Keselowski Wins final NASCAR race at Lucas Oil Raceway by Dan Peters
The sun now has set at yet another
Nostalgic American Race Track. Saturday night’s Nationwide Race was the
last for Lucas Oil Raceway. Next Year, its all Brickyard for the
Nationwide Series
For three quarters of the night, it was just “another race” for Brad
Keselowski in the Kroger 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Lucas Oil
Raceway. The defending series champion needed a bit of mayhem, and when
he got that late in the race, it resulted in his second victory of the
season. Keselowski, was a non-factor
through the middle portion of an atypically unremarkable race at the
.686-mile track, jumped ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on a
green-white-checkered restart and cruised to a .987-second victory. The
race went four laps beyond its scheduled 200. "It’s a very special win being from
Michigan," Keselowski said. "I’ve been coming to this racetrack for
years. I’ve been to victory lane as a team guy and a mechanic but never
a driver. It’s so special to win here and win here in a Dodge."
Brad
Keselowski Wins
A Photo Finish…. The battle for second place was so
close that NASCAR officials had to review video. Several minutes after
the race ended, second place was taken from Stenhouse and given to
James Buescher, who had finished second in Friday night’s Camping World
Truck Series race at the track. It took several more minutes before
officials finally announced Stenhouse had moved into first place in the
standings—three points ahead of Reed Sorenson, who started the night as
the leader and finished ninth Saturday.
From Calm to Mayhem.. it happens
fast..at this short track.
But all of that was just the end of
a chaotic final 25 laps. After a mild first 175 laps, in which only two
yellow flags waved and in which Stenhouse led all but four laps, a wild
crash occurred on Lap 177.
Michael Annett and Tim Andrews
tangled and hit the wall in Turn 3. After their cars had spun to a
stop, the car of Steve Wallace came in sideways at speed and slammed
both stalled cars. "Tried to accelerate away from
those guys and got sideways," said Wallace, Annett’s Rusty Wallace
Racing teammate. "It was horrible," Annett said. A red flag ensued. Six laps after the race restarted
on Lap 184, Trevor Bayne, who was running second, blew an engine and
oiled down the track to bring out another caution. Just as the race was
about to go green with seven laps to go, Justin Allgaier’s car caught
fire. He pulled off the track, and the restart was aborted. Suddenly Keselowski was in the
front row set to restart next to leader Stenhouse.
He
got there, according to Nationwide Series director Joe Balash, because
Allgaier pulled out of line and the whole line behind him moved forward
and Keselowski was at the head of the line. Keselowski
took the lead on the restart. But another quick caution on Lap 199
pushed the race into overtime. Keselowski pulled away for the victory
and some head scratching. "I’m
not sure what happened at the end of that race," he said. "I’m going to
have to go back and watch it on TV to fully understand what
happened. The 16 car blew up. The 31 caught on fire.
We ended up restarting in second position on the outside lane, and I
knew that if I could get around the 6 car (of Stenhouse, who led 189
laps) that we had a shot at the win. "I
had a great short-run car that could give Ricky a run for his
money. If the race was two of three laps longer, I’m sure Ricky
would have drove around us."
