesn't want to advance in Chase by being conservative
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Though he didn't make the final four of the 2014 Chase, Brad Keselowski provided the Sprint Cup Series with its most dramatic moments throughout the 10-race playoff.
He scored a win in the opening race at Chicago with a daring three-wide pass. Facing elimination at Talladega, he won to advance to the third round of the Chase. And of course, there's the moment that's been replayed too many times to count at Texas when he made contact with Jeff Gordon and was subsequently in the middle of a pit road kerfuffle.
Keselowski made the aggressive move at Texas because he knew his Chase future was on the line after a parts failure at Martinsville. He wound up eliminated from the Chase the following week at Phoenix.
He said Wednesday at Kansas Speedway that 2014 helped reinforce to his team how much of a penalty a poor finish in the Chase can be. But he said he doesn't want to get to the final round at Homestead in 2015 by playing it safe.
“You can make it all the way to Homestead without winning a race, that’s for sure," Keselowski said. "There’s some merit to a conservative approach. It’s not one that I particularly enjoy or wish to play a role in, but I’m guessing someone will and they’ll probably get there – you know they will. It’s simple math. They’ll make their way to Homestead without winning, so that’s part of it, too.”
At most, three drivers can win a race in the penultimate round of the Chase, leaving at least one spot for a winless driver at Homestead. Only one driver in the final four (Kevin Harvick) won a race in the next-to-last round and Ryan Newman made it to the final round without winning a race for the entire 2014 season.
Keselowski has been one of the faster drivers in the Cup Series, even if the victory stats don't show it. His only win of the season came at Auto Club Speedway, where he capitalized on a late caution to lead the final lap and get the win.
The 2012 champion has said he sees a second championship as a form of validation. When asked if his drive for that second title has changed as the three-year anniversary of his championship approaches, Keselowski said it hasn't, though a title may have a different meaning than it would earlier in his career.
"The drive to win the championship, though, to me, is higher than it’s ever been," Keselowski said. "To win a second championship, to me, would be a huge career mark in the sense that I think Mark Martin probably summed it up the best as anyone, somewhere about a dozen years ago when I was reading a quote from him about winning your second race. When you win your first race, there’s always someone that can stand up and say, ‘Anyone can win one race,’ but it’s when you win multiple races that you start to really grow confidence in who you are and happiness and I think find peace with what you’ve done and feeling justified in it"
"For me, I feel that way about winning a second championship. I think that would perhaps more solidify, not just in other peoples’ minds, where our team is, but in my own and that would be a tremendous feeling for me personally, considering where we’ve come from and how far we’ve come. So I think we have that opportunity and I’m very driven to make it happen. I don’t want to miss this moment because we’re there and we have a great team. We have fast cars. We just need to execute and not have any bad luck.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
