KANSAS CITY, Kansas — They had won four of the last six races entering Sunday’s event at Kansas Speedway.
But Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney won’t be racing for a championship. That leaves only Joey Logano left at Team Penske to race for a championship.
Keselowski and Blaney were eliminated from title contention (along with Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman). Blaney failed to advance by six points. He was the closest of those eliminated to the cutoff line.
Blaney’s title hopes faded after he hit the wall while running third with about 60 laps left in the race.
“Sorry, trying too hard,” Blaney radioed his team after the incident.
He soon fell back and finished seventh.
“Obviously it was a mistake I made trying to work hard to catch those guys and I pushed too hard and got in the fence,” Blaney said. “It is all my fault.
“Whether it would have worked out for us or not, I don’t know. I don’t think we had the speed (Chase Elliott) or (Kevin Harvick) had. (Elliott) was super fast. I don’t know. I messed up and cost us a shot. The whole 12 team deserves better than that. That was unfortunate on my part.”
Keselowski didn’t have one incident that held him back. He just wasn’t fast enough. Keselowski led two different times for 26 laps but that was because he stayed out longer while others pitted during a green-flag cycle and moved to the lead. He was never fast enough to race his way to the front.
“I would say about the end of that first stage it was pretty obvious that we needed something after I saw some things on the other cars,” Keselowski said. “We needed something to step up but it just wasn’t there. We just weren’t as good today as we were (Saturday) and I am not sure why.
“Everyone else seemed to find a little from practice and we were about the same, maybe a little worse than we were in practice. I am proud of what we did down the stretch of the year. We won three races and did all that. I feel like we can go win Martinsville next week, so I am excited about that but of course the ultimate goal is to win a championship and we won’t have an opportunity to do that this year.”