Brad Keselowski falls short after early Chase success

AVONDALE, Ariz. — In some ways, this seemed like Brad Keselowski's Chase for the Sprint Cup.

He won the opening race of the playoffs at Chicagoland Speedway with a daring three-wide move up the middle. He scored a walk-off win at Talladega Superspeedway to secure a spot in the Eliminator Round. And he drew the ire of competitors at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway after hard racing.

Ultimately, though, it wasn't his Chase. He was eliminated Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway despite a fourth-place finish when he failed to win the race.

"We broke down twice – at Kansas and Martinsville – and neither one of those were anything I know how to do anything different," he said. "So that makes you feel like it wasn't meant to be."

Still, Keselowski has won the most races this season (six) and will now have no shot at the championship while a driver with no wins (Ryan Newman) is tied for the points lead with one race to go.

"It doesn't feel good to have won the most races and not be in it at Homestead, but it still feels like this has been a great season, winning six races," Keselowski said. "Nobody is going to win any more than that, and that's something we're proud of."

Despite the much-publicized fight at Texas between Keselowski and Gordon, neither of them will be in the four-driver finale. Gordon could still exact some revenge at Homestead — he would have made the championship race had his tire not gotten cut down by Keselowski on the Texas restart — but it won't matter much now.

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Keselowski had a shot to make the final four on points, but his rivals' good runs — every driver ahead of him finished 11th or better — negated his effort. He missed the final transfer spot by eight points.

"We just couldn't overcome the Martinsville hurdle," he said of the first race of Round 3 when he suffered a broken gear. "We just weren't quite fast enough to pull that off the last two weeks, and that's what it was going to take.

"It's nothing to hang our head on. We controlled the things we could control for the most part and that's just how this deal works."