Brad Keselowski seeking a pleasant Sunday drive in Las Vegas

He grew up in Rochester Hills, Michigan, on the northern fringes of Detroit. But the way Brad Keselowski gets around Las Vegas Motor Speedway, one might think he keeps a bungalow in Summerlin or Green Valley.

While people often talk about Kurt and Kyle Busch’s home-track advantage at LVMS, it is the driver sometimes called “Brash Brad” who seems to know every nook and cranny at the 1.5-mile oval north of town.

Since car owner Roger Penske switched to Fords in 2013, Keselowski has been almost invincible at LVMS with finishes of third, first, seventh, first and fifth last year.

He should have won that one, too.

Keselowski started from the pole position, led four times for 89 laps and appeared headed for his third Cup Series victory in five years here before being slowed by mechanical issues with two laps to go that handed the win to eventual series champion Martin Truex Jr.

Combining his recent success here with a strong second-place finish at Atlanta on Sunday will make Brad Keselowski one of those to beat at this Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at LVMS.

“I always like tracks we win at,” said the 2012 Cup Series champion during a recent NASCAR test at LVMS. “It’s been a fun track for us of late.

“Now we’ve got two races here, and it seems to justify coming here and putting in a little extra effort with this one, kind of starting off the season and then having such an important effect on the back half of the season. I don’t think we could have picked a better track for me to come back to for a second time.”

Final Four contender

The inaugural South Point 400 at LVMS in September will be the first round of the NASCAR playoffs. Keselowski made it all the way to last year’s Final Four of drivers who raced for the Cup Series championship at Homestead, Florida.

It’s a long regular season, but another strong effort here Sunday could put him right back on that championship path.

“Any time you come back to a track, you think about the good times and the bad times you’ve had at it,” Keselowski said, the bad times being finishes of 38th, 26th, 26th and 32nd in his first four Las Vegas starts, and that parts failure on the penultimate lap in 2017. “I’ve had a lot of really, really good memories here. It’s a track that makes me smile when we pull in the gate.”

So what specifically makes him break into the asphalt-eating grin?

“For whatever reason, this track goes through a lot of changes and mood swings and we’ve just been able to stay in front of them,” said the 34-year-old veteran who has 24 wins over his 11 years in NASCAR’s premier division.

After being eliminated by a crash in the season-opening Daytona 500 and Demolition Derby, Keselowski and Team Penske found another silver lining in the gray cloud that was Sunday’s rain-delayed race at Atlanta: He started fifth, won the second of three race stages, led 38 laps and was running 2.7 seconds behind winner Kevin Harvick at the checkered flag.

“We were good, but we just weren’t as good as Kevin was,” Keselowski said. “Kevin was better pretty much every run than we were, but we were sure trying to keep him honest.”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.