Kevin Harvick, driving for JR Motorsports, passed Kyle Busch for the lead on the final restart with only five laps remaining, to earn his 42nd career win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Brad Keselowski dominated most of the race, leading 138 laps but a speeding penalty on pit road on lap 148 put him at the back of the field and Harvick seized the opportunity. Keselowski was able to drive back up to the front leading to a three-way battle between Harvick, Busch and Keselowski at the end of the race.
After the race, Harvick called it “a very strange night.” He went on to say, “In the beginning our car wasn’t that bad, we needed some adjustments, had some things happen on some pit stops, so we pitted and put four tires on and everything kind of fell our way. We were able to get a little bit of a tire advantage there at the end and Ernie (Cope, crew chief) made a really good adjustment to the race car that allowed us to really take off and run the best we had all night.”
Keselowski started from the pole for the John R. Elliott HERO Campaign 300 presented by Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over NASCAR Nationwide Race and Kyle Busch started second in the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota.
Keselowski led early and often leading the first 43 laps until the first of seven cautions of the night came out for debris on the back stretch. Paul Menard in the No. 33 Libman/Menards Chevrolet assumed the lead after pit stops followed by Keselowski in second. Keselowski would only let Menard lead four laps before regaining the lead.
Caution two came out on lap 83 for debris while at the same time the No.39 of Ryan Sieg spun. Sieg then spun out the No. 51 of Jeremy Clements as he thought that Clements had spun him out. Replays showed there was no initial contact between the two and Sieg and his crew chief were summoned to the NASCAR hauler following the race.
On lap 103 Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Resers Toyota, who was running in the fifth spot at the time, spun coming off of turn two and slid down the track crashing nose first into the infield wall ending his night.
On lap 138 green flag pit stops began. After the field cycled through Keselowski found himself penalized for speeding while exiting pit road, resulting in a pass thru penalty and handing the lead to Kevin Harvick in the #5 Kroger/P & G Chevrolet.
After Keselowski served his penalty, caution for debris came out again on lap 157. After the race’s fourth caution and the resulting pit stops had cycled through, Kyle Busch found himself leading the race. Keselowski was able to take the wave around and get back onto the lead lap, although he was running in 17th place.
Regan Smith, driver of the No. 7 AmericasPower.org Chevrolet and the current series championship points leader, continued his string of bad luck at Kentucky Speedway by hitting the wall on lap 170 after contact with the No. 16 of Ryan Reed on the back stretch bringing out the fifth caution of the night. Smith finished the night in 28th place and dropped two positions in the overall point standings.
On the restart with 27 to go Busch led Harvick and Brian Scott. Keselowski restarted in seventh place. The No. 43 of Dakoda Armstrong spun in what looked like fluid between turns three and four with 25 laps to go. Following this sixth caution of the night, Keselowski was back up to the fifth position and would recover from his speeding penalty to finish the race in the second spot.
“We had a great day going and I got us behind there with a pit road speeding penalty. I just made a little mistake, but the Discount Tire team did a great job,” said Keselowski following the race.
Lap 193 saw the seventh and final caution of the night after the No. 6 of Trevor Bayne and the No. 9 of Chase Elliott got together in turn four. The race restarted on lap 196 and Harvick passed Busch for the lead. Busch finished third, followed by Menard, Ryan Blaney, and last week’s winner, Brendan Gaughan, finished in sixth place.
The top five in the Nationwide Series driver standings following the race are:
Elliott Sadler (541), Chase Elliott (537), Regan Smith (533), Ty Dillon (512), Brian Scott (494).
