It’s been a dismal start to the NASCAR Cup Series campaign for Brad Keselowski and the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Could this be the start of a turnaround, though?
The Rochester Hills, Michigan-native secured the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, after having the fastest run in Friday’s qualifying session.
“It doesn’t hurt being on the pole. It feels really good, especially to win the pole by that much. Just a total team effort. This event, this format pushes you to your limits from a driver perspective, team perspective, and pit crew. And I stuck my part, I mean it felt really good. I knew I stuck the entry.”
Keselowski completed his qualifying run, which consisted of three laps around the 0.620-mile short track and a four-tire pit stop, in 87.363 seconds, to secure the pole for not only the All-Star Race, but also for his Heat Race, which will take place on Saturday.
“It all came together for just an excellent run,” Keselowski said. “The pit crew, they didn’t try to be heroes. They just gave me a really solid stop, and Jeremy Bullins and the team gave me a car that was pretty fast. Like I said, they just gave me the ball, and said, ‘Go play,’ and that’s what we did.”
Christopher Bell ranked second in the qualifying session and will start from the pole in the second All-Star Heat Race on Saturday evening. Bell was about nine-tenths of a second slower, on the complete qualifying run, than Keselowski.
Alex Bowman was the third-quickest in the qualifying session and will thus start from the outside of the front row in All-Star Heat #1. Chase Briscoe and William Byron rounded out the top-five in qualifying.
Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top-10.
Spire Motorsports No. 71 Team Takes Pit Crew Challenge Victory
Michael McDowell and Spire Motorsports nearly pulled off an upset by winning at Texas Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago, and although that didn’t exactly work out, now they’ve got a new feather in their cap.
On Friday, the No. 71 Spire Motorsports crew, led by Travis Peterson, managed to knock off the quickest pit stop of the 38 drivers entered in the weekend’s NASCAR All-Star Race festivities at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
McDowell was the 15th driver to hit the racetrack in NASCAR All-Star Open qualifying, and during their three-lap run, the five-man pit crew put together a line-to-line pit stop time of 12.587 seconds.
That pit stop didn’t just hold for NASCAR All-Star Open qualifying, but it also held for the 20-car NASCAR All-Star Race qualifying as well, giving the team a $100,000 bonus.
Brandon Chapman (Fueler), Max Marsh (Front Changer), Ty Boeck (Rear Changer), Luke Bussel (Tire Carrier), and Dax Hollifield (Jackman) make up the five-man crew on the No. 71.
“Yeah, man, this is awesome. This is definitely beyond my wildest dreams,” Hollifield said in an interview with FS1. “You know, I was up at like 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning on Monday night trying to figure out what I wanted for a setup. My man Travis and the No. 71 team done it for us. And we’ve been working hard this year. Probably the youngest team on pit road, and hard work and determination, that’s part of it, I’d say. This is awesome.”
Daniel Suarez (2nd), Noah Gragson (3rd), Chase Briscoe (4th), and Christopher Bell (5th) were the top-five.
