[media-credit name=”Chris Trotman/Getty Image” align=”alignright” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]Brad Keselowski gets his third win of the season at Kentucky Speedway. Keselowski also became the first Sprint Cup driver to get three wins this season. Keselowski took the lead on a final pit stop and pulled away for the victory in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400.
“Who’d have figured my best finish would have came in the hardest race but that just shows the importance of teamwork and the group of guys that I have on this Miller Lite Dodge, they’re just bad asses. They’ve put together a backup car from last year in the hundred degree heat in an hour’s time. Not even an hour; I think it was like 40 minutes.” Keselowski said.
This win help him when it comes down to chase time. “What a weekend,” Keselowski beamed from victory lane. “For those that didn’t see practice, we hit the wall on lap 1 of practice and brought out a backup car. This is my Martinsville car from the Chase last year, so this ain’t the newest car we got, but it sure runs.”
Following Keselowski in second was the No. 5 car of Kasey Kahne. Kahne had rough night after falling two laps behind but pulled in with a top-5 finish . Kahne had to pass a lot of cars through the night to get there proving he’s got the talent and determination to drive for Hendrick Motorsports.
“Yeah, it would have been great to win in the Quaker State car. But we had a really good Quaker State Chevy throughout the whole race.” Kahne said. “We’ve got to keep working on it and got to be a little stronger throughout. But my car was fast. And I think the longer the run went, the better we seemed to get. The better I could move around on the racetrack anyways.”
Denny Hamlin led the field three times for 58 laps and finished third. Dale Earnhardt Jr ended up fourth and Jeff Gordon rounded up the top-5 . Hendrick Motorsports had strong cars in the race.
“I was pretty loose. I wasn’t having a whole lot of fun those last 30 laps. But it was a good night. We were fast and good all weekend. It was a good weekend for us.” Earnhardt Jr. said.
Tony Stewart on lap 20 had engine problems, eventually he ended up getting them fixed and finished 32nd. Teammate Ryan Newman got into the wall after he blew an engine. Stewart-Haas Racing had a rough night.
“Just something blew up. That was the bottom end of the motor. It was going to be a decent night, maybe not a great night points wise. Points wise maybe a good night, but not a great night for a top five.” Newman said.
Kyle Busch led the most laps of the race and finished in 10th place
RESULTS
2012 Unofficial Race Results : Quaker State 400
Quaker State 400 | June 30, 2012 | Race 17 of 36
.1 8 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge Miller Lite 47/1 267 Running
2 19 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet Quaker State 42/0 267 Running
3 3 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Express 42/1 267 Running
4 7 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Diet Mountain Dew / National Guard 40/0 267 Running
5 9 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Drive to End Hunger 39/0 267 Running
6 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s Dover White 39/1 267 Running
7 20 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Fifth Third Bank 37/0 267 Running
8 10 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 36/0 267 Running
9 16 22 AJ Allmendinger Dodge Shell / Pennzoil 35/0 267 Running
10 2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M’s Red, White & Blue 36/2 267 Running
11 4 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Budweiser Folds of Honor 33/0 267 Running
12 15 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet Menards / Sylvania 32/0 267 Running
13 12 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford Mac Tools 31/0 267 Running
14 31 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Target 30/0 267 Running
15 17 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet McDonald’s 29/0 267 Running
16 6 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 5-hour Energy 28/0 267 Running
17 34 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota Burger King 28/1 267 Running
18 21 13 Casey Mears Ford Valvoline NextGen 27/1 267 Running
19 14 51 Kurt Busch Chevrolet Phoenix Construction Services 25/0 267 Running
20 25 99 Carl Edwards Ford UPS 24/0 267 Running
21 11 16 Greg Biffle Ford American Red Cross 23/0 267 Running
22 18 20 Joey Logano Toyota Dollar General 22/0 267 Running
23 38 10 David Reutimann Chevrolet Outsourcing in the USA@TMone 21/0 267 Running
24 29 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 20/0 267 Running
25 23 83 Landon Cassill Toyota Burger King 19/0 267 Running
26 13 43 Aric Almirola Ford Eckrich 18/0 267 Running
27 28 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota Scott Products 17/0 265 Running
28 40 38 David Gilliland Ford Taco Bell 16/0 265 Running
29 33 34 David Ragan Ford Front Row Motorsports 15/0 263 Running
30 39 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 14/0 262 Running
31 41 32 Ken Schrader Ford Federated Auto Parts 13/0 262 Running
32 22 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Office Depot / Mobil 1 12/0 231 Running
33 26 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row 11/0 209 In Pit
34 5 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Tornados 10/0 208 In Pit
35 42 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet SealWrap 9/0 144 Out of Race
36 32 30 David Stremme Toyota Inception Motorsports 8/0 71 In Pit
37 30 26 Josh Wise * Ford MDS Transport 7/0 60 In Pit
38 35 98 Michael McDowell Ford Presbyterian Healthcare System 6/0 58 In Pit
39 24 195 Scott Speed Ford Leavine Family Racing 5/0 55 In Pit
40 27 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota AM / FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves 0 52 In Pit
41 43 33 Stephen Leicht * Chevrolet Little Joes
Autos.com 3/0 47 In Pit
42 37 119 Mike Bliss Toyota Humphrey Smith Racing 0 18 In Pit
43 36 23 Scott Riggs Chevrolet North Texas Pipe 1/0 12 Out of Race
* Denotes Rookie
