Ronda Greer Photo

Brad Keselowski entered this weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 looking to regain some of the racing luck that had eluded his Samson Stone Ford over the past couple of weeks.  Keselowski would battle some tire problems along with another race truck to bring his No. 29 K Automotive Ford home in the 21st position and maintain his 21st position in 2005 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver points.

Keselowski qualified in the 26th position for Saturday's event with a truck that he felt was capable of drafting well in the pack of trucks and passing in both the high and low grooves of the Kansas Speedway.  In Keselowski's first start at the mile and a half speedway last season, he started from the 23rd position and quickly made his way into the top ten before being collected in an accident and forced out of the event.  Based on that previous experience, Keselowski was not concerned with starting toward the middle of the field and working his way to the front.

When the green flag flew on the event, Keselowski quickly pulled away from the other trucks around him and focused his sights on the front of the field.  Keselowski would be forced to dodge several bullets as the race progressed including spinning trucks directly in front of his Samson Ford as well as some wear problems with his Goodyear tires.  But on lap 68, racing luck would frown on Keselowski as the No. 63 truck of Justin Allgaier got together with him as he was exiting pit road.  Keselowski's truck suffered damage to the right side forcing him down pit road for attention from his pit crew.  After some minor repairs, Keselowski returned to competition and would finish the event in the 21st position.

"This was certainly not the day that we were hoping for here at Kansas," said Keselowski.  "We really thought we had a great truck in practice and would be able to move through the field like we had done last season.  But we seem to be a magnet for other trucks spinning today because just about every spin on the track happened right in front of us.  Luckily the only incident that we were involved in only caused some minor body damage to the right side of the truck.  I was expecting a better outcome from today, but we will have to take the 21st place finish and get ready for Kentucky this week.  We were able to maintain in driver points and gain a position in owner points which is the big picture this season.  We are going to get back to the shop and check the truck over and hopefully get everything on track and be even more competitive at Kentucky."

Keselowski maintains the 21st position in driver points, only 17 points away from the 20th position and K Automotive moved up to the 24th position in owner points, only 85 points away from the 20th position.  The next event on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule is Saturday, July 9 at the Kentucky Speedway.