Brad Keselowski rides a three-race winning streak into Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway.
The Team Penske driver has been victorious at Darlington, Indianapolis and Las Vegas joining Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch as drivers who have put together three week winning streaks this season.
But don’t ask Keselowski the secret to what has recent generated his winning ways.
“I’m not really sure,” Keselowski said Friday morning at Richmond. “We’ve been really strong on pit road that certainly helped and we’ve got some good breaks with yellow flags and so forth that’s helped. We got some good breaks was restarts and getting good lanes and that certainly helped.
“When the opportunity presented itself we haven’t screwed it up and we’ve got some great opportunities that have presented themselves cumulatively, and we put them all together. That’s that’s never a bad thing, right? “
However, Keselowski is realistic that despite his success and wins, there’s still room for improvement with the No. 2 team. While he’s found himself in Victory Lane three weeks straight, Keselowski has not had a dominating car in any win.
“But with respect to that, I think you have to one recognize that we’re fortunate to have the opportunities and that we haven’t just dominated the races,” he admitted.
“When you dominate a race, you don’t really need an opportunity. You just don’t need any bad luck. We have not been dominating the races, we’ve been able to get opportunities to kind of change our fortune and we’ve made the most of them, so I think you recognize that and then you recognize that making the most of your opportunities is so important in motorsports and in life. That’s, that’s where we’re at today with these wins that we’ve had.”
Last week’s Las Vegas win put Keselowski into the second round of the playoffs and kept his chance at winning a second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship alive. The victory relieved a great deal of pressure this weekend in Richmond and at the last race of the opening round to be contested on the Charlotte road course and Keselowski is thankful. He understands the nature of playoff racing is the intensity level ramps up.
“So my initial thought is no, it doesn’t change anything,” Keselowski said when asked if being in the playoffs changes the on track product.
“But I think the proof’s in the pudding when you watch these races that things definitely change with when you have different things on the line. Whether it be the playoffs or you want to race in the playoffs specifically. Things definitely change and perhaps are more subconscious, which makes it hard to give a great answer because my initial answer is probably with my heart is no, but when I try to step back and look objectively it’s pretty obvious looking at the field that it does.”
