The mindset of going for the victory and not just playing it safe continues to pay dividends for Brad Keselowski, who used that very formula to win Sunday.
When the caution came out with 11 laps to go Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, Brad Keselowski's crew chief Paul Wolfe had a decision to make. If he followed conventional wisdom and went with two tires, Keselowski likely would finish somewhere between fifth and 10th. A good result, but in the grand scheme kind of meaningless in an era where a regular season victory carries such weight and assures a playoff berth.
But ever since Wolfe took over the No. 2 team in 2011, a fundamental principal has guided he and Keselowski: What is going to give us the best chance not score the best finish possible, but win?
Sunday, that meant eschewing track position and giving his driver four fresh tires. Keselowski would restart 16th, but if things broke his way he would be best positioned to win for the first time this season. And that's exactly what happened.
"When I heard guys were going for two tires, I told Brad over the radio, 'If we're going to win this thing, I think we're going to need four,'" Wolfe said. "I didn't feel we were going to be able to pass those guys on equal tires. At that point, it's like, 'Let's go for the win.'"
In little time Keselowski jumped to sixth when a fortuitous caution came out to set a green-white checkered restart. With everyone in front of him on older tires, Keselowski had the decided advantage and capitalized passing leader Kurt Busch on the final lap.
"So Paul made the call to come down pit road and put four tires on, I said, 'This can either go really good or really bad.' Didn't know which one it was going to be," Keselowski said. Some guys stayed out, some guys took two tires, all different types of strategies on the restart.
"We were able to find our way through the lanes and get to the front there, somehow end up in Victory Lane leading the last lap. Kind of a race car driver's dream. This is one we're going to sit back and go 'Wow' for a while."
As he celebrated in Victory Lane, Keselowski commented that he stole this win as Busch and Kevin Harvick both had superior cars. Speed, however, isn't always the determining factor in who wins and who loses, it also takes guile -- something Keselowski and Wolfe possess in spades.
NASCAR Power Rankings
1. Kevin Harvick (Last week: 1)
A last lap pass of Kurt Busch at the start/finish persevered Kevin Harvick's streak of finishing in the top-two in eight consecutive races. The only driver with a better mark is Richard Petty, who compiled an 11-race streak of finishing second or better in 1975. And proof most everything comes full circle, Petty's run ended at Martinsville, which just so happens to be the site of this weekend's race.
2. Joey Logano (LW: 2)
The No. 22 team just keeps quietly knocking out top-10s. Sunday provided another example, as Joey Logano ran up front throughout en route to a seventh-place finish. Although not regarded as great on short tracks, keep in mind Logano won at Richmond and Bristol last season and notched a fourth and a fifth at Martinsville. Meaning, his top-10 streak has a good chance of continuing for at least another week.
3. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 3)
Martin Truex Jr. again finished in the top-10 (eighth) for the fifth straight week, tying a career personnel-best. In the process he also drew the ire of Tony Stewart, who was displeased that Truex cut in front of him causing contact between the two and damage to Stewart's car. As he is wont to do, Stewart expressed his anger in a calm and peaceful manner post-race, even refusing to use language not appropriate for young children.
4. Brad Keselowski (LW: 6)
Sunday was the second time Keselowski won a race by leading just a single lap. The first came when he won his maiden Sprint Cup race in May 2009 at Talladega Superspeedway. That afternoon Keselowski executed a perfect pass of Carl Edwards in the tri-oval where he faked going high then darted to the inside. And not realizing Keselowski was already underneath him, Edwards proceeded to clip Keselowski's nose culminating in one of the most spectacular finishes in NASCAR history.
5. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 4)
Considering how out-of-this-world Harvick continues to be, Jimmie Johnson's Atlanta win is looking all the more impressive in retrospect. The problem is there hasn't been much of a follow up, with finishes of 41st, 11th and sixth since and zero laps led the past two weeks.
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 5)
When the season began there were questions about whether Greg Ives was a suitable replacement for Steve Letarte, but every time doubt was raised Dale Earnhardt Jr. quickly shooed away the concern. As evident by four top-10s in the first five races -- the only exception came as a result of a tire failure at Phoenix -- Earnhardt's confidence in his new crew chief is proving more than justified.
7. Ryan Newman (LW: 7)
For the third week in a row Ryan Newman posted a top-five finish. An accomplishment considering the last time he did so was six years ago, which when he drove for Tony Stewart, who was in his first season as an owner/driver.
8. Kurt Busch (LW: Unranked)
Two races, two top-fives, both of which could have easily have been victories, and Kurt Busch's comeback has commenced in grand style. As if things couldn't be better, he returns this weekend to the site of his last win.
9. Jeff Gordon (LW: 12)
The good news is Jeff Gordon has shaken the bad luck that hampered him through the opening three weeks of the season. However, the bad news is neither the speed nor the finishes haven't really been present. Not counting Daytona, Gordon's led all of three laps with a best result of a ninth. Is that cause for concern? A little, but the issues are more indicative of where Hendrick Motorsports as a whole is at right now, then just the No. 24 team.
10. Matt Kenseth (LW: 9)
If someone has reason to gripe about mysterious debris cautions, Matt Kenseth is at the top of the list. When the yellow flag came out with 15 laps remaining, he was leading handily and one of the very few not concerned about saving fuel. Further compounding the frustration was when Kenseth pitted during the ensuing pit stops he broke an axle exiting, costing him any chance of a top-five. He finished 31st.
11. Denny Hamlin (LW: 10)
Leading 56 of the first 88 laps, Denny Hamlin seemed destined to get his redemption on a track where he broke his back in 2013 and suffered a weird eye injury last season. But any chance of a storybook ending was erased by a penalty for a loose tire on pit road, then Hamlin scrubbing the wall pretty significantly.
12. Kasey Kahne (LW: 8)
Sunday, a race on a slick track where a drivers' ability to manage tires and exercise car control, should have given Kasey Kahne an advantage. Which makes his 17th-place finish, where he was never competitive, confounding. Even more so considering teammates Earnhardt, Johnson and Gordon were all in the top-10.
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