SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Taking advantage of a NASCAR penalty to Elliott Sadler, Brad Keselowski cruised to victory in Saturday’s Indy 250, the inaugural appearance for NASCAR’s Nationwide Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Keselowski beat Penske Racing teammate Sam Hornish Jr. to the finish line by 3.3 seconds after NASCAR penalized points leader Sadler for jumping the last restart of the race on Lap 83, after Kyle Busch’s spin in Turn 1 brought out the fifth caution on Lap 79.
Sadler, who got a push into the lead from Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon approaching the stripe, asserted that race leader Keselowski had spun his tires coming to green.
“It’s so wrong to penalize me for a mistake they made,” Sadler radioed to his crew. “NASCAR just took the championship away from me. They just took the damn championship right out of our hands.”
Reluctantly, Sadler served a pass-through penalty on Lap 89 and dropped behind the other lead-lap cars. Charging through traffic, Sadler finished 15th to minimize the damage to his points lead, which shrank to one point over Dillon, who finished fifth.
Ty Dillon, Austin’s brother, ran third, followed by Denny Hamlin. Michael Annett finished sixth and pocketed $100,000 from Nationwide’s Dash 4 Cash program. Annett, Hornish, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (ninth Saturday) earned Dash 4 Cash eligibility for next week’s race at Iowa.
Thanks to Sadler’s misfortune, Keselowski became the first Nationwide winner at the big track.
“I’ve been watching races here since I was a kid in Michigan,” Keselowski said. “Everybody knows how special Indy is, and any win you can have here, whether it’s the (Indianapolis) 500 or the Brickyard here (Sunday), the first Nationwide race — every race is special.
“This is the 100th win for (owner) Roger Penske in NASCAR, so that’s really special for him. I’m glad to be able to be the guy that delivered.”
If Hornish had to finish second, there was consolation in being beaten by a teammate — but only so much.
“There’s always next week, but there’ll never be another inaugural Nationwide race at Indy,” said Hornish, a former winner of the Indy 500 during his tenure in open-wheel racing.
Contact from Danica Patrick’s Chevrolet sent Reed Sorenson spinning on Lap 39. Sorenson slid sideways, blocking the track in front of Patrick, who T-boned the unfortunate Ford. Patrick’s car was demolished, and the driver who posted six top-10 finishes in seven IndyCar starts exited the Nationwide event in 35th place.
“It’s just unfortunate for our day — it’s a big race, a big weekend,” Patrick said. “We were just trying to pick ’em off one by one (Patrick was running 20th at the time). . . . We just got shuffled back on that restart there (on Lap 22), picked the wrong line and got shuffled back.
“I got into the center of the corner, I got pretty close, and I might have tapped him — I’m not sure. He was slowing it down quite a bit, so I didn’t mean to take him out. . . . I was trying to go around him, and when I went around him, I think he hooked right, maybe, or something like that. Just a bummer. There was plenty racing left to work with, but what can you do?”
RACE RESULTS
1. (8) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 100, $58,225.
2. (13) Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge, 100, $51,293.
3. (3) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 100, $49,743.
4. (4) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 100, $34,125.
5. (7) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 100, $38,343.
6. (21) Michael Annett, Ford, 100, $32,868.
7. (6) Joey Logano, Toyota, 100, $24,975.
8. (9) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 100, $24,100.
9. (10) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 100, $31,968.
10. (16) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 100, $32,643.
11. (12) Mike Bliss, Toyota, 100, $28,393.
12. (14) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 100, $28,143.
13. (19) Travis Pastrana, Toyota, 100, $27,868.
14. (15) Brian Scott, Toyota, 100, $27,543.
15. (5) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 100, $28,518.
16. (24) Jason Bowles, Toyota, 100, $27,193.
17. (40) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 100, $27,043.
18. (28) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 100, $26,893.
19. (26) Kenny Wallace, Toyota, 100, $26,693.
20. (23) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 100, $27,243.
21. (39) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 100, $26,418.
22. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 100, $22,025.
23. (37) Timmy Hill, Ford, 100, $26,143.
24. (34) Eric McClure, Toyota, 100, $26,018.
25. (1) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 99, $23,375.
26. (25) James Buescher, Chevrolet, 99, $25,893.
27. (11) Ryan Blaney, Chevrolet, 99, $19,275.
28. (41) Tim Schendel, Chevrolet, 99, $19,200.
29. (22) Tayler Malsam, Toyota, 99, $25,568.
30. (17) Johanna Long, Chevrolet, 90, $25,793.
31. (42) Robert Richardson Jr., Chevrolet, 79, $25,393.
32. (29) Kyle Fowler, Ford, Engine, 72, $25,268.
33. (27) Reed Sorenson, Ford, Accident, 49, $18,740.
34. (18) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, Electrical, 41, $18,705.
35. (20) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, Accident, 38, $25,108.
36. (35) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 23, $18,580.
37. (38) Scott Riggs, Ford, Rear Gear, 18, $18,545.
38. (33) Erik Darnell, Chevrolet, Engine, 17, $18,461.
39. (43) TJ Bell, Chevrolet, Overheating, 10, $18,300.
40. (36) Kevin Lepage, Ford, Drive Shaft, 8, $18,190.
41. (30) Chase Miller, Chevrolet, Vibration, 6, $18,130.
42. (31) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, Electrical, 4, $18,100.
43. (32) Stephen Leicht, Chevrolet, Engine, 0, $18,035.
RACE STATISTICS
Average Speed of Race Winner: 126.05 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 59 Mins, 00 Secs. Margin of Victory: 3.304 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 5 for 24 laps.
Lead Changes: 9 among 6 drivers.
Lap Leaders: K. Kahne 0; Kyle Busch 1-17; J. Green 18; D. Hamlin 19-22; B. Keselowski 23-26; Kyle Busch 27-36; K. Kahne 37-40; Kyle Busch 41-64; S. Hornish Jr. 65-71; B. Keselowski 72-100.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Busch 3 times for 51 laps; B. Keselowski 2 times for 33 laps; S. Hornish Jr. 1 time for 7 laps; D. Hamlin 1 time for 4 laps; K. Kahne 1 time for 4 laps; J. Green 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: E. Sadler – 704; A. Dillon – 703; R. Stenhouse Jr. – 691; S. Hornish Jr. – 676; J. Allgaier – 629; M. Annett – 607; C. Whitt – 577; M. Bliss – 524; B. Scott – 460; D. Patrick – 452.
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Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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