NASCAR: Brad Keselowski is at a disadvantage…and an advantage

The final practice before qualifying for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 featured one notable name omitted from the leaderboard.

That driver was 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski of Team Penske.

As he was about to head onto the track, Keselowski exited the garage when someone slowed in front of him. Jamming on the brakes, instead of rear-ending the car ahead of him, he struck a fence pole on the right side of his car.

Fan video can be seen here.

The #2 Ford suffered a lot of right-side damage, affecting the aerodynamics of the car. But instead of the team grabbing a backup car for the session, they decided to repair the entire right side of the car and not complete a lap in practice.

This session was one of the most important sessions for the 2020 season opener because many drivers used qualifying trim to practice their single-lap runs. All but three drivers (Bubba Wallace, Cole Custer and John Hunter Nemechek) worked on their qualifying setups for today’s qualifying session.

So naturally Keselowski will be at a bit of a disadvantage for this qualifying session, as he lost valuable track time in final practice.

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But he had previously worked in the draft and went 21st quickest with a speed of 197.247 miles per hour. In the lone Clash practice, he worked with teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano to get the sixth quickest time at a speed of 198.667 miles per hour.

So with only the top two drivers in single-car qualifying being able to lock up starting positions and Keselowski’s odds to lock up one of those spots now slimmer than ever, this means that the #2 team will be focusing solely on practicing in the draft and adjusting the car for not just this afternoon’s but Busch Clash but for Thursday’s Duels — and the race itself.

The fact that he worked in the draft in both prior sessions could help Keselowski, as it eliminates the need for a complete setup change.

Not only can he work with his teammates in these races throughout the coming week like he has been, especially with teams and manufacturers likely slated to help each other with the new superspeedway package, but he has shown past success at Daytona, winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in 2016 and the Clash in 2018.

We obviously don’t yet know if he will have teammates to race with in his Duel race, but he is a force to be reckoned with at the superspeedways in general, and this sole focus on the draft following his embarrassing shunt could play to his advantage.

The first car will go on track during the single-car qualifying session for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season this afternoon at around 12:30 pm ET. Fox is set to broadcast this session live from Daytona International Speedway. Following that, Fox Sports 1 is set to broadcast the Busch Clash live beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.