CUP: Brad Keselowski Gives The Blue Deuce Its Third All-Star Last-Place Finish

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin'

Brad Keselowski finished last in Saturday’s running of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his #2 Miller Lite Ford fell out with transmission trouble after he completed 2 of the race’s 90 laps.

Keselowski, the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, had a strong start to 2013, finishing out of the top ten just once in the first eight races of the year.  However, following a 33rd-place finish at Richmond last month, he has since struggled to finishes of 15th and 32nd.  Nevertheless, he remains 7th in points going into next week’s Coca-Cola 600, a race his Penske Racing team won with Kurt Busch in 2010.

At Charlotte, Keselowski raced in a special paint scheme that covered his Ford in fan-submitted photos.  He qualified 12th in the car during a session in which several drivers slid out of their pit box during the mandatory stop.  On race night, he was running in a thick pack of traffic just in the early laps when something in the drive train shattered entering turn three, causing him to fall off the pace.  After limping around the track for a lap, he pulled behind the wall and out of the race.

As of this writing, Keselowski has still yet to finish last in any of his 136 career Cup Series points races.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was Keselowski’s first last-place finish in the NASCAR All-Star Race.
*This was the third last-place finish for owner Roger Penske’s #2 Miller Lite machine in the All-Star Race.  In 2002, Rusty Wallace’s Ford crashed after 14 laps, and in 2006, Kurt Busch lost the engine on his Dodge after 33 laps.
*Keselowski is the first All-Star last-place finisher to fall out with transmission trouble since 1994, when Terry Labonte’s #5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet broke after 36 laps.

THE BOTTOM FIVE
22) #2-Brad Keselowski / 2 laps / transmission
21) #55-Mark Martin / 87 laps / crash
20) #10-Danica Patrick / 90 laps / running
19) #34-David Ragan / 90 laps / running
18) #15-Clint Bowyer / 90 laps / running / led 11 laps