Four NASCAR Cup Series drivers saw their chance at winning the championship come to an end at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs, Harrison Burton and Martin Truex Jr. were all eliminated following the last race of the first round of the playoffs. Daniel Suarez was the last driver to advance on points,
Keselowski started in 23rd position and finished 26th, three laps down from race winner Kyle Larson.
“Just a long night,” Keselowski told Performance Racing Network’s Brett McMillan after the race. “Just didn’t have any pace. No attrition for the race, tires didn’t fall off and we didn’t have the pace.”
The No. 6 Ford driver finished third earlier this season in the spring race at Bristol and has three career wins, four Top 5s and three Top 10s at the concrete oval track, but just didn’t have enough from his car in the opening round of the NASCAR playoffs.
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“We want to run better,” Keselowski told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass. “We want to win races and we want to go make deep runs in the playoffs and be in the final four and all those things. Obviously, anything short of that is disappointing. We’ll come back and charge up more for next year.”
Despite not being able to chase the NASCAR championship for the rest of the season, Keselowski said his team will continue to run as hard as they can and hopefully pick up some wins.
Larson leads the pack into the quarterfinal round. Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Daniel Saurez, Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe join Larson to round out the 12 drivers competing for the championship. The NASCAR Round of 12 begins with the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 29.
