The stakes were high and the fuel was low. Brad Keselowski could’ve earned his second Cup win and Team Penske’s first win in a year. But behind him was a charging Dale Earnhardt Jr., who hadn’t won for over a 100 races, and seemed closer and closer with every second. What followed next was a masterclass in driving witnessed by the Kansas crowd, something Keselowski recently looked back on.
Brad Keselowski let it coast through corners to fend off Dale Jr.’s advances
After leading the final nine laps of the race, Brad Keselowski successfully managed to hold off Dale Jr. and win his first race with Team Penske at Kansas. And ahead of this weekend’s Cup race at the track, Keselowski looked back at his masterclass towards the end of the STP 400 in 2011.
“The background behind this will need to be a whole chapter in a book one day. It’s a dang good story for after I’m done driving,” he wrote.
The background behind this will need to be a whole chapter in a book one day. It’s a dang good story for after I’m done driving. https://t.co/EixCjZbuNw
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) April 18, 2026
During that time, Brad Keselowski was one of the most exciting and fearless young drivers who took all his chances. But at Kansas in 2011, Keselowski showed that he had restraint as well. After all, he was told in the middle of the race that he would fall short of fuel to make it to the end.
Keselowski started the race in 25th place and over the course of many laps, he made his way into the top 20, and then into the top 10. But after his pit stop on lap 210, his crew chief Paul Wolfe told Keselowski that he was three-quarters of a lap short from making it to the end of the race on fuel. But it wasn’t still until lap 234 that he began to save fuel while also eyeing a win.
As his rivals on the day made their way down the pit road to recharge on fuel, Brad Keselowski stayed out and eventually took the lead from his Team Penske teammate Kurt Busch on lap 259.
But his true test was still ahead of him. With 5 to go, Keselowski was so low on fuel that he had to lift in corners and let his car coast through them. But Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have that problem. He was pushing it hard every second to catch the Penske driver and end his winless streak.
At that point in the race, the distance between the two drivers was 4.9 seconds. A lap later it was 4.5 seconds. And a lap later it was 3.5 seconds. With half a mile to go in the race, Earnhardt was under 3 seconds behind Keselowski. But despite that, the fan favorite driver simply ran out of time.
Brad Keselowski won the race, his second as a Cup driver, his first with Penske, his crew chief’s first at the Cup level, and Penske’s first year in a year.
So it was truly a win worthy of a whole chapter in a book as Keselowski claimed, and one which showed the garage that the young Keselowski knew a thing or two about saving fuel.
Keselowski squeezed out wins from fuel saving after Kansas as well
The driver behind him, Dale Jr., applauded Keselowski’s skill as he claimed that anytime someone wins a fuel mileage driver, they’ve ‘done something as a driver.
But it wasn’t the only time that Keselowski had relied on his fuel saving skills to squeeze out a win. A year later, in Dover, he and Wolfe managed to make their car last for 89 laps on the last tank of fuel. This time, it was another Hendrick driver who was in pursuit of the lead from Keselowski. Jeff Gordon had enough fuel to catch the Penske driver. But just like Earnhardt Jr. a year ago, he too ran out of time as Keselowski took the checkered flag.
Speaking after the Dover win, crew chief Paul Wolfe said he was confident in his driver’s ability to save fuel. “I know he was working on that some (conserving) when he was behind Jimmie Johnson. We knew what number lap we had to reach to go full save and still be able to make it,” he described.
A few years on from that, Brad Keselowski’s fuel-saving skills came into play once again towards the end of the race. This time, the stage was Kentucky and he ran so close to the verge of emptying his tank that after taking the checkered flag, his racecar was pushed to the victory lane.
After the race, he claimed he felt ‘terrible’, not for any other reason but because there wasn’t enough fuel for him to do a burnout for the fans.
