Keselowski seeks another title round with Penske

Brad Keselowski moved to Team Penske to become a NASCAR champion and industry leader.

He achieved his first goal in 2012 when he won the Cup title, the first for team owner Roger Penske in NASCAR competition. Keselowski also earned Penske’s 500th victory and in 2019 passed Mark Donohue as the winningest driver in Penske history.

Keselowski’s time with the Penske organization is in its final two-race stretch, and he’d like nothing more than to leave with a second Cup title. To grab that one final trophy on his way out the door, Keselowski will have to race his way into the championship finale on Sunday at Martinsville (Virginia) Speedway.

He’s six points below the cutline with three spots up for grabs at Martinsville. Kyle Larson is the only driver already qualified for the winner-takeall, Nov. 7 title-deciding finale at Phoenix.

Keselowski doesn’t have to win Martinsville to earn one of the remaining championship berths.

“Even if we don’t win the race, realistically, if we put up a lot of stage points and do all those things, we’ve got a great shot, so I feel pretty good about this weekend,” he said.

The competition is tough. The four drivers above the cutline are Hendrick Motorsports teammates Larson and Chase Elliott, the reigning Cup champion, as well as Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Below the cutline are all three Team Penske drivers — Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano —as

Keselowski well as JGR driver Martin Truex Jr. Logano is probably the only one who must win Sunday to advance, like he did in 2018 to make the championship finale.

Keselowski, winner of Martinsville’s grandfather clock trophy in 2017 and 2019, has wanted to focus only on Sunday’s race and not use his closing days to reflect on his time driving for one of the most respected organizations in motorsports.

Keselowski is leaving to become driver and partowner at Roush Fenway Racing, where he’ll fulfill his goal of having an important voice in the sport after 12 seasons driving for Penske that included 34 Cup victories, a Cup title, an Xfinity Series title and the successful recruitment of Logano to the organization.

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Golf: Taylor Pendrith’s big game is working just fine on the PGA Tour’s

Ashortest course, giving the Canadian a three-shot lead going into the final round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Pendrith ran off four straight birdies around the turn at Port Royal, and then picked up two more birdies late in his round for a 6-under 65. He is going after his first PGA Tour title just four starts into his rookie season, and two weeks after he got married. Pendrith was at 17-under 194. Danny Lee holed a tough 6-foot par putt on the 18th to cap off a 65 and stay in range, just three shots behind. Lee is the only player among the top five on the leaderboard who has won on the PGA Tour, though that was six years and 173 tournaments ago at the Greenbrier Classic. Lucas Herbert of Australia, a two-time winner on the European Tour, had his second straight round of 65 and was four shots behind. Tennis: American Taylor Fritz will play Marin

ACilic in the final of the St. Petersburg (Russia) Open. Fritz beat Germany’s JanLennard Struff 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 in their semifinal match to reach his first tour-level final of the season. Cilic reached his second final in as many weeks with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Dutch qualifier Botic Van de Zandschulp. American qualifier Frances Tiafoe rallied from a set and 5-2 down to beat Jannik Sinner 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 and set up a final against Alexander Zverev at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Zverev defeated Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz 6-3, 6-3 to reach his fifth tourlevel final of the season. The seventh-seeded Sinner had won his previous 11 matches and 22 sets on indoor hardcourt, and the 20-year-old Italian looked set to continue his streak when he came within one game of another two-set win. ... Simona Halep reached a WTA final for the 12th straight season after routing Ukrainian teenager Marta Kostyuk 6-0, 6-1 and setting up a title match against Anett Kontaveit of Estonia at the Transylvania Open at ClujNapoca, Romania.

Soccer: Reece James scored a second-half double to lead Chelsea to a 3-0 victory at Newcastle, extending the London club’s lead at the top of the Premier League to three points. ... Brighton came the closest of any opponent in six months to ending Liverpool’s 24-match unbeaten run by recovering from two goals down to draw 2-2 in the Premier League. Mohamed Salah failed to score for the first time in 11 games for Liverpool, but the hosts still looked like they were easing to victory when Jordan Henderson and Sadio Mane scored inside the first 24 minutes. ... Robert Lewandowski scored twice as Bayern Munich restored some lost pride with a 5-2 win at Union Berlin in the Bundesliga.

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