Keselowski Wicked Fast at New Hampshire

By Seth Livingstone, NASCAR Wire Service

LOUDON, N.H. – For Brad Keselowski, it’s beginning to look an awful lot like 2012 when everything went right on the way to a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

Keselowski led 138 of the last 232 laps to win Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 for his third Sprint Cup victory of the season. He held off Kyle Busch on the final restart and pulled away to win by three-quarters of a second in a green-white-checker finish.

“I’m not thinking of anything else right now (other) than how thankful I am to have a team and a car that is clicking well,” said Keselowski from Victory Lane. “It’s every driver’s dream.

“I think, in a lot of ways, we’re stronger than (2012). I don’t think we’ve had this much speed before. I feel like I’m in a really strong rhythm right now. I think some of last year’s struggles put me in a spot to work harder and become a better race car driver. I think we’re combining all those things and we’re seeing the fruits of that labor – with more to come.”

Keselowski, 30, captured his first Sprint Cup championship in 2012 on the strength of five victories and 23 top-10 finishes in 36 starts. After failing to qualify for the Chase last season, he’s produced 10 top-10 performances in 19 races this season. 

“We were fast last year at this time but we weren’t executing,” said Keselowski, who also won Saturday’s Sta-Green 200 Nationwide Series race and had dominated the speed charts during Saturday’s Sprint Cup practice sessions. “This year we’re executing and we have a lot of momentum. It really feels like we have hit our stride.

"At the same time, we have a lot of potential still left in our team. Everybody is going to turn it up a notch when the Chase comes and we know that. You’ve got to have a good horse and we had that today. (But) we know we have to have another gear to grab to be able to run for a championship. I think we’re close but I want to keep pushing.”

Presuming they attempt to qualify for the next seven races, Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10th) became the first two drivers to clinch spots in the Chase thanks to their showings on Sunday.

“I’m proud of our team for that,” Earnhardt said. “Hopefully we can improve before we come back here (for the second race of the Chase). That was the hardest I’ve ever worked for a 10th-place finish. We (were) off all weekend – a real frustrating weekend to be honest.”

Keselowski seemed to be in cruise control, leading Denny Hamlin by 2.91 seconds with four laps remaining. But Justin Allgaier spun and struck the wall, bringing out the race’s seventh caution flag and necessitating the fifth green-white-checker finish of the 2014 season and juggling the field.

As soon as the yellow flag came out, Hamlin headed to the pits for a splash of gas and settled for eighth place. Jeff Gordon, who had been running third, ran his Hendrick Chevrolet out of gas and was relegated to 26th place. Kevin Harvick started second alongside Keselowski but ran out of fuel on the restart.

“We had what I thought was the second-best car,” Hamlin said. “I had to save fuel and couldn’t push it. I would have liked to have seen if we could have raced with the (No.) 2, but he obviously had a very dominant car.”

The fuel situation left Busch and Clint Bowyer as the only drivers with a real shot at Keselowski in the final two laps.

In the end, neither had anything for Keselowski.

“I don’t think anybody did,” said Busch, whose Joe Gibbs Toyota was strong enough to sit on the pole and lead 62 laps.

“We made a gusty call at the end to stay out and see if we could make it on fuel. We barely made it – ran out right at the start-finish. All in all, a decent day to be coming home second.”

Bowyer, who led 36 laps after leading a total of 12 in the previous 12 Cup events, faded to sixth behind rookie Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman.  

Keselowski’s power was evident when crew chief Paul Wolfe opted to give up the lead and take four tires when the race’s second caution came on Lap 113. It took Keselowski 13 laps to drive from 10th place to third and 10 more laps for him to get to the rear bumper of the leader, Kenseth. Throughout the race, Wolfe opted for fresh tires over track position.

“I really was not sure how that was going to work out and unfold,” Wolfe said. “Seeing that, I felt pretty good about the strength of our car and what Brad was able to do moving through traffic.”

Team owner Roger Penske also liked what he was seeing.

“Paul made great calls today,” he said. “Watching Brad – and I got to see it from up on top – I can tell you there was nobody that could beat him. It was just great execution from everybody.”

Keselowski became the 13th different winner in the last 13 Cup races at New Hampshire, tying a record set at Texas Motor Speedway. Busch has now finished second at New Hampshire in three consecutive races.

Camping World RV Sales 301

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

1 7 2 Brad Keselowski Redd's Ford 305 48 5 145.7 $306,998 Running 7 138

2 1 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota 305 43 1 123.5 $239,066 Running 1 62

3 13 42 Kyle Larson # Target Chevrolet 305 42 1 99.1 $166,270 Running 2 14

4 15 20 Matt Kenseth Dollar General Toyota 305 41 1 112.3 $166,086 Running 1 12

5 24 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Chevrolet 305 39 88.9 $119,750 Running

6 8 15 Clint Bowyer 5-Hour Energy Toyota 305 39 1 109.7 $139,431 Running 3 36

7 4 14 Tony Stewart Mobil 1 Chevrolet 305 37 91.9 $138,473 Running

8 3 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 305 37 1 115.0 $109,565 Running 2 20

9 22 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Wegmans/Cargill Ford 305 35 82.1 $129,290 Running

10 28 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard Chevrolet 305 34 97.0 $101,715 Running

11 10 5 Kasey Kahne Great Clips/Shark Week Chevrolet 305 33 95.1 $107,415 Running

12 9 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Chevrolet 305 32 86.0 $118,873 Running

13 14 99 Carl Edwards Fastenal Ford 305 31 77.6 $105,465 Running

14 23 3 Austin Dillon # Dow Chevrolet 305 30 72.5 $133,476 Running

15 27 16 Greg Biffle NESN 30th Anniversary Ford 305 29 68.0 $130,115 Running

16 5 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald's Chevrolet 305 28 96.0 $120,629 Running

17 18 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet 305 28 1 73.9 $86,940 Running 1 1

18 20 47 AJ Allmendinger Kingsford Charcoal Chevrolet 305 26 68.7 $104,798 Running

19 16 27 Paul Menard Duracell/Menards Chevrolet 305 25 79.3 $113,554 Running

20 30 66 Jeff Burton Toyota Let's Go Places Toyota 305 24 63.1 $95,240 Running

21 17 55 Brian Vickers Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 305 23 78.2 $117,765 Running

22 29 10 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Chevrolet 305 22 60.9 $93,340 Running

23 19 43 Aric Almirola Charter Ford 305 21 63.1 $121,951 Running

24 33 38 David Gilliland Long John Silver's Ford 305 20 49.6 $108,873 Running

25 26 34 David Ragan Taco Bell Ford 305 19 54.6 $107,173 Running

26 11 24 Jeff Gordon Drive to End Hunger Chevy 305 19 1 79.5 $128,151 Running 1 19

27 21 9 Marcos Ambrose DeWalt Ford 304 17 63.1 $110,335 Running

28 35 26 Cole Whitt # TapOut Muscle Recovery Toyota 304 16 45.2 $83,290 Running

29 32 98 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Chevrolet 304 15 47.4 $80,515 Running

30 12 4 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet 304 14 88.7 $122,798 Running

31 36 23 Alex Bowman # Dr Pepper Toyota 303 13 41.7 $91,723 Running

32 39 7 Michael Annett # Pilot/Flying J Chevrolet 303 12 38.2 $89,337 Running

33 37 36 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 302 11 42.8 $79,565 Running

34 34 40 Landon Cassill(i) Newtown Bldg Supplies Chevy 301 0 37.5 $79,365 Running

35 40 32 Eddie MacDonald tryandrozene.com Ford 300 9 32.6 $79,165 Running

36 38 83 Ryan Truex Burger King Toyota 300 8 34.1 $78,935 Running

37 25 51 Justin Allgaier # AccuDoc Solutions Chevrolet 296 7 49.7 $86,717 Accident

38 31 13 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet 292 6 45.0 $81,655 Running

39 43 33 Morgan Shepherd(i) Thunder Coal Chevrolet 278 0 26.4 $69,655 Running

40 6 22 Joey Logano AutoTrader.com Ford 211 5 1 92.9 $105,646 Accident 1 3

41 42 87 Timmy Hill Toyota 76 3 26.8 $61,655 Electrical

42 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 11 2 35.4 $114,091 Accident

43 41 93 Mike Bliss(i) Dr Pepper Toyota 6 PE 27.9 $54,155 Electrical

 Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 58 Mins, 03 Secs.

Caution flags: 7 for 35 laps: Laps: 15-20 (#48 accident turn 1 [None]); 113-118 (Debris turn 3 [43]); 154-157 (Debris backstretch [66]); 178-181 (Debris turn 1 [3]); 213-218

(22, 33 accident turn 4 [51]); 250-253 (Debris turn 3 [38]); 299-303 (#51 accident trun 4 [38]).

Lead Changes: 18 among 9 drivers: Kyle Busch 1-62; D. Hamlin 63-73; B. Keselowski 74-78; K. Larson # 79; Kurt Busch 80; D. Hamlin 81-89; B. Keselowski 90-113; K.

Larson # 114-126; M. Kenseth 127-138; B. Keselowski 139-154; J. Logano 155-157; C. Bowyer 158-176; B. Keselowski 177-180; C. Bowyer 181; B.

Keselowski 182-213; C. Bowyer 214-229; B. Keselowski 230-250; J. Gordon 251-269; B. Keselowski 270-305.

Chase grid: 1.B. Keselowski 634 (3 wins);2.J. Johnson 598 (3);3.D. Earnhardt Jr. 658 (2);4.C. Edwards 574 (2);5.J. Logano 551 (2);6.K. Harvick 528 (2);7.J. Gordon

670 (1);8.Kyle Busch 567 (1);9.D. Hamlin 530 (1);10.A. Almirola 473 (1);11.Kurt Busch 440 (1);12.M. Kenseth 621 (0);13.R. Newman 573 (0);14.C. Bowyer

548 (0);15.P. Menard 541 (0);16.K. Larson # 524 (0)