Keselowski wins chase race no.1 at Chicagoland Speedway

[media-credit name=”Noel Lanier” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Brad Keselowski won the opening race for the chase on Sunday at the Chicagoland Speedway. Keselowski held off Jimmie Johnson during the final 35 laps and won his fourth race of the season, eighth of his career and the first at Chicagoland.

“The Miller Lite Dodge today was great. It seemed like this race was about 20 laps longer than I wanted it to be but either way, it worked out and we got us some Miller Time here. We’re in victory lane race one in the Chase. It feels like round one of a heavyweight title bout. You know it’s good to win it, it feels great, but there are a lot of rounds left. It’s a good start but a long ways to go.” Keselowski said.

Keselowski took over the series points standings by 3 over Johnson.

Johnson led a race-high of 171 laps and finished second, 3.171 seconds behind the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge.

“Its ten long races and a lot can happen, so to come out of here in second is a great day and of course we want to be over there in victory lane, that is just a given but we will take this second and we will go on to the next one and I am real happy for where this Lowe’s team is right now.” Johnson said.

Kasey Kahne finished third, Kyle Busch fourth and Ryan Newman finished fifth.

On lap 188, Jeff Gordon, while running fourth, had his throttle stick while entering turn 1. Gordon had heavy right side damage and took it to the garage for repairs. Gordon finished 35th and now sits deep in the series standings, 47 points out of the lead.

“The return spring broke. It didn’t go wide open; it just didn’t come back. Just enough to cause it to carry enough speed in there where I locked the brakes up and went into the wall. It’s disappointing.” Gordon said.

On lap 169 a right front shock fell off of Matt Kenseth’s No.17 Ford. Kenseth falls back to 24th place. Kenseth was able to pit and make repairs on lap 191 and he finished 18th.

“A shock fell off I guess. I guess it didn’t get tight. We had a brake line get loose at Bristol and a shock fall off today so obviously we have to get to the bottom of that.” Kenseth said.

The series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next week for the Sylvania 300.