Brad Keselowski wins at Las Vegas
Brad Keselowski drove from third to first in the last 20 laps to win for the second time in three years at Las Vegas on Sunday.
Keselowski didn’t pit during a caution flag with 51 laps to go along with teammate Joey Logano and Austin Dillon. He restarted on the front row with Logano but the two were quickly passed by Kyle Busch, who sailed off towards the lead.
Busch kept the lead as the race trudged on through cautions, sandstorms, a little bit of rain and a bunch of wind over the last 50 laps. If you were watching, you might have had to look away because the cameras were so shaky due to the wind speeds.
But Busch couldn’t hold off Keselowski, who had enough fuel to make it to the end because of the rash of late race yellows. On lap 259 of the 267 lap race, Keselowski passed teammate Joey Logano for second. Then, with six laps to go, he got Busch and the race was essentially over.
“We had awesome speed at the end of every run,” Keselowski, who rebounded from a pit-road speeding penalty earlier in the race, said. “It just seemed like we could never put it together with the way the cautions kept falling.”
While Keselowski’s car was best on the long runs, he needed the caution in the late stages of the race to make it to the end on fuel. Not long after the restart where the Team Penske guys stayed out, Matt Kenseth got loose in front of a pack of cars. Kenseth saved his car, but was run into by Chase Elliott. Meanwhile, as Kenseth spun ahead of them, Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards got together.
The yellow flag laps allowed Keselowski to not have to worry about fuel mileage.
“I didn’t figure any way we’d make it,” Keselowski said. “We kept getting those yellows, there were a couple wrecks – we were able to save plenty of fuel under those.”
Logano ended up finishing second while Busch fell to fourth behind Jimmie Johnson. Dillon finished fifth. It’s the first time Keselowski and Logano have finished 1-2 since Logano won and Keselowski finished second at Bristol in August of 2014.
Keselowski’s first Las Vegas win came in 2014 when he beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a thrilling finish. Junior was leading when he ran out of gas on the final lap, handing the win to Keselowski.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
