Brad Keselowski performs a burnout after winning Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. It was the first victory at the track for Dodge in 36 years. (AP Photo)TALLADEGA, Ala.—Being a single guy, Brad Keselowski has plenty of alone time in his motorhome at the track.
He used that time at Talladega Superspeedway to conjure up the winning move in Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 Keselowski swept to the outside of leader Matt Kenseth after the final restart with two laps to go and used a push from Kyle Busch to take the lead. He then surprisingly pulled away from Busch to win his second race of the season and for the second time in his career at Talladega.
“It's long nights on them buses, unless you have somebody to make it not long, and I'm happily single,” Keselowski said.
Keselowski used that alone time to devise a plan in case he got to the front at the end of Sunday’s race. When he did, it was the move to pull away from second-place Busch that sealed the deal.
“I had this whole plan if I ever got in that situation where I was leading,” Keselowski said. “I thought about it and thought about it, dreamed about what to do and sure enough, going into (Turn) 3, it was just me and Kyle (Busch). And I knew the move I wanted to pull.
“It worked because the guy running second should have the advantage, but I had this move all worked up in my mind. I went into Turn 3 high and pulled down off of Kyle and broke the tandem up. That allowed me to drive untouched to the checkered flag.”
Busch, who won last week’s race at Richmond, finished second followed by Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was trying to snap a 138-race winless streak and win his first race at Talladega since 2004, finished ninth.
Biffle maintained his points lead while Kenseth climbed two spots to second, seven points back. Earnhardt Jr. fell to third and trails Biffle by nine points.
Keselowski’s move to get the lead was equally impressive, but was more a nature of restrictor-plate racing and drafting help from Busch.
Kenseth, who won the Daytona 500 in the last restrictor-plate race, was out front much of the race, leading a race-high 73 laps. He held the lead on the final green-white-checkered restart, but made what he called a “stupid” mistake by letting Keselowski and Busch get by him.
Kenseth was hooked up with Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle for the final restart—just like at Daytona—but their tandem didn’t work.
“I think we had the winning car we just didn’t have the winning driver,” Kenseth said. “That last restart Greg and I got together like we did at Daytona. … We got in front of the 2 (Keselowski) and Kyle, and as soon as we became clear it wasn’t long after that that I looked back and we were separated and those guys were outside of him.
“With nobody behind him, (Greg) lost his speed and with me not paying enough attention during that to keep us hooked up it cost us a shot at the win, it cost Greg a shot at the win. I didn’t do a good job of managing that.”
Kenseth said he should have lagged back a bit on the restart to make sure that Biffle could stay on his rear bumper.
“I wasn’t too fast,” he said, “I was just too stupid.”
The win was the second of the season for Keselowski, who also won at Bristol. He now has five Cup victories since he scored his first win for Penske Racing at Kansas Speedway last June.
After needing a wild card to make the Chase last year, Keselowski is 12th in points after 10 races this year. But with two wins already, he is in prime position for another wild card should he not crack the top 10 after 26 races.
Keselowski’s win was the first at Talladega for Dodge in 36 years and the first at the track for Penske Racing.
Team owner Roger Penske was thrilled to win at the track for the first time and impressed with his young driver.
“Well, I'd say that you certainly become a student of the game,” he said. “The fact that he slowed down there at the beginning to get Kyle on that restart so they could get a run, then pulling on the outside of Kenseth, was amazing.”
Keselowski and Busch have not always gotten along, but Keselowski said he knew they would work together to get to the front.
“I felt real good about the move we were able to pull on Matt,” he said. “Surprised him and the 16 (Biffle) didn't gang up with more full force than what they did.”
But it was the move to hold off Busch that pleased him most.
“I just needed to make the move, made it in three. That disconnected us,” he said. “That was the key right there.
“You’ve got to have a plan, have the moves ready. We were fortunate enough to have the car and team to put me in place.”
After a fairly tame race most of the day, things got crazy at the end, leading to three late caution flags.
After Casey Mears spun on Lap 176, Kurt Busch was running second on Lap 181 when Keselowski bumped him from behind, sending Busch for a spin. Keselowski apologized to Busch, his former teammate at Penske.
Then, on the ensuing restart, AJ Allmendinger slammed into Denny Hamlin, starting a chain-reaction crash that also collected Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard and Joey Logano.
It was the second multicar crash in the final 60 laps and angered several drivers and again raised questions about the nature of restrictor-plate racing.
"I'm upset that we didn't crash more cars,” Stewart said. “I feel like that is what we are here for. I feel bad if I don't spend at least a 150,000 dollars in torn-up race cars going back to the shop.”
Sunday
At Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega, Ala.
Lap length: 2.66 miles
(Start position in parentheses)
1. (13) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 194 laps, 120.1 rating, 47 points, $305,745.
2. (21) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 194, 106.2, 43, $263,298.
3. (10) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 194, 128.5, 43, $225,701.
4. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 194, 88.4, 41, $155,090.
5. (6) Greg Biffle, Ford, 194, 118.4, 40, $143,540.
6. (24) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 194, 82.9, 38, $146,554.
7. (32) David Ragan, Ford, 194, 85.6, 37, $137,723.
8. (11) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 194, 87.8, 0, $110,565.
9. (18) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 194, 88.4, 36, $120,765.
10. (29) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 194, 83.3, 35, $143,640.
11. (23) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 194, 71.6, 33, $133,013.
12. (4) Aric Almirola, Ford, 194, 95.3, 32, $137,716.
13. (26) David Gilliland, Ford, 194, 73.8, 31, $115,688.
14. (3) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 194, 97.4, 30, $126,613.
15. (2) A J Allmendinger, Dodge, 194, 86.6, 29, $139,305.
16. (41) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 194, 56.3, 29, $125,063.
17. (17) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 194, 67.9, 28, $103,330.
18. (25) Casey Mears, Ford, 194, 73.6, 27, $106,138.
19. (9) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 194, 97.7, 26, $93,680.
20. (33) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 193, 96.6, 25, $111,602.
21. (42) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 192, 56, 23, $100,105.
22. (34) David Reutimann, Chevrolet, 192, 52.7, 22, $91,380.
23. (22) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 192, 66.9, 22, $132,771.
24. (8) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 190, 88.6, 21, $140,180.
25. (20) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, accident, 184, 55.7, 20, $136,016.
26. (30) Joey Logano, Toyota, accident, 184, 62.3, 18, $96,955.
27. (39) Robert Richardson Jr., Toyota, accident, 182, 44.8, 0, $85,405.
28. (15) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, accident, 166, 53.1, 16, $114,569.
29. (28) Terry Labonte, Ford, accident, 143, 48.8, 15, $92,655.
30. (38) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, accident, 142, 68.2, 14, $85,955.
31. (7) Carl Edwards, Ford, accident, 142, 66.1, 13, $130,546.
32. (12) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, accident, 142, 67.4, 13, $114,146.
33. (1) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, accident, 142, 66.1, 11, $137,866.
34. (40) Landon Cassill, Toyota, accident, 141, 73.4, 10, $110,250.
35. (19) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, engine, 61, 76.2, 10, $130,691.
36. (14) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, engine, 42, 35.9, 8, $127,763.
37. (36) Bill Elliott, Toyota, electrical, 37, 31, 7, $83,430.
38. (43) Tony Raines, Chevrolet, engine, 32, 28.4, 6, $91,082.
39. (27) David Stremme, Toyota, transmission, 30, 32.5, 5, $79,550.
40. (31) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, engine, 15, 36, 4, $87,275.
41. (37) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, vibration, 7, 28.4, 0, $79,025.
42. (16) Josh Wise, Ford, rear gear, 5, 29.8, 2, $79,355.
43. (35) Michael McDowell, Ford, vibration, 2, 26.3, 1, $78,681.
Race Statistics
Average Speed of Race Winner: 160.192 mph.
Time of Race: 3 hours, 13 minutes, 17 seconds.
Margin of Victory: 0.304 seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 24 laps.
Lead Changes: 34 among 17 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T.Stewart 1-16; P.Menard 17; T.Kvapil 18; M.Kenseth 19-24; M.Waltrip 25-45; J.Johnson 46-50; M.Kenseth 51-59; J.Burton 60-61; D.Earnhardt Jr. 62-71; M.Kenseth 72-86; K.Kahne 87-94; J.Montoya 95; K.Kahne 96-98; J.Montoya 99-100; G.Biffle 101; K.Harvick 102; P.Menard 103-104; G.Biffle 105-111; J.Burton 112; G.Biffle 113-119; Ku.Busch 120-121; M.Kenseth 122-133; Ku.Busch 134-135; M.Kenseth 136-142; Ky.Busch 143; P.Menard 144-150; B.Keselowski 151-158; D.Hamlin 159-161; C.Mears 162-163; D.Hamlin 164-166; M.Kenseth 167-174; D.Hamlin 175-176; M.Kenseth 177-192; B.Keselowski 193-194.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): M.Kenseth, 7 times for 73 laps; M.Waltrip, 1 time for 21 laps; T.Stewart, 1 time for 16 laps; G.Biffle, 3 times for 15 laps; K.Kahne, 2 times for 11 laps; B.Keselowski, 2 times for 10 laps; D.Earnhardt Jr., 1 time for 10 laps; P.Menard, 3 times for 10 laps; D.Hamlin, 3 times for 8 laps; J.Johnson, 1 time for 5 laps; Ku.Busch, 2 times for 4 laps; J.Burton, 2 times for 3 laps; J.Montoya, 2 times for 3 laps; C.Mears, 1 time for 2 laps; Ky.Busch, 1 time for 1 lap; T.Kvapil, 1 time for 1 lap; K.Harvick, 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 12 in Points: 1. G.Biffle, 378; 2. M.Kenseth, 371; 3. D.Earnhardt Jr., 369; 4. D.Hamlin, 351; 5. K.Harvick, 333; 6. M.Truex Jr., 332; 7. T.Stewart, 328; 8. J.Johnson, 324; 9. Ky.Busch, 308; 10. C.Bowyer, 302; 11. C.Edwards, 300; 12. B.Keselowski, 299.
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