DARLINGTON, S.C. - A timely caution flag and a fast pit stop earned Brad Keselowski his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and his first-ever at the track “Too Tough To Tame.”
The 2012 Cup Series Champion beat out teammate Joey Logano and Kyle Larson to win the 69th running of the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday night.
Keselowski beat Larson off pit road during a final round of pit stops with 21 laps to go, then was able to pull away as Logano and Larson battled it out for second in the final laps.
That gave Keselowski a clear path to the checkerd flag for his 25th-career Cup Series victory.
Kevin Harvick and Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.
Driving a throwback Miller Lite paint scheme honoring NASCAR Hall of Famer and 1989 Cup Series Champion Rusty Wallace’s car from 1990, Keselowski was finally able to end his season-long winless drought and did it in one of NASCAR’s premiere events – earning team owner Roger Penske his first Southern 500 win since 1975.
“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to my pit crew,” said Keselowski. “We were running second and that last stop they nailed it and got us out in the lead. I thought Kyle was really good, and he was flat-out flying. I know how it goes. In 2015 we led a bunch of laps and lost it on the last pit stop and today my team won it on the last pit stop. Then it was just about me hitting all my marks and not screwing it up.
“How cool is this winning in Rusty Wallace’s Throwback car, the Southern 500, Throwback Weekend.”
Sunday night’s victory was the second of the weekend for Keselowski after winning Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
In Saturday’s race, it was being in the right place at the right time as Keselowski pounced when race leaders Ross Chastain and Kevin Harvick took each other out.
On Sunday, it was all about being out in front in clean air. Keselowski’s crew got him out front, and he did the rest.
“I felt like whoever came off pit road first at the end was going to win the race,” said Keselowski. “My team nailed the last pit stop… We stayed in position the whole race with great strategy to keep us from falling back. We didn’t have the long-run speed we wanted, but the short runs were great, and we were there when it counted.”
Keselowski led 24 laps over the course of the 367-lap event, but it was Kyle Larson who had the car to beat for much of the event.
Starting from the outside pole alongside pole winner Denny Hamlin, Larson was out in front was by lap 11 and went onto lead 284 of the 367-lap distance, sweeping both of first two 100-lap stages.
In the third and final stage, Larson led from the start and proved unbeatable while out in clean air, and at one point had put all but three other cars a lap down before a rash of cautions halfway through the third segment.
On lap 313, Clint Bowyer plowed into Ryan Newman as Newman slowed to come to pit road. The impact destroyed Bowyer’s car while Newman was able to continue.
Larson was able to retain the lead through two more rounds of pit stops before Jeffrey Earnhardt spun with 22 laps to go, bringing the lead lap cars to pit road for a final round of stops.
Keselowski’s crew managed to get him out ahead of Larson, with Logano following in third place. Keselowski got away clean on the restart while Logano and Larson fought side-by-side for second.
The battle for second allowed Keselowski to pull away to a one-second lead before Logano was able to secure the second spot from Larson.
Although Logano was finally able to put Larson in his rearview mirror, he wasn’t able to make up any ground on his teammate and ended up 1.2 second behind at the finish.
“We had a good car. We were like a third-place car and whether it was a short run or a long run it didn’t really matter,” said Logano. “We made some adjustments there at the end to take off a little bit better, but I didn’t get by the 42 (Larson) in time to try to run down the 2 (Keselowski). We were just matching lap times, so I couldn’t catch him enough. I was just hoping lap traffic would screw it up enough to try to catch him, but one-two for Team Penske, that’s pretty cool.”
Larson’s third-place finish marked the fourth time he had led over 200 laps and failed to come away with a victory. Although his car was the one to beat on long runs, Larson car just wasn’t the same on short runs and outside the clean air.
“Clean air is important,” said Larson. “You know, that was the first time the 2 car (Keselowski) was out front all race long. He showed that he was really fast in clean air. But yeah, I think if I could have been the control car for that restart – he beat me by just a nose off of pit road and kind of won the race. I was really loose in traffic behind those guys trying to run hard. But I was loose. Even when I’d catch lap traffic, I’d get extremely loose. Something about the dirty air here this weekend affected the balance I felt like a little bit more than normal.”
Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Jamie McMurray and Denny Hamlin made up the rest of the top-10 finishers.
Jimmie Johnson ended the night 39th after engines problems put him in the garage after 227 laps. The DNF prevented him from clinching a playoff spot and his post-season streak could be in jeopardy in next week’s regular-season finale at Indianapolis.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Darlington Raceway – Darlington, SC
Bojangles’ Southern 500 – September 2, 2018
1. (13) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 367.
2. (8) Joey Logano, Ford, 367.
3. (2) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 367.
4. (22) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 367.
5. (11) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 367.
6. (9) Kurt Busch, Ford, 367.
7. (5) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 367.
8. (7) Erik Jones, Toyota, 367.
9. (31) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 367.
10. (1) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 367.
11. (3) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 367.
12. (25) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 367.
13. (19) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 367.
14. (12) Aric Almirola, Ford, 367.
15. (21) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 367.
16. (18) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 367.
17. (14) Paul Menard, Ford, 366.
18. (23) David Ragan, Ford, 366.
19. (6) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 366.
20. (26) Michael McDowell, Ford, 365.
21. (28) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 365.
22. (24) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 365.
23. (4) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 365.
24. (29) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 364.
25. (15) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 364.
26. (27) Darrell Wallace, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 363.
27. (34) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 360.
28. (33) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 360.
29. (16) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 358.
30. (35) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 357.
31. (32) * J.J. Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 350.
32. (37) B.J. McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 347.
33. (38) * Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 346.
34. (40) * Jeffrey Earnhardt, Toyota, 344.
35. (10) William Byron #, Chevrolet, Engine, 329.
36. (17) Clint Bowyer, Ford, Accident, 309.
37. (36) * Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, Engine, 268.
38. (30) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, Rear End, 254.
39. (20) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Oil Pump, 227.
40. (39) Joey Gase(i), Toyota, Accident, 120.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 131.408 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 48 Mins, 54 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.224 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 35 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin 1-11; K. Larson 12-129; M. Truex Jr. 130-159; K. Larson 160-258; B. Keselowski 259-260; J. Logano 261-278; K. Larson 279-345; B. Keselowski 346-367.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) K. Larson 3 times for 284 laps; M. Truex Jr. 1 time for 30 laps; B. Keselowski 2 times for 24 laps; J. Logano 1 time for 18 laps; D. Hamlin 1 time for 11 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 42,20,78,22,2,4,11,41,18,9
Stage #2 Top Ten: 42,2,22,9,20,41,31,18,1,4
Top 10 in Points: 1. Kyle Busch – 1038 (6 Wins); 2. Kevin Harvick – 999 (7 Wins); 3. Martin Truex, Jr. – 883 (4 Wins); 4. Kurt Busch – 835 (1 Win); 5. Joey Logano – 818 (1 Win); 6. Brad Keselowski – 785 (1 Win); 7. Kyle Larson – 783; 8. Clint Bowyer – 777 (2 Wins); 9. Ryan Blaney – 755; 10. Denny Hamlin – 738.
