(By Sarah Farlee Managing Editor, CupScene.com)
Posted: Saturday,August 27th, 2011
Bristol, Tenn., - Brad Keselowski’s summer surge continued at Bristol Motor Speedway with a victory in Saturday night’s Irwin Tools 500.
It was the second win in four races, and the fourth consecutive top-three finish for the Penske Racing driver. Keselowski attributes the recent surge in performance to a team that clicks, and believes in each other.
“An awesome car, an awesome team and Penske Racing,” said Keselowski. “The first few pit stops of the day we kind of struggled a little bit, but the last pit stop my guys came through and got me out in front of the No. 24 [Jeff Gordon] and we were able to pass Martin Truex there and the next thing I know we’re in victory lane.”
Brad Keselowski wins for the second time in four weeks at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Getty Images)
“There are races that pay more, and races that might have a little more prestige,” Keselowski added. “But this is the coolest damn one of them all.”
Keselowski has made significant gains since a testing injury at Road Atlanta in July, gaining 12 positions in the Sprint Cup points standings in four weeks. The win puts Keselowski in position for at least the first wild card Chase position, but he has not clinched that position just yet.
“Right now I’m just living in the moment,” said Keselowski. “I’m in victory lane in Bristol.”
Martin Truex, Jr. finished second and could never quite catch Keselowski after the final restart. Truex consistently ran in the top-10 throughout the night, but struggled on restarts.
“We had a lot of speed in a lot of runs,” said Truex. “We were off a little bit on the restarts and it would take the whole run to get it back.”
“He [Keselowski] checked out and we just kind of maintained,” Truex added.
Jeff Gordon maintained a top spot throughout the night. Gordon led 206 laps on the way to a third place finish. Gordon said there wasn’t much of a race at the front once Keselowski was able to clear traffic, but overall the night’s performance was an improvement from the spring race.
“I think we made some huge improvements from the last time we were here,” Gordon said. “I felt like we had the car to beat.”
“We just didn’t get the position we needed to on that last stop,” added Gordon. “We fought hard, and that was just a great battle; a lot of fun racing, but just didn’t quite have it there at the end.”
Jimmie Johnson led 76 laps, but didn’t have enough to stay out front and finished fourth. Johnson said they knocked on the door, but couldn’t quite get the win – but was happy with a solid finish as the team continues to look at the big picture.
“We’ve been building all season long and getting ourselves ready for the Chase,” said Johnson. “I think we’re real close and we’re there.”
Jamie McMurray was close all night. McMurray finished fifth and said the car was one of the best on track, and that once they were able to crack the top-four they were on track with the front pack.
“We were one of those cars that if we could have got out front, we probably could have one tonight,” McMurray said. “We lost some track position and it was so hard to recover.”
Matt Kenseth finished sixth, Denny Hamlin was seventh and Ryan Newman was eighth. Carl Edwards finished ninth and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top-10.
Kyle Busch clinched a Chase position last week, and following Bristol Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards – all clenched a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Kevin Harvick and Gordon are both 48 points behind the leader in fifth and sixth positions. Newman (-68) is seventh, Kurt Busch (-81) is eighth and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (-102) remains in the ninth position. Tony Stewart is 10th with a 21 point cushion over Keselowski in 11th. Clint Bowyer is 12th, 22 points behind Stewart and Hamlin is in 13th – 38 points behind.
Bowyer has no wins this season giving Hamlin the edge to take over the 12th, and second wild card, position leaving Bowyer out.
Other news from the Irwin Tools 500
The third caution of the night came on lap 298 for an accident in Turn 3 involving David Reutimann, David Stremme, Denny Hamlin and Paul Menard. Reutimann and Stremme were on the front end of the accident after Stremme turned Reutimann. The second set of spinners came after Menard made contact with the right rear of Hamlin sending both cars spinning. Reutimann went straight to the garage with significant damage, Hamlin hit pit road to repair slight damage.
David Reutimann's night was over after an accident on lap 298. (Getty Images)
“We got hit and spun and I was like, ‘Of course it’s our luck,’” said Hamlin. “We were able to make something of it and battle back.”
“That was the most patient that I’ve been since my rookie season,” Hamlin added.
Mark Martin had a hard crash in Turn 3 on lap 360 to bring out the fifth caution. Martin made contact with Brian Vickers sending Martin hard into the inside wall causing extensive damage to the No. 5 car.
“We got stuck in the field without track position and tried to make our way back through,” said Martin, who finished 38th. “Unfortunately when we were making our come back we got tagged from behind and once you make contact with that inside wall, it is hard to recover from.”
The sixth caution of the night came out for Kyle Busch after slapping the wall on lap 413. The contact damaged the right rear of the No. 18. Busch finished 14th.
“We just didn’t quite have the balance that we were looking for the whole time,” said Busch. “We never gave up, but we just never could get the car to where it would feel like it had in the past.”
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