The repaved and reprofiled Kentucky proved to be a tough opponent, with a record-tying 11 cautions.
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Brad Keselowski won his second NASCAR Sprint Cup race in a row for Team Penske at Kentucky in a tense final lap battle with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Carl Edwards. However, Keselowski, who had radioed his crew chief Paul Wolfe that he had run out of fuel, managed to thwart Edward and hold on for the victory.
“I’m not sure, but it took a lot discipline to run this track tonight”, said Keselowski, who wrapped up his third Kentucky win in the Sprint Cup Series.
“It became obvious we were going to have to save gas at the end”, said Keselowski.
Ryan Newman finished third, followed by Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart, who was making his 600th career Cup Series start.
“When it comes to thinking in the vehicle, Brad is really good”, Team Penske crew chief Paul Wolfe said. He thought his tank ran dry with two laps remaining allowing Edwards to close up, but after slowing Keselowski was able to get back up speed and pull away.
Late in the race as Truex battled Kevin Harvick for the lead, Truex zipped ahead of Harvick on pit road to reach his (Truex’s) pit stall. I kept sliding through, so I need to work on that. “We didn’t have the fastest auto or the raw speed, but restarts and fuel mileage put us here in the end”. Logano hit the wall and cut a tire down awhile later, resulting in more contact with the barrier in Turns 3 and 4.
“I thought the new aero package would open it up a year ago”, Simendinger said, “but lo and behold Keselowski and Busch were there and I suspect it might be that way again because their organizations have been so good”.
NASCAR veteran Tony Stewart, a recent victor at Sonoma, managed to take home fifth place in his 600th Cup start. “I’d rather drive it in Victory Lane, but you take them any way you can get them, and I’m glad to be here and glad to be doing things that are fun on a Saturday night”. Usually these repaves are kind of my Achilles heel, but to get a win here at Kentucky…
There are several interesting streaks in Cup Series racing right now, but the two most interesting belong to Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch.
After a subpar 2015 season in which he scored just one win, Keselowski and the No. 2 team have established themselves in the past few weeks as a genuine championship threat. “I thought it was as good as you could expect for a repave track”. But NASCAR slapped him with a passing penalty as he speed up approaching his pit stall.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): K. Harvick 5 times for 128 laps; B. Keselowski 3 times for 75 laps; M. Truex Jr.
“With about 20 or 30 (laps) to go, I thought, I’m going to be in trouble here”, Keselowski said. Jamie McMurray’s solid seventh-place finish moved him up one spot to 15, inside the Chase bubble. On Lap 93, the cars of Brian Scott, Chris Buescher and AJ Allmendinger were mangled in an eight-car pileup.
Caution Flags: 11 for 53 laps. 151-176; K. Harvick 177-199; B. Keselowski 200-260; M. Kenseth 261; B. Keselowski 262-267.
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But, interestingly, it was a race where Jones showed Busch, the pole victor, the key to victory, demonstrating to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate that the outside line was viable when racing side by side with an opponent.
