BROOKLYN, Mich. – Brad Keselowski came into his home track, Michigan Int’l Speedway, hoping to finally score a long-awaited first win at the two-mile oval in Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400.

While he didn’t escape the Irish Hills with the checkered flag, Keselowski was motivated by the speed his Team Penske squad showed in earning a strong runner-up finish to fellow series champion Kevin Harvick.

Though he qualified 18th, Keselowski ran among the top contenders virtually all afternoon long, finishing ninth in both of the first two stages before charging forward in the 80-lap run to the checkered flag.

He found himself third after the final sequence of pit stops, but picked up one more position when second-running Austin Dillon encountered a bad vibration in the final laps and faded back behind both Keselowski and Kyle Busch.

The second-place result marked Keselowski’s best finish of the season and first top-five since Kentucky Speedway one month ago. It also showed him that his team has some fight in them heading down the stretch run of the season.

“The last few weeks, we’ve had some pretty big struggles, finishing out races with breakdowns and let-downs and all of the above … so it’s nice to just be able to have a clean race, or mostly clean. We did have one loose wheel,” said Keselowski. “To be able to kind of get the finish we deserve, that’s important. It’s important to get what you have out of your car, and although we might not have race‑winning speed, we still need to execute and we did that today.

“That’s good for everybody’s morale at Team Penske and on the (No.) 2 team, but of course we want to break through and win as well,” Keselowski added. “we’re not where we need to be to just win on pure speed against (Harvick and) those guys week in and week out. As a team, we have to find that little bit of performance. It’s not a lot, but it’s just enough to keep us out of victory lane. It’s enough for us to run up front like we did today and finish up front when we do everything right, but it’s not enough to win.”

Keselowski went into the Michigan weekend with a clear head, hoping to use it as a launching pad heading into Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, one of his favorite tracks.

In fact, that mindset is the same one he’s been utilizing for most of the season.

“I go to each weekend as a reset point … thinking and feeling as though this could be the weekend where we have the speed to win or could execute the way we need to in order to get to victory lane,” noted Keselowski. “Then when you start to get through the weekend, you have to get the most out of what you have. We’ve had some races where I feel like we’ve been equal to or better than the Big Three (Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.) where we haven’t put it all together, mostly the plate tracks I would say. So that’s kind of on us to get a result.

“On these types of tracks – the mile‑and‑a‑half, intermediate, whatever you want to call them, two‑mile tracks – we haven’t had that yet, but we’ve been closer some places than others.”

Though he did endure the loose wheel issue that set him back, Keselowski didn’t believe it was the sole difference-maker that kept him out of victory lane.

“Based on what I saw at the end, the (No.) 4 car (Harvick) was legitimately faster, and we would have needed a mistake from him, either way,” admitted Keselowski.

Though he missed out on a win in front of his home fans yet again, Keselowski is confident that his day will come, both at Michigan and soon in the Cup Series again as well.

“These struggles and close calls are just going to make me appreciate when we do win here. I know it’s coming, and I’ve got to believe if we keep knocking on the door, eventually it’s going to fall in,” Keselowski said. “I don’t know any better way to knock on the door than finishing second. Last year here we led a bunch of laps, won the stages, sat on the pole. We have done everything we can do here but win, at least at the Cup level. So we have that opportunity, and we’ll see if it can develop into something. It hasn’t so far, but I know in my heart that if we keep running this like, it will happen.

“We know it’s possible, and it’s up to us to make it all come together.”