The race featured a green flag stretch of 112 laps, tying the record for the longest at Kentucky. Keselowski’s slow pace reeled Edwards closer, but Keselowski sped back up to preserve his position and the win.
Advertisement
Thanks to a fast vehicle and dead-on fuel management, Brad Keselowski notched his fourth Sprint Cup Series victory of the season Saturday night when he won at Kentucky Speedway.
We are cleaning a lot of things up as we go from week to week, he said, and hopefully we are ready as we get into the Chase and have everything hitting on all cylinders.
Edwards held for second with Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart rounding out the top 5.
Brad Keselowski, who followed up his restrictor plate mastery last week in Daytona with a fuel saving strategy performance for the ages, scored his fourth win of the season. I think anytime you have a track like this, it lends itself to compromises with race vehicle drivers, techniques and auto setups, and all those things that tend to open up the box to allow for better racing, because whenever there are those discrepancies, I think that forces mistakes, shows strengths and weaknesses that vary from vehicle to auto and driver to driver.
“I thought I had him, but he played it perfectly”, Edwards said. He let me get to him and then stood on it. “That’s what won us the race”.
SPARTA, Ky. – Kentucky Speedway has changed, and we probably won’t know whether it’s for the better until a full weekend of racing has been completed.
NASCAR DFS Expert Brian Polking reveals his final DraftKings advice before the Quaker State 400! Johnson wrecked on Lap 31; he returned on Lap 72, 42 laps down, and finished 32nd. Drivers were also competing with the lower downforce rules used in the June 12 race at Michigan International Speedway and with a tire package that changed since several drivers tested at Kentucky last month. But 14 laps later, his brake rotor failed and Logano crashed into Turn 4. “I got loose and hit the wall about 10 laps before that and the vehicle got really loose when you tap the right-rear quarter over”. “We can’t come here and blister right-fronts (tires) and have guys pounding the fence at 190 miles an hour”. Honestly, the pressure, it energizes me. “It’s not where we want to be and we’ll figure out next week”.
No – don’t expect the randomness of a superspeedway or road course, but don’t be surprised if this is a race where a first-time victor like Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Kasey Kahne or one of the Roush Fenway boys emerges. Truex Jr. exited the pits with the lead with 70 laps to go. I’ve been passing on pit road 15 times this year.
Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr had the most eventful race of all after losing his consistently frontrunning position due to a penalty for speeding in the pitlane at the final caution.
Truex restarted 23rd and quickly cut through the pack, moving up to 10th-place in 16 laps.
Harvick immediately complained over his in vehicle radio that Truex Jr. passed on the left, which is a violation.
“It wasn’t my night on that deal”, Truex said. “It’s frustrating, we had the auto to beat”. We came out with the lead and they took it away from us.
“You’re definitely cautious just because you don’t know where the limits are, and every time you go out you push or see something you haven’t done before”, Harvick said. He again lost the lead on Lap 55 when he pitted under caution but he was back in front the next lap. It’s number four this year.
Advertisement
“Gosh, that’s great! Usually these repaves are my Achilles’ heel”, Keselowski said from victory lane, a nod to the repaved and reconfigured track that gave drivers fits all night. I feel like we’ve been on the good side of the fuel mileage this year. These cars were tough to drive today, but a good tough.
