You sure could not beat the car that had Brad Keselowski behind the wheel Sunday in New Hampshire. And nobody did. He might have loaned out the lead from time to time to the likes of Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer, but make no mistake about this one. The 30-year old Michigan driver owned this race as the former champion recorded his 13th Cup victory.
Taking a deep breath at the winner's podium, Brad Keselowski took a second to savor his dominant Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Keselowski captured the pole, then led 152 of 200 laps to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Sta-Green 200.
Kyle Busch won the Coors Light Pole Award Friday afternoon at New Hampshire with a new track record qualifying speed of 138.130 mph. It is the 13th track qualifying record set this season. It was Busch’s second pole of the season, his second at the Loudon track and his 15th career Cup pole.
If you want to make the Chase, maybe one should win at New Hampshire. Out of 43 drivers entered and scheduled to make up the field at Loudon this Sunday, a whopping 16 of them have won at New Hampshire. They include the only four-time winner, 47-year old Jeff Burton, slated to drive the 66 Toyota of Jay Robinson.
Aric Almirola was not favored to return the iconic 43 that Richard Petty won his 200th win the Independence Day weekend thirty years ago, but he did. The rains that delayed the action for a day, and delayed it again early on Sunday, returned to finally put a wash to the proceedings prior to the three-quarter mark. The man in front was the 30-year old Tampa, Florida native, recording his first Cup victory in 125 starts.
Matt Kenseth is the man to beat in the 2013; there is no doubt about that. He has now won both chase races with his teammate, Kyle Busch finishing 2nd just like Chicagoland last weekend.
So, what have we learned lately? Well, if one cheats, one must not do so in a fashion that allows them to be quickly caught. Caught by everybody. Caught on scanners, radios, and in full view of millions at the track and watching on television. Nothing good can ever come from that. That is, if one decides that they must cheat in the first place.
After the week's worth of who is in, who is not, who has been naughty, who has been wronged, we got back to racing. Sadly, the most exciting thing about the day was watching Kyle, Larry, and Kenny discuss the week that was. The race, for me, turned out to be a bit of a let down.
October 24th, 2004 - Brian Vickers ended a rough day at Martinsville in 27th position and two laps off the pace to race winner and teammate, Jimmie Johnson. Just a few miles away in the Bull Mountains that surround the legendary racetrack, a plane had crashed and sadly, there were no survivors.
