Brad Keselowski won the 5th Annual U.S. Cellular 250 for his 23rd victory in 198 NASCAR Nationwide Series starts. Keselowski led the last 35 laps en route for his third victory of the season.
Sam Hornish Jr, Brian Vickers, Austin Dillon, who led the most laps but did not win for the second straight time at Iowa, and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-5.
Drew Herring started on the pole for the first time in his short career for KBM as Kyle was in Pocono getting ready for the Sprint Cup race. Herring led the first lap with Smith following right behind him. At lap 7, we already had five “start and parkers”. Herring led the first 26 laps before losing the lead to Regan Smith.
First caution waved on lap 53 when Herring spun it in turn 2 but did a complete 360 and drove away. Everybody came in for the first stops of the day and Smith came in first and came out first. Keselowski had a tire violation and had to restart at the end of the longest line.
They went back to green on lap 59 with Smith in control. Brian Scott has been having a great run in the 4th spot. Kenny Wallace had to come into the pits due to a loose wheel and lost two laps in the process. On lap 81, Smith was approaching lap traffic and that was making Dillon get close to Smith and challenge him for the lead. Dillon was getting closer and closer and finally took over the race leader with 86 laps in the books.
2nd caution came out on lap 141 when the #40 of Reed Sorenson blew up again. They all went to pitroad for their second stops of the evening and if they would of had 10-15 laps more, they could’ve made it to the end. Dillon led the field off followed by Smith, Hornish Jr Bayne and Brian Vickers rounding out the top-5.
We went back to green on lap 146 and Dillon just pulled away. Allgaier had a problem and had to come to pit road for a tire problem. Larson radioed to his team that “I have a race car again!” He was up to 6th and flying on this 7/8 of a mile racetrack.
Caution waved for the third time when the #60 of Travis Pastrana cut a tire in the corners of 3 and 4 and spun the “X Games” Ford out. Everybody came in for the last time and some drivers had a different strategy. Bayne only took two tires and came out with the lead. Vickers, Sadler, and Smith took two tires as well. Dillon took four and will restart 5th.
They went back to racing with 45 to go and Bayne had a great start! He cleared Vickers out of one but Vickers fought back. Bayne led the lap with 3 wide behind them. Vickers cleared Dillon couple laps later and took the lead while Herring had a tire rub and was falling back fast. Bayne fell back to 5th after losing the lead to Vickers. Keselowski got up to second and was up to the bumper of Vickers with 36 to go and tried to take the lead with 35 to go in turn 1. He took the lead and cleared Vickers the next lap and sailed away.
Caution waved once again for the 4th time when the #23 of Richard Harriman spun it out on the front stretch. None of the front runners pitted but 12th position and back did starting with Regan Smith. He will restart 14th when they wave the green.
We went back to green with 22 to go and Keselowski and Vickers battled for the leading heading into 1! Keselowski got the position followed by his teammate Hornish Jr. Scott and Parker Kligerman bumped fenders in turn 1 but both continued in the race. Hornish was trying to get up to Keselowski but could just not get there.
Austin Dillon leads the point standings by 14 points over Regan Smith and Sam Hornish Jr.
