In the return from NASCAR’s off week, Brad Keselowski hung around, led a couple of laps and finished 11th Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway.
The 300-lap race saw just two non-stage cautions as green-flag pit cycles and a slick race track dominated the storylines.
“There’s always something to learn,” Keselowski said. “We’re not bad, we just need more speed. We have the pit crew to do this, and I needed to do a little better on the restarts, for sure. I got ran over a couple times. But, we’re dabbling with it and need a little bit more.”
Keselowski began the day from the 20th position after Saturday’s single-car qualifying session. After a green-flag cycle 40 laps in, the Michigan native ended the opening stage in 24th.
He fired back off 18th for stage two, after one of a handful of impressive stops from the No. 6 team. By the next green flag cycle around lap 135, Keselowski was one of three cars to long pit, and the strategy paid off as the No. 45 spun at pit road entry. Keselowski was scored third at the time, and would restart there for the ensuing restart.
That restart was not in Keselowski’s favor as the No. 6 failed to gain initial speed, stacking up the field and ultimately bringing out just the second non-stage end caution of the night. Keselowski would restart 11th and went on to finish the stage in 12th.
After restarting inside the top-10 to begin the final stage, one final green flag cycle occurred with 50 to go as Keselowski inherited the lead, then was the final car to pit road at lap 247. With no more breaks in the race, Keselowski went on to battle late to finish 11th.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Chicago next week for the series’ first-ever race in the streets. Race coverage Sunday is set for 5:30 p.m. ET on NBC, with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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