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Bristol II: Brad Keselowski preview

STILL IN THE HUNT - Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 88 Navy Chevrolet, is third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver point standings heading into Friday's Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway. He fell to third after finishing 11th last ...

Published: Aug 21, 2008, 1:50 PM

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STILL IN THE HUNT - Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 88 Navy Chevrolet, is third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver point standings heading into Friday's Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway. He fell to third after finishing 11th last weekend at Michigan, but is still within striking distance of point leader Clint Bowyer. Keselowski is 132 markers behind Bowyer and only 19 points away from second-place driver Carl Edwards. He continues to be the highest-ranked Nationwide Series-only driver and is 227 points ahead of fourth-place driver Mike Bliss.

KESELOWSKI AT BRISTOL - In two starts at Bristol Motor Speedway in the No. 88 Navy Chevrolet, Keselowski has an average starting position of 16.5 and an average finish of 5.5. Last August he scored a seventh-place finish and in March he finished fourth at the 0.533-mile track.

QUALITY PASS LEADER - Heading into the final 10 races of the season Keselowski leads the NASCAR Nationwide Series in quality passes. The NASCAR statistic counts how many times a driver passes another car while running inside the top 15, while under green-flag conditions. Through last Saturday's race at Michigan International Speedway Keselowski has made 710 quality passes. That's 43 more than Bowyer and David Ragan, who are tied for second with 667 quality passes this year.

2008 STATS - Keselowski has scored one win, one pole award, eight top-five and 14 top-10 finishes in the first 25 races of the season. He's led in 10 races this year for a combined total of 268 laps. Keselowski's average start this year is 12.8 and his average finish is 10.5.

CHASSIS NO. 403 - The No. 88 JR Motorsports team will race Chassis No. 403 in Friday's Food City 250 at BMS. Keselowski last drove this car to a seventh-place finish at Dover International Speedway in June.

FLEET HONOREE - The No. 88 Navy team's Fleet Honoree for Friday's Food City 250 is Expeditionary Riverine Squadron One. The Navy's riverine force is part of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, a global force provider of adaptive force packages of expeditionary capabilities to joint war fighting commanders. NECC serves as a single functional command to centrally manage the current and future readiness, resources, manning, training, and equipping of the Navy Expeditionary Force. Riverine Squadron One was commissioned in May 2006 and was the Navy's first unit to deploy to Iraq's inland waterways - specifically, the Euphrates River in western Iraq.

KESELOWSKI (on beating and banging at Bristol…) - "Even with the newer surface there's beating and banging. It really comes down to the drivers. At the end of the day, they changed the track at Bristol, but you can still beat and bang. I think the drivers have started to realize that the penalties for doing that aren't worth the rewards. One spot is not worth the risk to your own car and whatever goes with that, as far as angering another driver and getting it back 10 times worse than what you gave it either that night or a night later. It's still going to be a great race at Bristol."

KESELOWSKI (on racing on the surface at Bristol…) - "I really enjoyed running there last fall and again in the spring. The track opened up to where you could run the bottom and the top and we saw more passing than we've ever seen at Bristol. It's just we were able to do it without hitting and wrecking each other. I think that's part of the difference between the old Bristol and the way the track is now. As a driver I like both the old surface and the new. The new Bristol probably isn't as much fun by yourself, but it's a lot more fun in traffic. You can see better now, too. When you get tracks with a lot of banking and short turns like Bristol has, you can't see. You physically can't see because you're looking up and you're looking at the roof of your car. I'm proud of the track for recognizing that and making improvements. Give it some time and the top of the track will rubber up and there'll be great side-by-side racing."

-credit: jrm

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