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[/media-credit]RALLY GIVES KESELOWSKI LEAD LAP FINISH AT DARLINGTON, ALLMENDINGER HAMPERED BY LATE-RACE INCIDENT
DARLINGTON, S.C. (Saturday, May 12, 2012) – Brad Keselowski rallied from three laps down to score a respectable 15th-place finish on the lead lap in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at historic Darlington Raceway.
Keselowski ran in the top 10 early in the race but hit the wall on lap 64 of the 368-lap race. The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge got loose in Turn 3 and Keselowski, try as he might, simply couldn’t keep it off the concrete, damaging the car. Complicating matters was the fact the first 172 laps of the event ran caution free, not allowing the team a chance to make repairs under the benefit of a caution and ran the majority of the event two laps down.
But as the race entered its final quarter, crew chief Paul Wolfe chose to take a couple of calculated gambles to make up the lost distance. He did not pit under two separate cautions late the race (on lap 299 and again on lap 317) and twice benefitted from timely cautions that followed, allowing Keselowski to make up the lost distance.
“I think we had a top 15 Dodge,” Keselowski said. “I just tore it up early in the run. I got loose and hit the wall pretty good. I felt pretty lucky to get 15th out of the day. We kept working on it and had great strategy and between the two got a great run out of it. This is what great teams do, they rally from adversity and we were able to do it tonight.”
Keselowski remains 12th in the series championship standings, nine points behind 10th-place Clint Bowyer and 83 behind leader Greg Biffle.
Crew Chief Paul Wolfe said taking the wave around late in the race wasn’t a risky move.
“It gets to a point in the race where you’re in a position where you have nothing to do but gain,” Wolfe said. “There’s really not much more to lose (laughs). And when you get in those situations then go for it and that’s kind of what we did.”
A.J. Allmendinger’s night looked promising until the first-year Penske racer lost a lap to the leaders during the lengthy green flag run early in the race (126 laps). Along with teammate Keselowski, Allmendinger took the wave around on lap 299 and got back on the lead lap nine lap laps later. On lap 317, his chances for a respectable lead lap finish ended when he was squeezed into the Turn 4 wall racing with Jamie McMurray. The No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge spent 11 laps in the garage area for repairs and he returned to collect a 33rd-place finish. He is 22nd in the series standings, 84 markers behind Clint Bowyer.
“We had a caution fall when we needed it after taking the wave around to get back on the lead lap, but got together with the 1 (Jamie McMurray) after that and ended up in the garage,” Allmendinger said. “The guys worked as hard and as fast as they could to get us back out there but there just weren’t enough laps left at that point.”
Jimmie Johnson won at Darlington, giving car owner Rick Hendrick his 200th career victory as a car owner in NASCAR’s premiere series. Johnson led the final 44 laps and beat Denny Hamlin to the finish line by .781 seconds in a green-white-checkered finish. There were 22 lead changes among eight drivers in and eight cautions slowed the event for a total of 38 laps. Johnson averaged 133.802 mph in a race that took 3 hours, 45 minutes and 25 seconds to complete.
Saturday, May 12, 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 Darlington Raceway Final Race Results 1. Jimmie Johnson 2. Denny Hamlin 3. Tony Stewart 4. Kyle Busch 5. Martin Truex Jr. 6. Matt Kenseth 7. Carl Edwards 8. Kasey Kahne 9. Marcos Ambrose 10. Joey Logano 15. BRAD KESELOWSKI 33. A.J. ALLMENDINGER
NSCS Driver Point Standings (after 11 of 36 races) 1. Greg Biffle 411 points 2. Matt Kenseth -2 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -14 4. Denny Hamlin -17 5. Jimmie Johnson -39 6. Martin Truex Jr. -39 7. Tony Stewart -42 8. Kevin Harvick -50 9. Kyle Busch -62 10. Clint Bowyer -74 11. Carl Edwards -76 12. BRAD KESELOWSKI -83 22. A.J. ALLMENDINGER -158
