Brad Keselowski earns first pole since 2019

FORT WORTH — It had been since the 2019 September Richmond race that Brad Keselowski had won a pole in the NASCAR Cup Series, but Keselowski will start from the point in Sunday’s Autotrader Echo Park Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

But Keselowski said it’s not a fair statistic, because a majority of race weekends in 2020 and 2021 did not feature qualifying.

“I had a couple poles with the old format,” Keselowski was quick to say about the two seasons NASCAR resorted to qualifying metrics to lineup the field. Eight times, to be exact.

“But with the qualifying format coming back in full effect this year, you have to go back to 2019 and you take out of the qualifying sessions we have had since then. I think it is around 50 or 60 so it doesn’t look quite as bad, at least to me.”

Earning the pole with a lap time of 28.573 seconds Saturday, Keselowski earned his 18th career Cup Series pole, tying him for 46th all-time in the Cup Series with Lee Petty, Joe Weatherly, and Donnie Allison.

Keselowski’s last victory in the Cup Series came at Talladega in April of 2021, 55 races ago.

Leading as many laps as possible and a Texas victory would be ideal for Keselowski, but he also said he has two hats to wear tomorrow in what would make the 500-mile race a success.

“A successful race for a driver is taking whatever you have with the equipment and finish equal to, or better than what it is capable of,” Keselowski said to The Racing Experts.

“If you have a fifth place car and you run third, that is usually a pretty successful day and that is what you strive for, to work with your team and execute at that level.

“On the ownership side it is about providing everyone with the resources they need to run well. Then you hope that they execute. There are two opposing views that you hope come together.”

SOURCES
Racing-Reference.info