Brad Keselowski dominated the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) Dollar General 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday and won his first NNS since race since returning to the series after he broke his ankle testing at Road Atlanta.
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- Keselowski led 158 of the 200 laps. He was only passed for the lead one time and that was by Edwards. Keselowski blamed lapped traffic at the time. Keselowski pitted under green flag conditions while Edwards stayed out. Eventually Edwards ran out of gas allowing Keselowski to go back to the front.
Keselowski held off Carl Edwards by 8.568 seconds for his 15thcareer NNS win and his third of the season.
“Today was a team victory. Good strategy. Good execution. Fast car. We didn’t make any mistakes and a lot of times that’s what this sport is about. It was a really strong showing here today. I’m glad to get the win. Obviously, when you can get extra track time before the Cup race it can be advantageous. I think today was one of those situations. Hopefully it will payoff for tomorrow. We’ll just have to see.” Keselowski said.
Edwards ran out of gas while leading on pit road on lap 124. Edwards came out nine seconds behind
“Congrats to Brad. He was doing a really good job. I have to thank Fastenal, Ford and I hope folks tune in tomorrow. It is going to be a great race. The first race of the Chase and there couldn’t be a better race track to run at. It has multiple grooves and it is a really fun place. I just wish we had gotten a caution to get another chance at this one.” Edwards said.
Brian Scott finished third, Aric Almirola fourth and Sam Hornish Jr. finished fifth.
Scott earned his first career pole and led five laps en route to equaling his career best NNS finish (Chicagoland 2010).
“I think there at the end we were a little faster than Carl (Edwards), but he was a little better in the traffic, and we just got a little too loose. After some of the luck we’ve had and had a fifth-place run ruined at Montreal, to be able to finish third here is a pretty good day.” Scott said.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 8th and holds a 14-point lead over Elliott Sadler in the series standings.
There were three caution periods for only eight laps in a relatively problem free event. There were eight lead changes between only five drivers.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| Dollar General 300, Chicagoland Speedway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/n2s/race.php?race=28 | |||||
| ========================================= | |||||
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Make | Points | |
| ========================================= | |||||
| 1 | – | 22 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | 0 |
| 2 | – | 60 | Carl Edwards | Ford | 0 |
| 3 | – | 11 | Brian Scott | Toyota | 42 |
| 4 | – | 88 | Aric Almirola | Chevrolet | 40 |
| 5 | – | 12 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Dodge | 39 |
| 6 | – | 2 | Elliott Sadler | Chevrolet | 38 |
| 7 | – | 7 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 8 | – | 6 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 36 |
| 9 | – | 33 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 10 | – | 32 | Reed Sorenson | Chevrolet | 34 |
| 11 | – | 16 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 33 |
| 12 | – | 38 | Jason Leffler | Chevrolet | 33 |
| 13 | – | 20 | Ryan Truex * | Toyota | 31 |
| 14 | – | 31 | Justin Allgaier | Chevrolet | 30 |
| 15 | – | 19 | Mike Bliss | Chevrolet | 29 |
| 16 | – | 62 | Michael Annett | Toyota | 28 |
| 17 | – | 9 | Kenny Wallace | Toyota | 27 |
| 18 | – | 66 | Steve Wallace | Toyota | 26 |
| 19 | – | 18 | Joey Logano | Toyota | 0 |
| 20 | – | 1 | Mike Wallace | Chevrolet | 25 |
| 21 | – | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | – | 15 | Timmy Hill * | Ford | 22 |
| 23 | – | 39 | Joey Gase | Ford | 0 |
| 24 | – | 87 | Kevin Conway | Toyota | 0 |
| 25 | – | 14 | Eric McClure | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | – | 70 | David Stremme | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 27 | – | 52 | Blake Koch * | Dodge | 17 |
| 28 | – | 89 | Morgan Shepherd | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | – | 23 | Robert Richardson Jr. | Chevrolet | 15 |
| 30 | – | 81 | Scott Wimmer | Dodge | 14 |
| 31 | – | 40 | Josh Wise | Chevrolet | 13 |
| 32 | – | 28 | Derrike Cope | Chevrolet | 12 |
| 33 | – | 30 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 34 | – | 171 | Matthew Carter | Ford | 10 |
| 35 | – | 49 | Mark Green | Chevrolet | 9 |
| 36 | – | 103 | Scott Riggs | Chevrolet | 8 |
| 37 | – | 175 | Carl Long | Ford | 7 |
| 38 | – | 141 | Johnny Chapman | Chevrolet | 6 |
| 39 | – | 104 | Danny O’Quinn Jr. | Ford | 5 |
| 40 | – | 146 | Chase Miller | Chevrolet | 4 |
| 41 | – | 248 | Dennis Setzer | Chevrolet | 3 |
| 42 | – | 127 | J.J. Yeley | Ford | 0 |
| 43 | – | 150 | T.J. Bell | Chevrolet | 0 |
