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Sprint Cup
CUP: Bad Brad Wins First Chase Race
Brad Keselowski outguns Jimmie Johnson to win GEICO 400…
Brad Keselowski challenged the king of the hill Sunday – and beat him.
Keselowski took the lead late in the GEICO 400 with a semi-controversial pit-exit move and won the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup over former champion and race/Chase favorite Jimmie Johnson.
Keselowski returned to the track from the pits with 37 laps to go and moved up the racing surface in front of Johnson to claim the position between turns one and two. NASCAR’s race rules call for drivers returning to the track after pitting to blend in with traffic in the area of turn two.
NASCAR studied replays of Keselowski’s move but did not penalize him.
Johnson was easily the day’s dominant driver, leading 172 of the 267 laps. But Keselowski and his Penske Racing team had his number over the closing miles, and the victory boosted him to first in the Chase standings. Entering next weekend’s second Chase race – at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Keselowski leads the points for the first time in his career.
“The 48 either slowed down or we sped up on the last run,” Keselowski said. “I don’t know which. We’re in victory lane in Race One in the Chase. It feels like round one of a heavyweight title bout. It’s good to win it, but there are a lot of rounds left.”
Keselowski jumped four positions in the standings to the No. 1 spot. He leads Johnson by three points. Denny Hamlin fell from first into a tie for fourth. Kasey Kahne, who was third in the race, is tied with Hamlin and Clint Bowyer.
Johnson said Keselowski ran up the track in front of him after the pit exit but didn’t offer complaints about it. “It did impede my progress, and I had to check up, but it didn’t affect the outcome, I don’t believe,” he said. “I’m not sure I could have held him off. At the time, it messed me up, but I don’t think it affected the outcome of the race.”
On a day when more than a few drivers in the Chase group experienced problems ranging from perplexing to pesky, Johnson had an afternoon filled with smooth sailing. As in so many Chases before, he and crew chief Chad Knaus practically put on a clinic. They didn’t have what they needed at the end, however.
“The last three (green-flag) runs, he (Keselowski) was definitely a factor,” Johnson said. “The last one he was just better. Congrats to those guys. It was a great way to start the Chase for us. There are 10 long races, and a lot can happen. We’ll take the second and go on to the next one.”
Seven Chase drivers finished in the race top 10 – Keselowski first, Johnson second, Kahne third, Tony Stewart sixth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. eighth, Martin Truex Jr. ninth and Bowyer 10th.
Other Chasers: Kevin Harvick 12th, Greg Biffle 13th, Hamlin 16th, Matt Kenseth 18th and Jeff Gordon 35th.
Gordon’s Chase hopes took a beating on lap 189 when the throttle on his Chevrolet apparently stuck and sent the former champion sailing into the turn-one wall. The car absorbed significant damage. Gordon was running fourth at the time.
Kenseth and Hamlin also had problems.
Kenseth’s car broke a shock, forcing a pit-stop change. Hamlin, the Chase point leader entering the race, was running ninth near the end of the race but ran out of fuel on the final lap and limped to the finish.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Keselowski took the lead late in the GEICO 400 with a semi-controversial pit-exit move and won the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup over former champion and race/Chase favorite Jimmie Johnson.
Keselowski returned to the track from the pits with 37 laps to go and moved up the racing surface in front of Johnson to claim the position between turns one and two. NASCAR’s race rules call for drivers returning to the track after pitting to blend in with traffic in the area of turn two.
NASCAR studied replays of Keselowski’s move but did not penalize him.
Johnson was easily the day’s dominant driver, leading 172 of the 267 laps. But Keselowski and his Penske Racing team had his number over the closing miles, and the victory boosted him to first in the Chase standings. Entering next weekend’s second Chase race – at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Keselowski leads the points for the first time in his career.
“The 48 either slowed down or we sped up on the last run,” Keselowski said. “I don’t know which. We’re in victory lane in Race One in the Chase. It feels like round one of a heavyweight title bout. It’s good to win it, but there are a lot of rounds left.”
Keselowski jumped four positions in the standings to the No. 1 spot. He leads Johnson by three points. Denny Hamlin fell from first into a tie for fourth. Kasey Kahne, who was third in the race, is tied with Hamlin and Clint Bowyer.
Johnson said Keselowski ran up the track in front of him after the pit exit but didn’t offer complaints about it. “It did impede my progress, and I had to check up, but it didn’t affect the outcome, I don’t believe,” he said. “I’m not sure I could have held him off. At the time, it messed me up, but I don’t think it affected the outcome of the race.”
On a day when more than a few drivers in the Chase group experienced problems ranging from perplexing to pesky, Johnson had an afternoon filled with smooth sailing. As in so many Chases before, he and crew chief Chad Knaus practically put on a clinic. They didn’t have what they needed at the end, however.
“The last three (green-flag) runs, he (Keselowski) was definitely a factor,” Johnson said. “The last one he was just better. Congrats to those guys. It was a great way to start the Chase for us. There are 10 long races, and a lot can happen. We’ll take the second and go on to the next one.”
Seven Chase drivers finished in the race top 10 – Keselowski first, Johnson second, Kahne third, Tony Stewart sixth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. eighth, Martin Truex Jr. ninth and Bowyer 10th.
Other Chasers: Kevin Harvick 12th, Greg Biffle 13th, Hamlin 16th, Matt Kenseth 18th and Jeff Gordon 35th.
Gordon’s Chase hopes took a beating on lap 189 when the throttle on his Chevrolet apparently stuck and sent the former champion sailing into the turn-one wall. The car absorbed significant damage. Gordon was running fourth at the time.
Kenseth and Hamlin also had problems.
Kenseth’s car broke a shock, forcing a pit-stop change. Hamlin, the Chase point leader entering the race, was running ninth near the end of the race but ran out of fuel on the final lap and limped to the finish.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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