{"id":14033,"date":"2017-11-17T09:31:07","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T15:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=14033"},"modified":"2017-11-17T10:17:34","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T16:17:34","slug":"is-brad-keselowski-the-championship-4-underdog-check-back-on-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/17\/is-brad-keselowski-the-championship-4-underdog-check-back-on-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Brad Keselowski the Championship 4 underdog? Check back on Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. \u2013 According to the metrics and the odds makers, Brad Keselowski<\/strong> is at the bottom of the totem pole entering Sunday\u2019s Ford Eco-Boost 400 (on NBC at 3 p.m. ET) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, talks to the media during media day for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at the Loews Hotel on November 16, 2017 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

After all, he squeaked into the Championship 4 race on points, when Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin renewed their burgeoning rivalry last Sunday at Phoenix Raceway to the detriment of Hamlin, whose charge toward the final four ended in a heap of bent sheet metal against the Turn 3 wall.<\/p>\n

Keselowski was the beneficiary of Hamlin\u2019s demise. And though he had won at Talladega to advance to the Round of 8, Keselowski comes to Miami as a decided underdog. Conventional wisdom says it will probably take a victory at Homestead to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title, and the Las Vegas betting odds for the 2012 champion to win the race average between 8- and 10-to-1.<\/p>\n

Favorite Martin Truex Jr., on the other hand is priced at 5-to-2, and both Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch are trending around 7-to-2.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on November 12, 2017 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Keselowski\u2019s underdog status is understandable, given that he hasn\u2019t won a race on an intermediate track since the second event of the season at Atlanta. And with a final four spot on the line at Phoenix, his car was a study in mediocrity on the one-mile oval.<\/p>\n

But Keselowski says he won\u2019t really know if he\u2019s a long shot until the cars get on track on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have a much better answer for that Saturday after all the practice is done,\u201d Keselowski said on Thursday during Championship 4 media day at the Loews Hotel. \u201cSitting here at this moment right now, it\u2019s kind of like everybody\u2019s got a poker hand, and you haven\u2019t seen any cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cards will start to get played Friday, and then qualifying on Friday night, and again Saturday with race practices and Happy Hours and so forth. I need to see some more cards before I can tell you. I know Vegas likes to have odds and all that going into it, but this is a very dynamic sport. And although it may not seem like it until you step away from it, things change all the time\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"

Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, celebrates after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 15, 2017 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWho has speed and who doesn\u2019t have speed changes a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underdog or not, Keselowski is playing with house money, considering the way he slid into the Championship 4. After Hamlin scored 19 points in the first two stages at Phoenix and pulled even with the Team Penske driver in points, Hamlin was comfortably ahead of Keselowski and in apparent control until Elliott ran Hamlin into the outside wall late in the race.<\/p>\n

When Elliott subsequently took the lead, he was threatening to eliminate Keselowski by winning the race, but Kenseth delivered a gift to the 2012 champion by passing Elliott for the win. Keselowski was in the final four by the skin of his teeth after living through a broad range of emotions during the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018If it\u2019s meant to be, it\u2019s going to happen; if it\u2019s not meant to be, it\u2019s not going to happen\u2019\u2014I\u2019m just for damn sure not going to be the one that doesn\u2019t make it happen,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be the guy that ran it into the wall, or ran the brakes off of it or blew a tire and screwed it up.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ryan Blaney, driver of the #21 Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford, talks with Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 13, 2017 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhen Denny blew a tire, I think I said, \u2018Oh, my goodness.\u2019 I couldn\u2019t believe it. Then it looked like Chase was going to win, and I was like, \u2018I guess, again, it wasn\u2019t meant to be.\u2019 And then he got passed there at the end\u2026 There was certainly some unease with all that, but I can\u2019t spend too much time looking in the mirror.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to look out the windshield at this weekend and just be thankful for what I have.\u201d  <\/p>\n

For his part, Truex embraces the favorite\u2019s role because it reflects the level of success he\u2019s had this season, a run that includes a series-best seven victories\u2014six on 1.5-mile intermediate tracks.<\/p>\n

Truex and his team won\u2019t let outside expectations influence his approach to Championship Weekend. Nevertheless, his confidence level is exponentially higher than it was in 2015, when he finished 12th in the season finale and fourth in the championship standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change the outcome in any way, so we don\u2019t even think about it,\u201d Truex said of his favorite\u2019s status. \u201cOur focus is to come in here and do the best job we can do. I feel like the team\u2019s done a great job of preparing. I feel like we\u2019re in a lot better spot, obviously, than last time. Being the favorite is great from that standpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like we\u2019re in a lot better position now than when we came here in \u201915, when we were like, \u2018We don\u2019t have enough speed\u2026\u2019 From that point of view, I feel like we\u2019re in the best position possible, but you\u2019ve still got to execute. You\u2019ve still got to bring the right stuff. It\u2019s a good position to be in, but it doesn\u2019t guarantee anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski – <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service MIAMI BEACH, Fla. \u2013 According to the metrics and the odds makers, Brad Keselowski is at the bottom of the totem pole entering Sunday\u2019s Ford Eco-Boost 400 (on NBC at 3 p.m. ET) at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After all, he squeaked into the Championship 4 race on points, when Chase Elliott […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[79,16],"class_list":["post-14033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-brad-keselowski","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/MENCS-TSS-Keselowski2-10152017.jpg?fit=4672%2C2904&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3El","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14033"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14057,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14033\/revisions\/14057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}