NASCAR New Hampshire 2014: Can anyone catch Brad Keselowski?

Coming off consecutive wins and returning to a track where he was dominant in victory just two months ago, there is little question Brad Keselowski is the clear favorite to win Sunday’s race at New Hampshire.

That belief was reinforced furthered when in qualifying Keselowski broke the track-record to claim the pole, in addition to setting fast-time in two of three practice sessions. In era where each race is supposed to be a wide-open affair, New Hampshire gives the appearance of another Keselowski romp.

“The No. 2 car [Keselowski] has been fast all year long,” Kyle Larson said. “He was amazing fast here the first race. I don’t know. I don’t think anybody has anything for Brad. It’s pretty amazing how fast he is right now at pretty much every race track we go to. Hopefully we are the guys that can stop him this weekend, but it will be really tough.”

Keselowski led 138 of 305 laps to win the July New Hampshire race. Taking notice of Keselowski’s current roll, Denny Hamlin, who used to regularly dominate the one-mile track, joked that Keselowski stole his car and slapped a No. 2 over it.

Even Joey Logano, Keselowski’s Team Penske stablemate, couldn’t resist acknowledging the obvious.

“Damn, slow down @Keselowski,” Logano tweeted Friday.

Similar sentiments, though with less humor, were shared by Jeff Gordon, who called Keselowski the driver to beat this weekend again.

If anyone knows if would be Gordon, the runner-up to Keselowski in each of the past two weeks. And neither instance did the No. 24 car (Gordon) look to have much for the No. 2. Keselowski led 383 laps in the regular season finale at Richmond International Speedway, and in the playoff opener led the second-most laps and won by nearly a two-second margin Chicagoland Speedway.

“I would expect him to be in a similar position for two reasons,” Jimmie Johnson said. “One, he had so much more pace than the rest of the field here in the spring race that it’s hard to believe that everybody could cover that gap and get back to him. And then when we went to Richmond, which wasn’t too long ago as a short track and they had that form there, too. So, I’d definitely say those guys are tough to handle.”

Said Gordon, the fastest in Happy Hour practice Saturday: “Last week I feel like he won because of all those restarts there at the end, and they did a great job. But I didn’t think that was really their strongest track.”

But Gordon is just as quick to point out that although Keselowski looks to be above the competition, others will have a say in the outcome Sunday, himself included.

“As a team we definitely have what it takes to beat him,” Gordon said. “I think we’ve got a little work to do on the car to make the car perform at a level to beat him. They’re going to be really good; don’t get me wrong. We knew that coming in here. It’s no surprise.

“So right now I sit here and say do we have the best car out there? I’m not so sure that we do. But is our team strong enough to win this race? Absolutely.”

History suggests Gordon is right in his assessment that Keselowski is no lock Sunday.

In an uncanny stat, New Hampshire has produced 13 different winners in its past 13 races. Parity attributed to a tricky configuration making it hard to pass and a propensity for long stretches of green flag racing where fuel-mileage and pit strategy are often the deciding factors.

“At this track, you can get away with some interesting track position strategy that can get you that win,” Gordon said. “I think there is very little consistency in the trends here as to how this race finishes. And I think that in itself can contribute to different teams and drivers being a factor or being in position to be in the right place at the right time to get that win.”

But if anyone can buck recent history the evidence suggests Keselowski -- among the fastest in practice, the quickest in qualifying and with momentum on his side -- to be the pick.

And yet despite his dominance, the 2012 Sprint Cup champion is the first to say that his success -- both in recent weeks and in July -- means nothing Sunday or in the grand scheme of things.

“This kind of track is kind of right in my wheelhouse, right in our team’s wheelhouse,” Keselowski said. “We had this race circled before the Chase started and we felt decent about Chicago, but really felt like this was a race of emphasis for us to get a win and get out of the first bracket. With last week it’s even a stronger position for us to be pushing hard. It’s good. We just want to keep it going.”