Brad Keselowski was nervous about his chances of making the Championship 4. He felt good about winning the Round of 8 finale at Martinsville (4 straight top 5’s there) but didn’t like the way his cars have raced lately at the first two tracks in this round (Kansas and Texas).

“You know, here and Texas are two tracks we were nervous about,” Keselowski said after a top five finish in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400.

Keselowski, had great pace in his No. 2 Ford early. He finished second in Stage 1 and sixth in Stage 2. That got him a much needed 14 stage points on the afternoon and had himself setup for a good result in the end.

He capitalized with a rare playoff top five at Kansas. While it was his third top four finish in his last four Kansas starts, he had struggled in the annual Fall race though. He was 19th last year and was eliminated from the second round of the playoffs as a result.

“We were really fast all day,” Keselowski continued. “We just didn’t quite have enough there at the end. I feel like if we would have had the lead, we could have won. But, it just wasn’t n the card today.”

Keselowski, still sits +8 on the cutline as he lost five points despite the top five. He only had one top five finish in his last 11 races on the season entering this weekend.