[media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”216″]
[/media-credit]The NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that was held on July 28th proved to be a memorable one for Brad Keselowski. The 100 lap race around the 2.5 mile track in Speedway, Indiana was the inaugural event for the Nationwide Series.
Keselowski brought the #22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger into victory lane ahead of his Penske Racing teammate of Sam Hornish Jr. The one-two finish is another great feat accomplished by Penske organization and is more notable for being the first victory Penske has earned in a stock car at the most famous track in the world.
“Everybody knows how special Indy is and any win you can have here, whether it’s the 500 in May or the Brickyard 400 here tomorrow, and now the first nationwide race. Any victory here is special and I’m glad to be able to do it for Roger.” Keselowski says in his post race interview with ESPN.
“It wasn’t easy, Kyle Busch was really fast, he had a great car today and I think he was just a little bit stronger than us and it was going to come down to who got through traffic better.” Brad states of his fellow competitor.
Kyle Busch restarted in 26th position with 18 laps to go after spinning on the previous restart and finished the day in 22nd position.
Elliot Sadler looked to be en route to victory but got black flagged for jumping the restart with 18 laps to go. Sadler stated how he got pushed on the restart by Austin Dillon and ignored the
black flags lap after lap while his crew chief discussed the issue with NASCAR officials.
“NASCAR just taking the championship right from me” Sadler said on the radio after being told by his crew chief that he must pit.
Sadler finished his first Nationwide race at Indianapolis in 15th position.
On lap 39, Danica Patrick made contact with the #98 car of Reed Sorenson. After the contact, Sorenson’s car began to lose control and Patrick got collected in the spin that she created.
“It’s just unfortunate for our day, it’s a big race, it’s a big weekend and it’s a track I would have loved to have done well at.” Danica says after being released from the infield care center.
Danica was hung back in the middle of the pack for most of her day, throughout the race she had been dialing her car in and attempting to move forward when the contact with Sorenson occurred, she explains to ESPN.
“You know, we were just trying to pick them off one by one and Tony (Eury, Jr.) made the car better on that second run and we just got shuffled back on that restart there, just picked the wrong line and got shuffled back…I don’t know what happened, I got into the center of the corner and got pretty close. I might have tapped him, I’m not sure, he was slowing it down quite a bit I didn’t mean to take him out.”
Racing at Indianapolis was a small homecoming for Patrick and she had high hopes for her first race at the speedway in a stock car.
“It’s just a bummer, there was plenty of racing left to try and work with…I feel bad, everybody works real hard and we just haven’t been able to get the finishes for the team that they deserve, so hopefully I can start doing that.”
The NASCAR Nationwide Series returns to action on August 5th in Iowa for the U.S. Cellular 250 presented by the Enlist Weed Control System.
