Keselowski heats up with weather heading to Mile

After a slow start, Brad Keselowski has used a slew of top-three finishes to climb steadily in the Nationwide Series standings to a season-best third. He's primed to make an assault on the championship starting with Saturday's NorthernTool.com 250 at the Milwaukee Mile.

Keselowski trails leader Kyle Busch by 208 points with 21 races remaining. Keselowski was 22nd in the standings after three races, but six top-threes in the past 10 have established him as a contender. Keselowski has won at Dover, finished second at Nashville and third at Kentucky in the three previous races.

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"We're doing exactly what we need to be doing in this stretch of summer races, and that is getting solid top-five and top-10 finishes," Keselowski said. "I've said all along how excited I was about getting to these races in the middle of the season because that is where we seem to thrive."

Keselowski was pretty good last year in his first Milwaukee race. He qualified for his only pole in 83 Nationwide starts and led a race-high 145 laps before Joey Logano knocked him out of the lead on the 172nd of 250 laps. Logano, on the inside, was side-by-side with Keselowski in Turn 3 when his Toyota went up the track and slapped Keselowski's Chevrolet, which suffered left-front fender damage. Keselowski brought it home eighth.

Carl Edwards, starting from the back after arriving late from his flight from California, was the eventual winner at Milwaukee last year. It was his first Nationwide victory of the season and ignited a hot streak during which he won six more. Edwards, 137 points behind Busch, arrives in Milwaukee in the same situation, without a victory this season.

"We had a very strong car last year in Milwaukee, and we turned our season around with a win," Edwards said.

Edwards and Busch are the only two Sprint Cup regulars making the 2,000-mile flight from Infineon Raceway in California, site of Sunday's Cup event, to race at Milwaukee. Colin Braun will practice and, if necessary, qualify Edwards' No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Johnny Sauter, who won the 2005 Nationwide race at Milwaukee, will have the same role in Busch's No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Busch, who leads the series with four wins this season, finished 16th in 2004 and 24th in 2006 in his two Nationwide starts at Milwaukee.

In addition to Sauter, other Nationwide regulars to win at Milwaukee in recent years include Paul Menard in 2006, Ron Hornaday in 2004, Jason Keller in 2003 and Greg Biffle in 2001 and 2002. Aric Almirola was credited with the victory in 2007. He qualified on pole and was leading on Lap 58 when Hamlin got into the car and went on to win the race.

THREE TO WATCH

Jason Keller, No. 27: Keller has the most starts (15), top-fives (six) and top-10s (nine) at the track. His lone win came in 2003. He is eighth in the standings, seven points behind No. 7 Brendan Gaughan and 15 behind No. 6 Justin Allgaier.

Jason Leffler, No. 38: Leffler is fourth in points, 10 behind Keselowski. Leffler has finished in the top 15 in all five of his races at the Mile, including top-10s in the past three. His average finish is 9.4.

Steve Wallace, No. 66: Wallace has a new crew chief, Trip Bruce, who won last year's Truck Series championship with Johnny Benson. Wallace, 10th in the standings, has a best finish of 19th at Milwaukee in three starts.

TRACK CHATTER

Chad Walter, crew chief for Justin Allgaier: "The key to success at the Milwaukee Mile is being able to roll the center of the corners. The straightaways are very long and the corners are flat. If the car can roll through the center of the corner and Justin can get it pointed straight and get back to the gas early, we will have a solid night. Qualifying is paramount at a place like Milwaukee. It is tough to pass, so the closer we can get to the front, the better off we are going to be."

Scott Wimmer: "(Milwaukee is) a little different from what we're used to racing on. It's real flat. We really have to watch our tires. Tires are going to wear out quick. We practice all day, and we race at night. So there is going to be a lot of different strategies going into the race."