Keselowski wins at Richmond!

Brad Keselowski won the 26th Annual ToyotaCare 250, his 21st victory in 196 NASCAR Nationwide Series races and his first victory of the season. Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Brian Vickers and Regan Smith rounded out the top 5.

Keselowski started from the pole and cleared Busch into 2 but Busch did not let him go to far. Busch tried to get a slide job on Bad Brad but Sam Hornish Jr decided to make it 3 wide at the start finish line. Hornish cleared Busch going into one and led the race.

The first caution waved when the No. 92 of Dexter Stacey went way too fast into turn 1 and had a pretty hard wreck into the safety barriers. He was okay but it was a lengthy clean up. They had a 5 minute red flag because of the fluid from the No. 92 but when they got that cleaned up, it was time for pit stops! The top 10 did not pit but Smith, Kenny Wallace, Elliott Sadler and others came in for fuel and tires.

The race  went back to green on lap 41 with Hornish Jr leading. Harvick was  aggressive and got 2nd over Keselowski. Harvick closed in when Hornish got slowed up by lapped traffic on lap 70.  Harvick took the lead on lap 87 but on lap 88, Sadler was on a mission and took the lead one lap later.

The 2nd caution came out when the No. 99 of Alex Bowman cut a right front tire on the backstretch. Most everyone came in for the 1st time of the day and got 4 tires and fuel and Sadler led them out of pit road.

The green flag waved on lap 107 with Sadler leading them to the green. Sadler held them off but Harvick took the lead  on the backstretch and pulled away. On lap 144, Mike Wallace was spewing blue smoke out of the back of the car and he went to the pits and lost multiple laps.

Caution waved for the 3rd time with 101 to go because of the No 74 of Juan Carlos Blum smacked the wall coming off turn 4.  The leaders came in to pit and Harvick led them off pit road with Vickers gaining 3 spots and Reed Sorenson losing 4 spots.

Green flag waved once again and Keselowski took over the lead from Harvick! Busch was 3rd but Harvick was closing on Keselowski with 86 to go. Harvick took over the lead with 80 to go but got caught up in lap traffic.

The 4th caution waved with No. 17 of Tanner Berryhill spinning in the middle of turn 1. All of the leaders came in for what could be their last stop. Harvick went out of pit road first and lead them to the green followed by Sadler, Busch and Keselowski.

Green was waved once again with 54 to go and Harvick pulled away from Busch and Keselowski. Trevor Bayne got a penalty for changing lanes but before he could serve that, the caution came out for the #98 of Kevin Swindell who had a flat left rear tire and spun it off of 2.

Green flag waved with 41 to go and Keselowski and Harvick were beating and banging but Keselowski took over the lead right when a big wreck caused the caution flag to wave! Austin Dillon went hard into turn 4 and collected Justin Allgaier. Scott was able to drive away while Allgaier was getting repairs on pit road.  Dillon saw his car get taken off the track by the tow truck.

34 laps to go was when the green flag waved and Harvick and Keselowski were battling with Busch right behind them. Harvick and Keselowski were battling and Busch just went to the high side and took over Keselowski and Harvick at once, to take the lead! Mike Wallace was having smoke come from his car and was ordered to come to pit road. He did but then went back out and was still smoking which made NASCAR put out the caution.

Green was waved with 16 to go and Busch just shot out of there like a cannon! It did not last long because Mike Wallace was smoking again from his No. 01 machine.  Keselowski retook the lead with 10 to go and Harvick took 2nd away with 9 to go and put his sites on the No. 22. Harvick is to his bumper with 4 to go but could not get past him and Keselowski broke Busch’s streak of 3 in a row!

After the race, Brian Scott and Nelson Piquet Jr got into a altercation which Piquet kicked Scott in the groin before getting separated by their crew members.