MADISON, Ill. — Brad Keselowski quelled a new rivalry and not-so-great season with one of his best runs of 2026 in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway Gateway.
Keselowski led three times for 55 laps. With finishes of 10th and third in the stages, he earned nine stage points. Ultimately, he tied for the fourth-most points earned Sunday –34 — despite finishing 12th.
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The finish was far better than what Keselowski did the week before and throughout Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300.
At Darlington Raceway, in the Cook Out Southern 500 the week before, the 2012 Cup Series champion finished 26th.
Meanwhile, Carson Hocevar finished 11th after making contact with Keselowski in a spin that derailed his day.
Keselowski vowed that Hocevar’s day was coming. However, it didn’t look like Sunday was going to be the day.
Keselowski started 23rd in Sunday’s race. In practice, he was 16th fastest overall with the eighth-best 10-lap average. Meanwhile, Hocevar started sixth after running sixth fastest overall in practice with the third-best 10-lap average.
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Rival Carson Hocevar finished exactly where he started in the first stage, which featured four cautions in 45 laps. One of those cautions allowed Keselowski to pit for fresh tires on lap 15, according to NASCAR timing and scoring, which boosted him to 10th in the stage.
That call allowed Keselowski to stay out during the stage break and take the lead on lap 48, all the way to the seventh caution of the race on lap 65.
After barely leading any laps in the previous five months and subsequently being on the absolute edge of becoming just the 24th driver to lead 10,000 laps in his Cup career, Keselowski had just 18 laps to lead to reach that mark.
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Although Kyle Larson and Joey Logano jumped ahead of Keselowski in the stage, a call for fresh tires later in the race — on lap 164 — allowed him to make history before losing the lead to Logano on a lap 182 restart.
Although Keselowski lost the lead, the race didn’t get any less exciting for him. Finally, he was racing Hocevar in a test of what their rivalry was going to become.
What it became was Keselowski showing his speed and Hocevar knowing his place, giving Keselowski room and falling to third behind him on lap 184.
Yet again, in a race with a NextGen and Gateway Cup record 18 cautions, a caution hammered in the final nail in Keselowski’s fate. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins kept Keselowski out on lap 203 while everyone else pitted for tires, except for four other drivers.
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Keselowski held the lead until lap 221 when Logano beat him on a restart yet again and took him out of the lead for good.
Four more cautions and an adverse scenario for fresh tires to matter ultimately pushed Keselowski back to 12th when the checkered flag flew in double overtime on lap 247.
“We had a lot of bright spots today. Our pit crew was strong, it was one of our better cars of the year. The crashes hurt our strategy but all in all a really great day for the No. 6 Castrol team,” Keselowski said.,
Keselowski still earned his second-best driver rating in a race this season (106.1) and led more laps in one race (55) than he had in the previous 21 races combined (21). The 106.1 rating also ranks as his fifth-best rating in a race since the start of 2025.
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Sunday’s race was also just the fifth time he earned 34 or more points in a race this season, now through 28 races. In the last eight races, he has five finishes of 14th or better — compared to none in the previous eight.
Keselowski ranks 12th for most points earned in the last eight races (188), tied with Tyler Reddick and ahead of WIlliam Byron (185), Carson Hocevar (170) and Chase Elliott (148) among others.
Next is the Bass Pro Shops Bristol Night Race where Keselowski was an even harder bump away from winning the race last year, instead of finishing second.
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