Brad Keselowski in Year 2 of being a driver-owner made the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. It’s why he can’t be too down in the dumps after seeing his championship aspirations come to an end in Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Keselowski just didn’t have it on Sunday. That’s none to shocking either. 19 of the last 21 races on road courses he’s finished 13th or worse. It’s why despite being +2 in the playoff standings entering the day, his hopes weren’t overly confident.

Keselowski started 19th and had adversity early when he missed the front stretch chicane on Lap 17. He had to come down pit road to serve his pass through on Lap 19. It left him without any stage points. He was 18th. In Stage 2, he was 20th.

With Tyler Reddick scoring 17 stage points and finishing 6th, it knocked Keselowski out and puts Reddick in.

“It’s not the day we wanted for sure, but we’ve got a lot to be proud of,” Keselowski said. “We kept clawing and it just wasn’t enough today. I felt like I could have done a few things better and obviously it’s frustrating when you don’t advance and you don’t get what you want out of the day, but we’ve got a lot of great things going on and we’ll learn from it and come back stronger.”

Keselowski still had a great playoffs outside of the last two races. In fact, over the 12 races presiding Talladega, he had 9 top 10 finishes.

But, that crash in Talladega on Lap 161 which left him 32nd and Sunday’s race on the ROVAL left him on the outside looking in.