HAMPTON, Ga. - Brad Keselowski overcame a pair of setbacks on Sunday to score the victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Keselowski went a lap down on lap 118 when he had to come to pit road under caution with a tire issue. After racing his way back onto the lead lap, he was able to take the lead on pit road by beating Kevin Harvick with a faster pit stop.
But before the race went back green, Keselowski was called back to pit road due to a loose lug nut, setting him back in the pack.
He again moved his way back into the top five as the race wound down, but saw his fortunes turn on a pit road speeding penalty for Harvick with 16 laps to go.
From there, Keselowski wrestled the lead away from Kyle Larson, and drove away to his first career Cup series Atlanta win, and the 22nd victory of his career.
“We had a lot of adversity today there’s not doubt about that,” said Keselowski. “These races aren’t easy. They’re 500 miles and a lot can happen and when you think you’ve got it they slip away. I know how it goes. This one kind of fell in our lap at the end and my team put it all together when it counted. They gave me a great Autotrader Ford Fusion and we were able to get by Kyle (Larson) there at the end. I knew that he wasn’t going to be easy to pass. His car was great and I was able to make the right moves to get by him.”
Tire problems caused headaches for Keselowski early on. On lap 118, he brought the No. 2 Ford Fusion to pit road for an unscheduled pit stop. That left him a lap down, but as green flag pit stops cycled through 12 laps later, Keselowski found himself in the lead.
It didn’t last long, however, as Harvick took the lead back from him on lap 142. Keselowski then hit pit road again, using a short pit strategy that put him in seventh position at the end of the second race segment.
It appeared that Keselowski’s pit crew had earned him an advantage by beating Harvick off pit road after a lap 264 caution. But he had to return to the pits while still under caution after his crew discovered a lug nut on the left-rear tire was left loose during the stop.
“Everybody stayed focused and nobody had to say anything,” Keselowski said. “We know the deal. We know that this isn’t going to be easy. You have to keep your head down and keep fighting at all times and that’s what we did.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Kevin Harvick had dominated the race. After starting from the pole, Harvick led a whopping 292 of the race’s 325 laps, including sweeping both early race segments.
While other drivers battled tire wear on the gritty Atlanta racing surface, Harvick seemed to lead at will, pulling away from the competition time and again not only on restarts, but as other drivers worked to close on him. Even on pit road, Harvick’s pit crew got him out first for five out of six stops under caution.
But the race went south for the 2014 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion on the final pit stop of the day. When the caution came out for the slowed car of Austin Dillon, the field hit pit road for fresh tires for the final 11 lap run to the finish. Harvick’s team again got the No. 4 Ford out of the pits first, but Harvick was hit with a speeding penalty by NASCAR, sending him back to 17th for the restart.
“This place, for whatever reason, I just feel like I’m snake bitten,” he said. “It’s my own doing today. I really didn’t think I was even close on pit lane. It gets to bouncing around, I thought I was being conservative, apparently I wasn’t. I want to thank everyone on our Jimmy Johns Ford for everything they did this weekend. I was just pushing it too hard.
“I just made a mistake that I preach all the time that you don’t need to make and beat yourself and then you go out and make it yourself instead of following all the things you preach. That part is hard for me to swallow.”
That handed the lead to Kyle Larson, with Matt Kenseth on the outside. In the scramble on the restart, Larson edged out front while Keselowski powered to second. With six laps to go, Larson took the high line in turn one, giving Keselowski a chance for a run in the low groove.
Keselowski and Larson raced side-by-side down the backstretch, with Keselowski making the pass for the win in the third turn.
Larson held on for second place. While others battled with the slippery Atlanta surface, Larson was in his element, and he worked his way into contention during the race.
“I raced around Brad (Keselowski) a lot throughout the day,” said Larson. “Any time I was in front of him on short runs, he’s drive around me up top. And so, I knew I was going to have to take his line away on that start there for a couple of laps and try it. I just didn’t have enough grip or not as much as I’d hoped. He did a good job being a lane lower than me and getting to my inside.”
Matt Kenseth finished in third, with Kasey Kahne in fourth.
Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott bounced back from a pit road speeding penalty to contend for the win, eventually finishing in fifth.
“Our NAPA Chevy was awesome,” said Elliott. “I really didn’t feel like Kevin’s (Harvick) car was any better than ours. I think he just did a little better job of driving and using the bottom of the race track and keeping his tires on his car and still going fast all at the same time. I think we made a big start in the right direction for me being able to keep up with him moving forward. At this place, he’s obviously really good. But the biggest thing is just seeing him have a struggle there at the end and us running second to him all day all the way up to the very end is pretty frustrating.”
Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex, Jr., Harvick and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top ten finishers.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Atlanta Motor Speedway – Hampton, GA
Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 – March 5, 2017
1. (5) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 325.
2. (8) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 325.
3. (16) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 325.
4. (29) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 325.
5. (11) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 325.
6. (6) Joey Logano, Ford, 325.
7. (13) Kurt Busch, Ford, 325.
8. (9) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 325.
9. (1) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 325.
10. (7) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 325.
11. (25) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 325.
12. (15) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 325.
13. (4) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 325.
14. (23) Erik Jones #, Toyota, 325.
15. (26) Ty Dillon #, Chevrolet, 325.
16. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 325.
17. (24) Danica Patrick, Ford, 325.
18. (14) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 324.
19. (18) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 324.
20. (37) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 324.
21. (21) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 323.
22. (27) Landon Cassill, Ford, 323.
23. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 323.
24. (28) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 323.
25. (17) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 322.
26. (20) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 322.
27. (30) Aric Almirola, Ford, 321.
28. (22) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 321.
29. (36) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 320.
30. (12) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 320.
31. (33) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 320.
32. (19) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 319.
33. (35) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 317.
34. (32) * Corey LaJoie #, Toyota, 313.
35. (2) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 309.
36. (38) * Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 298.
37. (31) Gray Gaulding #, Toyota, Engine, 253.
38. (10) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Rear End, 182.
39. (39) * Cody Ware, Chevrolet, Steering, 74.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 140.898 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 33 Mins, 08 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.564 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 32 laps.
Lead Changes: 9 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: K. Harvick 1-36; R. Newman 37-39; K. Harvick 40-127; J. Johnson 128-129; B. Keselowski 130-141; K. Harvick 142-264; B. Keselowski 265-266; K. Harvick 267-311; K. Larson 312-318; B. Keselowski 319-325.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): K. Harvick 4 times for 292 laps; B. Keselowski 3 times for 21 laps; K. Larson 1 time for 7 laps; R. Newman 1 time for 3 laps; J. Johnson 1 time for 2 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 4,2,24,78,22,31,17,11,42,48
Stage #2 Top Ten: 4,24,31,78,42,3,2,77,14,6
