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Brad Keselowski: "We stole the last three races" from better cars

Brad Keselowski has admitted it feels like his Penske team is 'stealing' NASCAR Cup race wins from faster rivals, after completing a hat-trick at Las Vegas.

Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Autotrader celebrates with a burnout after winning

Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Autotrader celebrates with a burnout after winning

Logan Whitton / NKP / Motorsport Images

Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Autotrader and Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing, Toyota Camry 5-hour ENERGY
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Autotrader celebrates his win with a burnout
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Discount Tire celebrates his win
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Discount Tire celebrates his win
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Discount Tire and Joey Logano, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Shell Pennzoil
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Discount Tire wins
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Discount Tire celebrates his win
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Miller Genuine Draft celebrates his win
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske, Ford Fusion Miller Genuine Draft celebrates his win

Penske's Keselowski, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney were outpaced by dominant trio Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Busch for much of the 'regular season'.

But Keselowski won the last two races before the playoffs at Darlington and Indianapolis, then triumphed in the championship shootout opener at Vegas, too.

On all three occasions, Keselowski led relatively few laps but forced himself into contention through sharp strategy and aggressive restarts.

'Stealing' wins

That prompted champion Truex to suggest the Penske driver was getting lucky - a description Keselowski readily accepted.

"He's spot on," said Keselowski. "We have not been the best car the last three weeks.

"This week we were probably a top three or four car. The 78 (Truex) was clearly the best car, and we put everything together when it counted and kind of stole it. Same scenario the last two weeks.

"I thought the (Kyle Larson) was the best car in Darlington, and we hit the strategy right and executed the last pit stop and that put us in position to win.

"And in Indy we were nowhere near probably even a top-10 car. We were probably a 15th-place car, and (crew chief) Paul Wolfe hit the strategy right and I hit the restart right to make all the passes when it counted and won that race.

"With that in mind, I feel like we stole the last three races. We're not complaining, but we still have a lot of work to do to go out there and win heads up without those issues."

Lucky horseshoe 

Truex joked that "Brad clearly found a horseshoe", and said Keselowski's results showed criticism of the current NASCAR season for being predictable was unfair.

"Three races in a row he's won and he has not had the best car," said Truex.

"If you want to really talk about the sport being what it is, you've got to look at that.

"Obviously he hasn't led the most laps in any of those races, and he showed up at the end with good pitstops and good short run speed.

"Clearly it's pretty obvious how it worked out. He's hot right now. He's on a streak."

 

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