Keselowski Leads Final 111 Laps, Wins Bristol Food City 500

NASCAR Wire Services

Brad Keselowski wins at Bristol for second straight time

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- NASCAR racing has a new Ice Man.

As he completed the final lap of his victory in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Brad Keselowski needled Paul Wolfe, his crew chief.

"Paul, are you nervous?" Keselowski radioed to Wolfe, his voice exuding of confidence. As he crossed the finish line six car-lengths in front of runner-up Matt Kenseth, Keselowski allowed himself an excited whoop.

The driver of the No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge scored his second consecutive win at the .533-mile short track and the fifth of his Sprint Cup career.

Martin Truex Jr. came home third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers, as Michael Waltrip Racing drivers claimed positions three through five. Vickers scored the top-five in his first Cup action since his contract with Red Bull Racing ended last year.

Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, Juan Montoya, Jimmie Johnson and Paul Menard completed the top 10.

Keselowski and Kenseth had run away from the rest of the field and were battling for the lead when Tony Stewart's Chevrolet smacked the Turn 3 wall on Lap 478 to bring out the fifth caution of the race.

Unlike a restart earlier in the race, Keselowski chose the outside lane for a restart on Lap 484 and cleared Kenseth off the second corner. From there on, it was smooth sailing.

Food City 500 Results

Bristol Post Race Notes:
• Brad Keselowski claimed his fifth career Cup Series victory in his 93rd start.
• Brad Keselowski's win finished the third set of back-to-back Bristol victories in six of the past seven races -- Kyle Busch won both in 2009, then 8/2010 and 3/11, and Keselowski won 8/11 and 3/12).
• This was the second top-five of the season for Brad Keselowski. He was fifth at Phoenix.
• Brad Keselowski led four times for 231 laps, including the final 111.
• It was the 72nd Cup victory for Penske Racing, which became the fourth team to win in four races in 2012.
• Matt Kenseth (second) posted his sixth consecutive top-10 finish at Bristol and is one of two drivers to lead in all four races in 2012.
• Martin Truex Jr. (third) scored his second top-10 finish of 2012. In 13 Bristol starts, Truex has just two top-10s; both have come in the past two races.
• Clint Bowyer (fourth) posted his best finish of 2012 and his second top-10 of the year (sixth at Las Vegas).
• Brian Vickers (fifth) earned his first career Bristol top-10 (15 starts) in his first race of 2012.
• Michael Waltrip Racing had three cars in the top five: Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers.
• Teammates Jamie McMurray (seventh) and Juan Montoya (eighth) scored their best finishes of the season.
• Jimmie Johnson (ninth) had his third consecutive top-10 finish since ending up 42nd at Daytona.
• Paul Menard (10th) posted his third top-10 in four races in 2012.
• Kevin Harvick (11th) was involved in the first caution but pitted eight times to repair the damage and rallied back to nearly enter the top 10.

Keselowski Wins at Bristol; Looks Like A Major Player in Upcoming Chase

Sporting News Wire Service

Keselowski ran off with third win of 2011

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Brad Keselowski's phoenix-like rise from the ashes continued Saturday, with an improbable victory in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway -- his third win of the season and his second since breaking his left ankle Aug. 3 in a crash during testing at Road Atlanta.

Keselowski grabbed the lead on a restart with 80 laps left in the 500-lap Sprint Cup race and held on to win for the fourth time in his career. The victory all but assured Keselowski of at least a wild-card position in the upcoming Chase.

Martin Truex Jr. ran second, followed by Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray. Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, pole-sitter Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards and Marcos Ambrose completed the top 10.

"Wow -- the night race at Bristol!" Keselowski exclaimed after exiting his car in Victory Lane, his broken ankle forgotten. "I used to watch Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt win this race. This is a race of champions. I can't believe it. There's races that pay more. There's races that might have a little more prestige, but this is the coolest damn one of them all."

During the post-race celebration, Keselowski climbed onto the roof of his car, raised his fists into the air and then jumped from the roof to the tiled surface in Victory Lane. That's when he remembered the ankle, but the sudden stab of pain didn't diminish the satisfaction of a victory that belonged to a gritty driver and a team that produced in the pits when the race was on the line.

"A team that just starts to click and believe in each other," Keselowski said in explaining his recent success. "I believed in [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] since we started this year, and we've just made good adjustments to our cars over the last few months. We made good adjustments to our car during the race [Saturday] and found ourselves in Victory Lane. I can't believe it -- I just can't."

Read more here.....

Bristol Results


BRISTOL POST-RACE NOTES
• Brad Keselowski scored his fourth career Cup victory in his 77th race; his previous best Bristol finish was 13th.
• Brad Keselowski climbed from 12th to 11th in points; he has posted top-three finishes in the past four races, including two wins (climbed from 21st to 11th in those four races, gaining 74 points on 10th).
• Brad Keselowski led seven times for 89 laps, including the final 80.
• Penske Racing scored its 70th Cup victory , ninth at Bristol and fourth in 2011 (three by Brad Keselowski, one by Kurt Busch).
• Dodge posted its seventh victory at Bristol and fourth in 2011.
• Martin Truex Jr (second) posted his first top-five finish in his 12th race at Bristol; his previous best was 12th.
• Jeff Gordon (third) scored his first top-five at Bristol since spring 2009 (four races) and best finish since March 2007, the last race on the old surface.
• Jimmie Johnson (fourth) posted his fourth top-five in the past six races at Bristol and 10th top-five in 2011; he has finished in the top five in five of the past seven races.
• Jimmie Johnson has led at least one lap in the past six Bristol races, the longest current streak.
• Jamie McMurray (fifth) posted his third top-five finish at Bristol and third top-10 in the past four races there; it's his second top-five finish in 2011.
• Matt Kenseth (sixth) has posted top-10 finishes in his past five Bristol races.
• Ryan Newman (eighth) scored his sixth top-10 in the past seven Bristol races.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (16th) has been running at the finish in his past 23 Bristol races, the longest current streak.
• With his lead at Bristol, Kyle Busch has led in 18 of the 24 races this season, most by any driver.
• Kevin Harvick (fifth in points) and Jeff Gordon (sixth) need just four points at Atlanta or Richmond, which is 40th-place points, to clinch a spot in the Chase.
• If Ryan Newman finishes 20th or better at Atlanta he will clinch a Chase spot.
• If Kurt Busch finishes seventh or better at Atlanta he will clinch a Chase spot.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart can clinch Chase spots if they have a 49-point lead over 11th after Atlanta.
• Any driver 97 points behind 10th after Bristol cannot get into the top 10 in points; he needs a win in order to have a chance to make the 2011 Chase.

Paul Menard Wins Brickyard 400 For First Career NASCAR Cup Win

Paul Menard gets first career victory at the Brickyard (Getty)

INDIANAPOLIS -- Years ago, as a garage rat at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Paul Menard dreamed of winning a race at the vaunted Brickyard.

On Sunday, the dream came true. In a season full of improbable first-time winners in NASCAR's foremost races, Menard, 30, stretched his fuel mileage and held off a charging Jeff Gordon to win Sunday's Brickyard 400 at the 2.5-mile track.

The victory was Menard's first as a Sprint Cup driver, and it catapulted him into the conversation for a wild-card berth in the Chase. Gordon, who closed rapidly in the final five laps, crossed the finish line .725 seconds behind the season's fourth first-time winner.

"My first year here was 1989, that I can remember anyway -- I think I was here when I was 3 or 4 years old, too," said Menard, whose father, John Menard, has fielded IndyCars for a variety of drivers. "I just spent a lot of time in the garage area. I didn't miss an Indy 500 from 1989 to 2003.

"I was here for the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994. It's just a really special place for my family and myself."

Regan Smith, who notched his first career victory in the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington in May, came home third, followed by Jamie McMurray, last year's Brickyard winner. Matt Kenseth ran fifth, and Tony Stewart salvaged a sixth-place result despite a litany of problems throughout the race.

Read More Here....

Brickyard 400 Results

Kyle Busch Wins Inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Race at Kentucky

Sporting News Wire Service

Kyle Busch wins two of three Kentucky races this week

SPARTA, Ky. -- What was Kyle Busch's dominant impression of his victory in the inaugural Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway?

It wasn't that he'll be written into the record book as the first Cup winner at the 1.5-mile track, the first speedway introduced into the series in 10 years.

No, Busch will remember Saturday's Quaker State 400 at Kentucky as the last thing he won on the way to his next race -- in this case Sunday's marquee Super Late Model event at Slinger Speedway in Wisconsin.

That's the way Busch thinks -- win and move on.

In holding off fast-closing David Reutimann and Jimmie Johnson in a two-lap stretch run, Busch won for the third time this season, the 22nd time in his Cup career and the 99th time across NASCAR's top three national series, third most all-time.

Even though he won two of the three events at Kentucky Speedway over the weekend -- he won the Camping World Truck Series race Thursday -- Busch wasn't thinking about the numbers, not even that he had leap-frogged past Kevin Harvick (16th Saturday) and Carl Edwards (fifth) into the top spot in the series standings.

Asked what the most impressive part of the Kentucky win was to him, Busch replied, "That I won on the way to Slinger. I've got to go to Slinger [Sunday]. I'm going to stay here tonight, chill out and get a good night's sleep, get out of here in the morning and head up there and, hopefully, win a Late Model race."

Saturday's race wasn't settled until Busch kept Johnson at bay on the last restart, clearing Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet off Turn 2. Reutimann restarted in the fourth spot but charged forward, passing Johnson just short of the finish line on the final lap. Reutimann finished .179 seconds behind Busch.

Johnson said his inability to stay beside Busch on the next-to-last lap cost him a chance to win the race.

"I was able to hang with the 18 [Busch] inside of Turns 1 and 2, and he just cleared me going down the back," Johnson said. "The outside lane had a little bit more momentum coming off of [Turn] 2 down the back. If I could have stayed inside of him, it would have been one heck of a finish at the end.

"But it didn't happen that way, and then he cleared me and went on, and then I had my hands full with the 00 [Reutimann]. David was probably the best car at the end, and if he had cleared me sooner, I think he would have been up there with the 18 racing for the win."

Ryan Newman played pit strategy perfectly and came home fourth, followed by Edwards. Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, David Ragan, Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon completed the top 10.

Read More Here...

Quaker State 400 Results

Kentucky Post-Race Notes

• Kyle Busch's victory in the inaugural Cup race at Kentucky Speedway was his 22nd series victory in his 240th start.
• Kyle Busch tied Kevin Harvick with his third victory of the season and assumed the Cup points lead by four points over Carl Edwards.
• Kyle Busch won from the pole, the first driver to do that in a Cup race in 2011.
• Five of Kyle Busch's 22 career victories (23 percent) have come from the pole.
• It was the fourth win of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2011, tying Roush Fenway Racing for the most.
• David Reutimann (second) scored his best finish of 2011 and only his second top-10 in 18 races.
• Jimmie Johnson (third) finished in the top 10 for the 11th time this season.
• Ryan Newman (fourth) earned his best finish of 2011.
• Carl Edwards (fifth) picked up his 13th top-10 finish in 18 races, the most of any driver.
• Matt Kenseth (sixth) has finished 14th or better in each of the past eight races.
• Jamie McMurray (36th) blew his engine and has not finished in the top 10 in the past eight races.

David Ragan Captures First Career Win; Wins Coke Zero 400 at Daytona

by Mark Aumann

NASCAR.com

David Ragan cashes in at Vegas sports books at 30-to-1 with Daytona win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- David Ragan has been trying to let it go since February.

So when leading at Daytona with five miles to go -- again -- the last thing Ragan wanted to hear on his radio was "don't forget to stay in your lane until you cross the start/finish line."

"I was on Matt Kenseth's radio on that last restart and his spotter mentioned it," Ragan said. "And I said, 'You don't have to tell me, so don't even say it.' That kind of lightened the mood. Everyone's so tense there at the end. You don't know what to do, you don't know what's going to happen, if we're going to have another green-white-checkered. I thought we might have been a little close on fuel.

"Yeah, that's one thing I did not have to be reminded of."

After giving away a shot at winning the Daytona 500 with an ill-advised maneuver on the next-to-last restart, you could call Saturday night a bit of retribution. Or redemption. Ragan doesn't care, as long as you call him winner of the 2011 Coke Zero 400.

And he's got big plans after winning his first Cup race. Or not.

"I guess I'll go back home and hang out [Sunday]," Ragan said. "I was planning on cutting some grass and cleaning up around the house. I've got an appearance in Atlanta on Monday, so we've got to work Monday. I guess I'll hang out, go over and see [crew chief Drew Blickensderfer] or go have some dinner somewhere.

"I might not leave Daytona. I might just stay down here for a few days."

It's been said that good things come to those who wait. Even though he won't be 26 until December, it seems like Ragan has been waiting for a very long time. His father, Ken, drove a family-owned car for 50 Cup starts in the '80s but failed to record a top-10 finish. And until Saturday night, David had gone 162 races without a win in NASCAR's premier series.

Read More Here....

Coke Zero 400 Results

Kyle Busch Wins at Richmond, Again; Holds On To Beat Hamlin

Kyle Busch wins his third straight Richmond spring race (Getty)

It was Joe Gibbs Racing with a one, two finish at Richmond International Raceway, as Kyle Busch took the checkered flag (almost 2 seconds) ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin to win the NSCS Crown Royal presents the Matthew & Daniel Hansen 400.

Busch, who led 235 laps of the 400 that were run, received his 2nd series win of the 2011 season, his 21st series career win and his 3rd series win at RIR.

Following Busch (who will celebrate his 26th birthday on Monday) and Hamlin to the drop of the checkered flag were: Kasey Kahne finishing in the third position, David Ragan fourth and Carl Edwards finishing in the fifth position.

Rounding out the top-ten finishers were Clint Bowyer finishing sixth, A.J. Allmendinger seventh, Jimmie Johnson eighth, Tony Stewart ninth and Brian Vickers finished in the tenth position.

Carl Edwards maintains the points lead heading into next weekend’s SHOWTIME Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, as he has a 9 point lead over Jimmie Johnson in second-place.

RACE NOTES:
Average Speed: 95.280 MPH
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 08 Mins, 55 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 1.805 Seconds
Lead Changes: 14 among 10 drivers
Cautions: 8 for 60 laps
Attendance: 90,000

"We were late to the celebration," Busch said after his car was pushed to Victory Lane. "This is pretty awesome. We had a really good car, and we knew that if we could play through traffic a little bit better than the 11 [Hamlin] that we had a shot at the win, and we did that [Saturday night].

"I learned from Denny Hamlin last fall -- and I'm not going to say what I learned, but he might know. We did a good job of doing what we needed to do early in the run, and once we got out [front] and had to go through traffic, the traffic kind of fell our way, so we were able to pick our way through there."

Hamlin acknowledged helping Busch on the short tracks but said it was a fair exchange for what he had learned from Busch about running intermediate speedways.

"Yeah, I opened my mouth -- I never should have told him," Hamlin said, though he, too, declined to reveal the secret he had shared with his teammate. "That's the thing. If I don't tell him the things I know on short tracks, and the crew chiefs don't relay information, then it's not a good team.

"We got paid back on the bigger intermediate tracks. I learned so much from him. Yeah, it might cost me a race here or there because he outruns me, but I think, in the grand scheme of things, it makes me an overall better driver."

After surging to the front of the field during a 107-lap green-flag run to start the race, Busch and Hamlin owned the action -- save for a four-lap foray by Jeff Gordon -- until Martin Truex Jr. took Busch and Hamlin three-wide to the inside after a restart on Lap 245 and surged to the front on Lap 246.

A bump from Jimmie Johnson sent Joey Logano spinning off Turn 2 on Lap 256. That started a spate of cautions that scrambled the field by virtue of divergent pit strategies. All told, Laps 256-301 brought five cautions, the last of which flew because of a wreck on the backstretch involving Bowyer, Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Paul Menard and David Reutimann.

Gordon retired from the race after his Chevrolet slammed hard into the inside wall.

Busch was fourth and Hamlin fifth for a restart on Lap 315, but Busch charged into the lead around the outside and passed Jeff Burton for the top spot on Lap 317, with Hamlin quickly following into the second position. At that point, both drivers were conserving fuel, but they had enough of a lead over Kahne that they could maintain an even pace without fear of losing their positions on the track.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman were involved in a succession of incidents, with Montoya retaliating against Newman on Lap 237. NASCAR warned both drivers.

A late pit stop for fuel cost Dale Earnhardt Jr. a lead-lap finish. He came home 19th, two laps down and fell one position to fourth in points, 34 behind Edwards.

Richmond Crown Royal 400 Results

Richmond Race Notes
• Kyle Busch's 21 wins before turning 26 rank third behind Jeff Gordon (26) and Richard Petty (22).
• Kyle Busch joins Kevin Harvick as only the second repeat winner of 2011.
• Kyle Busch's three wins at Richmond are tied with Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart for the most among active drivers.
• Kyle Busch's three consecutive Richmond spring wins ties Richard Petty for the most consecutive.
• Kyle Busch scored his eighth short-track win; he has won seven of the past 15 short-track races.
• Kyle Busch led 235 of 400 laps, including the final 85; it's only the eighth time he led over 200 laps in a race (he won four of the eight).
• Kyle Busch has led 719 laps in 2011, more than twice as many than any other driver.
• JGR posted its 90th win; it has eight at Richmond, including the past five.
• JGR has Won 12 of the past 15 short-track races.
• JGR has finished 1-2 in the past two Richmond races; it's the 10th time JGR drivers have finish 1-2 in a Cup race.
• Denny Hamlin (second) posted his best finish of the season; it's his first top-five since his win at Texas in Nov. 2010.
• Kasey Kahne (third) scored his first top-five finish of 2011; it's his fourth top-10 finish.
• David Regan (fourth) posted his career-best finish in his 104th start.
• Carl Edwards (fifth) scored his fifth top-five of 2011; he maintains the points lead.
• Clint Bowyer (sixth) posted his fifth consecutive top-10 of 2011; he has gained 17 spots in points in the past five races (currently seventh)
• Jimmie Johnson (eighth) received the free pass on Lap 299 en route to his sixth top-10 of the season; it kept him second in points, nine behind Carl Edwards.