By Cole Cusumano

Brad Keslowski and Talladega Superspeedway are synonymous with one another. The NASCAR Cup Series Champion’s first career win came at the 2.66-mile track driving the No. 09 for Phoenix Racing in one of the wildest finishes and underdog stories in NASCAR history. 

Since the iconic race in 2009, Keselowski went on to win four more events at the superspeedway and is now on the cusp of making history. Should the Rochester Hills-native find victory lane this weekend, he would cement his names among the elites and tie Hall of Famers,  Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon for the second most wins all-time at Talladega.

This would be a prestigious accomplishment by any standard, but the 36-year-old feels he has more work to do before being considered among one of the greats.

“Winning the Coke 600 was awesome and I don’t want anyone to take this any other way than that, but in some ways it was also like a huge moment of anxiety for me because I know that all I’m missing off kind of the crown jewel resume now is a Daytona 500,” Keselowski told POPULAR SPEED. “I know how close we’ve been and it just makes me want to explode inside.”

The Team Penske driver compared his satisfaction of superspeedway racing to the mindset of Olympic athletes who place in an event. The gold medalist is obviously exuberant, the third-ranked olympian is overjoyed because they placed, and the poor soul who finished second and just missed the grand prize.

“I feel a little bit like a silver medal winner right now on the plate tracks, and I know that not having the Daytona 500 is a huge miss and until you have that I don’t think you can be in those discussions,” Keselowski said.

The driver of the No. 2 most recently drove to victory in the Alabama-based track after a popular win in the Fall of 2017. Since then Keselowski has failed to finish above 13th, although he has led a combined 74 laps and won a stage in that span.

Widely regarded as one of the best superspeedway racers of this generation, the five-time Talladega winner believes there’s a reason for the peaks and valleys. Much like the sport itself, it’s all about adapting and evolving to the ever changing landscape of NASCAR.

“I don’t think you ever feel comfortable at Talladega,” Keselowski said. “ The rules change so much there.  I mean, it changes almost every two or three years to where, quite honestly, your techniques and tactics have to completely evolve. You have to keep evolving at Talladega.  I don’t know if there’s a track on the circuit where the tactics evolve more rapidly and drastically year over year than Talladega, so you’ve just got to really try to stay on top of that and it’s a hard thing to do.”

Much has changed since the 2012 Champion went to victory lane in that Fall evening of ‘17. Most notably, the crew chief shakeup at Team Penske that sent Paul Wolfe to Joey Logano and brought Jeremy Bullins from Ryan Blaney.

While Talladega is bound to be a wildcard even more so than years prior, the new face atop the pit box has been paying off for Keselowski, who is riding a seven-race top-10 streak that includes two wins. Bullins was also the last crew chief to pilot his driver to victory at Talladega when Ryan Blaney won in the Playoffs last season. 

It’s going to be anyone’s race come Sunday, but you can never count out that No. 2 car at Talladega. Tune into the Geico 500 from Talladega on June 21st at 3 p.m. to see if Keselowski can move his way into second on the all-time wins list at ‘The Biggest and Fastest’ superspeedway in racing.