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Keselowski Wins First Race In Wild Talladega Finish

An Opinion



April 27, 2009

By Ron Felix


CIA Stock Photos
Earnhardt Jr. Congratulates Keselowski
Brad Keselowski took advantage of the yellow line rule to win his first Sprint Cup race. After nine caution periods the race restarted for the last time with Ryan Newman in the lead and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in second pushing Newman. But from ninth and tenth place, Brad Keselowski was pushing Carl Edwards to the front. On the final lap Keselowski and Edwards caught and passed Newman and Earnhardt. With Edwards in the lead, Keselowski dove low to pass Edwards and Edwards made an attempt to block Keselowski. -- Keselowski held his ground and didn't allow Edwards to push him below the yellow line, a rule in NASCAR that prevents a driver from going below the yellow line. The contact sent Edwards airborne into the catchfence and into Ryan Newman.

"I made a run on Carl (Edwards) and he tried to force me below the yellow line," said Keselowski. "I wasn't going for it, I'm here to win -- you saw what happened to Regan Smith last year. He let Stewart force him below the line and lost the race. I wasn't going for it."

Keselowski led just one time for one lap as he hooked up in a two-car draft from the middle of the field on the final lap to score the win. It was the just the fifth NSCS start and first at TSS for the 25-year old Rochester Hills, Michigan native.

"Ryan (Newman) was doing the same thing he was doing yesterday in the Nationwide race where he was not running wide open, he was just trying to hold Dale back there; and broke their momentum for a lap or two, and by the time they saw me coming it was too late," said Keselowski. "Carl (Edwards) and I are were coming with a full head of steam and there was no stopping us. I'm sure he probably regrets that now, but I certainly don't."

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Impala SS, finished second behind the Keselowski, the full-time driver for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He led seven times during the 188-laps. It was his 11th top-10 finish in 19 races at Talladega Superspeedway. It is his third top-10 finish in 2009. Earnhardt moved to 15th in the point standings.

"I felt like today, we had another shot at it, a better shot at it, and we almost made it work, but the 99 and Brad hooked up and, I don't know, they are just a little bit faster and they moved up," said Earnhardt. "They were coming, they were catching us and running the middle, and the middle had been a little quicker. So they just did, I guess we showed our hand a little early, maybe a lap or two too early and everybody saw what they was going to have to do if they wanted a shot at winning.

"Our car ran great all weekend and we qualified good and handled, you know, about like everybody else's car, they all handled the same. And the engine was great, pushed Ryan there for four laps, and it didn't blow up. It was running about 260 on an oval, and it held for about a lap and a half like that. I was just glad to get a good finish. I was just concentrating on trying to win, what should I do, where should I be, but I didn't want to screw myself out of a good finish if that was all I was going to be dealt, and I got lucky and came home with some points.

Despite being involved in a two-car accident coming to the start-finish line for the checkered flag, Ryan Newman, No. 39 Prelude to the Dream/U.S. Army Impala SS, finished third. He led twice for a total of 10 laps and moved to 13th in the standings with his first top-five and third top-10 in the nine races run to-date.

"I was lucky today I felt. I didn't think my car was as good today as yesterday but at the same time I was put in the right position by the right situations and Hamlin pushed me up to the front and Junior like I said, he stuck to his word and pushed me all the way around to that restart and didn't expect the 09 and 99 to get hooked up and go as quick as they did," explained Newman. "Finally looked like we had a good run coming to them and coming back to the line, and thankfully the line was where it was today instead of yesterday, and you know, the 09 and 99 got together and who knows what would have happened if I would have went low. But either way, I'm not disappointed by any means, finishing second and third here, knowing what all happened these last two days."

A great run by Marcos Ambrose vaulted him into fourth place and rookie Scott Speed placed fifth.

Kurt Busch finished in the sixth spot followed by Greg Biffle, Brian Vickers, rookie Joey Logano and Jeff Burton to round out the top ten. Edwards exited his crumpled car and ran to cross the start-finish line, was 24th.


CIA Stock Photos
Edwards Goes Airborne
The "Big One" didn't take long to rear it's ugly. On lap six, Matt Kenseth and Robby Gordon got together and the end result was nineteen wrecked race cars. Several of the contenders were taken out of contention for the win including points leader Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer. Several other driver sustained some damage -- A.J. Allmendinger, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Casey Mears, Elliott Sadler, Kyle Busch. Brian Vickers and Jamie McMurray -- but were able to continue with the race.

There were nine cautions for a total of 33 laps.

The most serious wreck on the final turn of the final lap when Keselowski and Edwards got together and the contact nearly sent Edwards' car into the stands. There were pieces of debris that did make it through the fence however and at least eight fans were injured. At first report several fans had to be airlifted out of the track (more due to traffic in the area than emergency conditions). Several fans were said to have broken extremities and or facial lacerations.

Scott Speed was the top Rookie on Sunday at Talladega. Speed scored a fifth-place finish, his best finish in 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts. Speed grabbed Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the third time this season.

“I was in the right place at the right time I guess, I mean like everyone who was up there [smiles]," said Speed. "It was kind of crazy. It was very difficult to get any kind of help from anyone. It’s just when someone would get behind me they’d pick another lane so at the end it so happened that Kyle was behind me a lap down and he just basically took us to the front [smiles]. I always had a train behind us. That was really lucky for us and fortunate and it turned out that we just had a good result. It was a good points day for us as well.”

Logano grabbed a ninth-place finish, his best effort in 12 Sprint Cup Series starts and his first top-10.

Max Papis was credited with an 18th-place finish, his best in five Sprint Cup Series starts and first ever lead lap finish.

The next race on the Sprint Cup schedule – the tenth event of 36-races for the 2009 Sprint Cup Championship. The Crown Royal 400 will be on Saturday May 2nd, at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. The race begins at approximately 7:00 p.m. eastern time with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 6:30 p.m. eastern time.

The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128 and PRN radio.


For full final race results...     (Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Sprint Cup drivers points...     (Insider Racing News)



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The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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