Kyle Busch looked to have the race won as he had dominated in leading numerous laps throughout the whole day. He even saw the white flag out of his windshield. Though before he could reach the white flag, the caution would fly due to Alex Bowman running out of fuel. As a result, there would be a green-white-checkered.
The restart would bring forth a battle between Busch and Brad Keselowski, with Keselowski grabbing the lead with a pass to Busch’s inside through turn one. Keselowski would then lead the rest of the way en route to scoring the victory in the DAV 200 Honoring American’s Veterans at Phoenix International Raceway. It marks Keselowski’s 32nd career victory and his fifth win of the 2014 season.
“That was kind of a shame. He had the race won before the yellow came out so I can understand him being upset about it,” Keselowski commented. “We never gave up and the yellow came out and we were able to get to victory lane. I’m really proud of everyone at Team Penske. Way to finish it out for the year! I had a lot of fun driving this car, humbled over the last few years of driving this car. Hopefully we can pull this off tomorrow.”
Kyle Busch would finish second, not scoring his fourth straight victory in a row at Phoenix. For Busch, it’d be another disappointing day with his 24th top 10 of the season. Busch would tell MRN Radio post-race that it’s “pretty pathetic that NASCAR throws these Kyle Busch cautions. It’s old & aggravating.”
After having to get out of the car early last week due to sickness, Elliott Sadler would be feeling much better this weekend en route to finishing third, followed by Ty Dillon and Chase Elliott. As a result of holding a 52 point lead heading into next weekend’s final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Elliott clinched the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship.
“Just honestly disbelief,” Elliott commented. “I’ve never been apart of anything like this, and just to have the opportunity to work these guys has been a blessing to just be here. I don’t know what to think. I don’t even know how to feel right now. I didn’t know if I was allowed to do a burnout, but I did one anyone. This is pretty cool. I really appreciate Regan and the way he raced me all year.”
Elliott becomes the first rookie to a win championship, as well as the youngest champion at the age of 18 years, 11 months and 18 days. With his father Bill already having won a championship, the Elliott family becomes the fifth father-son duo to be champions.
Erik Jones would finish sixth after winning last night’s truck race, followed by Brian Scott, Brendan Guaghan, Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith.
At the beginning of the race, the focus was right front tires as both Brennan Newberry and Landon Cassill suffered a flat tire, resulting in heavy contact with the outside wall.
“I’m fine – I think I am used to it now,” Newberry commented. “I think it’s part of the race track there, it’s real slick in the center. Right off the get go, I think we overused the tire, put too much brake into it and the tire blew. This is my favourite track and unfortunately we’re out of it early, but thankful for the opportunity.”
