Brad Keseloswki would not be denied tonight in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. Keselowski muscled his way past Kyle Busch with just 19 laps to go to score his 12th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, his second victory at Kentucky Speedway and his second victory of the 2014 season. He had a strong performance all weekend racing his way to a fifth place finish Thursday night in the Camping World Truck Series race and dominating last night in the Nationwide Series race only to finish second to Kevin Harvick.
Keselowski, driving the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford, started from the pole and much like Saturday’s Nationwide race dominated, leading 199 of the race’s 267 laps. The only other leaders of the race were Joey Logano in the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford, who led 37 laps, and Kyle Busch in the M & M’s Toyota who led 31 laps.
“What a really fast car. It just kind of came together for us, really across the weekend from qualifying to race practice and then in the race,” said Keselowski after the race. “I knew it was gonna be a dogfight to get back to Kyle and race him, but we got there with a really fast car and got a perfect run on him with traffic and the next thing I knew we were there, so it feels really good, obviously, to get that second win.”
Keselowski becomes the sixth driver to score two or more wins in the 2014 season and is now fourth in the point standings, 58 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.
Keselowski had to make a trip to the infield care center for four stitches to his right hand after cutting himself on a bottle in the victory lane celebration. The injury is not expected to affect his racing.
Kyle Busch finished in second after starting the race in 18th position and did not find the lead until lap 217 before being passed by Keselowski on lap 248. After having a lead of over a second on Keselowski, Busch thought he had enough of a lead and clean air to hold him off at the end.
“I tried to stretch it as much as I could there early when I had the clean air,” Busch said, “and then when we got to traffic I just backed up too much and got way too loose, the loosest I’ve been all race long. We just had to come home second tonight to the best car.”
Ryan Newman scored his best finish of the year in the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet to come home in third place after starting in seventh.
“It’s a big gain for us and our Caterpillar Chevrolet. All the guys at RCR and ECR got us that first top 5 of the season,” Newman said after the race.
Matt Kenseth, in the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, overcame a speeding penalty to finish in fourth place. Dale Earnhardt Jr. started in 29th place and finished in fifth place. The rest of the top 10 at Kentucky were Jeff Gordon in sixth, Kevin Harvick in seventh, Kasey Kahne in eighth, Joey Logano in ninth and Jimmie Johnson in 10th place.
Earnhardt is now tied for second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings with Jimmie Johnson. Both drivers trail points leader Jeff Gordon by 24 points. Keselowski is fourth (-58) and Kenseth is fifth (-63).
The next NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race is Saturday night, July 5th at Daytona International Speedway.
