Bad Brad Anything But In Race To The Chase

Bad Brad Anything But In Race To The Chase

Looking for a dark horse pick to win the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship? Try Brad Keselowski on for size (if you can even call him a dark horse anymore).
Keselowski enters the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with the second-highest points total (2,009), and more momentum than any other driver. He scored more points in the Race to the Chase – the 10 races preceding the Chase – than any other driver, by a wide margin. His other stats also trumped his competitors. A breakdown …
•    Keselowski scored 378 points over the last 10 races. Second-highest in points scored were Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne, who each tallied 363.
•    He scored nine top 10s in the previous 10 events, two more than Gordon’s seven.
•    Keselowski and Gordon each had six top 10s in the last 10 races, which ranks atop that list.
The question now becomes: Can Keselowski continue his consistent ways? He couldn’t last year, when he made his first Chase appearance. Last season, Keselowski entered the Chase with six top-10 finishes in seven races. He ripped off another two top 10s in the first two races (at Chicagoland and New Hampshire), but stumbled down the stretch with six finishes outside the top 15.
Martin Truex Jr., who made his second career Chase and first since 2007, might surprise a few spectators over the next two months. He, too, comes in hot. Along with top 10s in five of the last seven events, Truex has eclipsed the 100.0 Driver Rating barrier in six of the last seven races.