Three races in, and the story of the 2014 Cup season is the success of Dale Earnhardt Jr. He wins at Daytona, finishes second in Phoenix, and a hiccup in his fuel pick up was all that kept him from victory at Las Vegas. That and Brad Keselowski. Still, take a gamble, have it turn sour, and still come home second is not all that bad.
Brad Keselowski passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final lap of Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to score the victory. Keselowski notched his 11th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory after leading a dominating 52 laps of the 267 laps ran in ‘Sin City’.
Brad Keselowski sailed to victory lane on Saturday after leading a remarkable 144 laps of the 200 laps run in the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was able to do ‘donuts’ while holding the American Flag for the 28th time in his NASCAR Nationwide Series career and the first time at the tricky Las Vegas track.
With the first knock out qualifying of the season and special guests like AJ Foyt celebrating the 50th anniversary of Phoenix International Speedway, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from The Profit on CNBC 500 presented by Small Business Fueling America.
Daytona was great. Phoenix was not bad, once you got used to the differences. One week we had a 2.5-mile superspeedway, the next we got was a single mile circuit. It rained in Florida, yet despite the forecast the only rain came to prematurely end the Nationwide race on Saturday. They ran in big packs in the southeast, not so much in the southwest.
Brad Keselowski had a game plan coming into the debut of NASCAR's version of knockout qualifying. Keselowski turned a lap of 139.384 mph on Friday to set a new track record at Phoenix International Raceway, knocking out fellow Team Penske teammate, Joey Logano.
Earnhardt withstood a long rain delay and held off numerous challenges to win his second Daytona 500, beating Denny Hamlin to the line. The win ended a 55-race winless streak and instantly qualified Earnhardt for the Chase For The Cup.
Busch finishes second in the Sprint Cup point standings, winning five races, and caps his year with a win at Homestead and his first Sprint Cup championship.
