Keselowski wins pole at home state’s track in Michigan
BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — For Brad Keselowski, any victory at his home state’s track is special. Even if it’s only in qualifying. Keselowski won the pole Friday for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race, putting himself in good position to try for an elusive victory at Michigan International Speedway.
Keselowski is winless in 16 career Cup races at Michigan. He does have eight top-10 finishes. “I’m not really known as a great qualifier, so maybe over time I’ve probably put a little less stock in qualifying,” Keselowski said. “But I can tell you that when I saw that we were going to win the pole those last few seconds of qualifying, it put chills down my body. It’s a great feeling. It’s a special track for me to have any kind of success at.”
Keselowski’s pole was his 14th on the Cup Series and first at Michigan. It was his second this year. Joey Logano was second, giving Team Penske a 1-2 showing in qualifying for Sunday’s race. Kevin Harvick — another Ford driver — was third.
Keselowski took the pole with a lap of 35.451 seconds (203.097 mph) in his No. 2 Ford. Logano was close behind at 35.457.
“Missed it by seven thousandths,” Logano said. “So close. But we’ve got to be proud of the effort that we put in as a team.”
Keselowski, who is from Rochester Hills, won at Michigan on the Nationwide Series but has never done so at the Cup level.
“Any success you have at your home track is right there with having success in the biggest races of the year,” Keselowski said.
EARNHARDT AND HARVICK
Harvick talked a bit more about his comments from earlier in the week about Dale Earnhardt Jr. Harvick suggested on Sirius XM that NASCAR’s growth has fallen short of its potential because Earnhardt — the most popular driver — hasn’t been successful enough. Earnhardt described some of the comments as “hurtful” on Thursday.
“I would certainly like to clear it up, but just probably between ourselves,” Earnhardt added on Friday.