Keselowski wins Nationwide Series race at Gateway

Brad Keselowski won the 5-Hour Energy 250 Nationwide Series race on Saturday at Gateway International Raceway.

Keselowski pitted with 10-laps remaining and took four tires.  He restarted the race in fifth place and passed Bliss for the lead with less than two laps remaining to win his sixth Nationwide Series race of the season and the 12th of his career.

“When we had that one more lap of yellow, it went from five to four (laps left), I knew it was going to be close.  When Bliss got the lead, I thought he would be gone.  He had the best short-run car out of the group.  I got a little break when 32 got to him, got him a little loose and was able to take advantage of it, but Mike drove a great race.” Keselowski said.

Keselowski now leads in the series standings by 485 points and should clinch the Nationwide Series Championship in two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway.

“It’s pretty exciting for everyone at Penske and Dodge and Discount Tire and Ruby Tuesday.  What an amazing year this has been.” Keselowski said.

Bliss finished second, Justin Allgaier third, Jason Leffler fourth and Carl Edwards finished fifth.

“I guess the fastest car doesn’t always win the race.  The Verizon Dodge Charger was awesome today and we had the car to beat.  We just made a bad pit call late and it cost us.” Keselowski’s teammate Allgaier said.

“It was pretty wild.  We had two (tires), guys behind us had four and the 32 (Reed Sorenson) had none.” Leffler said on the final restart.  “My car is really good, but without that issue the brake problem we could have contended for the win here.”

Danica Patrick hit the outside wall after contact from Steve Wallace with 10 laps remaining.  Patrick finished 22^nd, 17 laps down.

Unofficial Race Results

5-Hour Energy 250, Gateway International Raceway

October 23, 2010 – Race 32 of 35