NASCAR: Is this the end of the road for Miller Lite?
2011 to present: Bad Brad and Kurt swap places
After one full season with Team Penske, Brad Keselowski moved from the #12 Dodge to the #2 Dodge and produced solid results late in the season. While a tough start put him as low as 28th in the championship standings after the ninth race, his fortune turned around with a fuel mileage victory at Kansas Speedway.
Sure, it was mostly luck that got him that win, but once the second half of the season began, things changed. After a testing crash at Road Atlanta that broke his ankle, Keselowski won days later at Pocono Raceway and then finished in second place at Watkins Glen International.
He finished in third place at Michigan International Speedway and then won again at Bristol Motor Speedway, putting himself in a wild card position to make the Chase. In half of the races in the 10-race postseason, he finished outside the top 15, but he managed to finish in fifth place in the championship standings thanks to four top five finishes. But he wasn’t done yet.
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2012 was a year to remember for Keselowski, as he earned three wins at Bristol Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Kentucky Speedway to earn the second seed in the Chase. He led the championship standings throughout most of the Chase thanks to victories at Chicagoland Speedway and Dover International Speedway.
It was a fierce battle between him and then five-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, and Keselowski captured the crown following two issues by Johnson in the final two races at Phoenix Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was the first Cup Series championship for Team Penske and the second championship for Dodge in what was their final year in the Cup Series.
2013 was the final year in which Miller had full-season sponsorship on the hood of the #2 car. Beginning in 2014, Wurth, Alliance Truck Parts and Detroit Genuine Parts were added to the lineup of primary sponsors.
It was a completely different year in 2013 for the final year of the “Blue Deuce”, as Keselowski missed the Chase — still the last time he failed to advance to the postseason — and finished in 14th place in the championship standings. But he was a Chase spoiler, as he won at Charlotte Motor Speedway that year.
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The #2 Ford has still been winning races with reduced sponsorship from Miller. Since 2014, Miller has been a part of 13 of Keselowski’s 22 wins. If this is it for the Miller Brewing Company, it has been a great ride for a sponsor whose nearly four decades in NASCAR are well worth recognizing and remembering.