BRISTOL, TENN. (AP) - NASCAR has a new points leader.
And it just happens to be the defending champion.
Brad Keselowski moved to the top of the Sprint Cup standings on Sunday with his third-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. He’s the only driver to open the year with top-five finishes in all four races.
“Obviously we’re off to my best start ever,” Keselowski said. “That’s really cool. I’m happy for my team.”
Keselowski has a nine point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr., and is up 15 points over Jimmie Johnson, who dropped two spots to third following his 22nd-place finish Sunday.
But Keselowski said he’s not sure that his Penske Racing team, which switched from Dodge to Ford during the offseason, has a better handle on the new Gen-6 car than any other team. And he knows one month into the season means nothing in the grand scheme of things.
“I think we know as a team what we need; there’s a question as to what we need as a sport,” he said. “But I think we got a pretty good handle on it with the 2 team. Obviously we can’t keep our feet still. We know that Kyle (Busch) and Jimmie are going to continue to make their cars better. We have to keep digging and push on our stuff, too.
“But I think we got a pretty good feel on the 2 team.”
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