Keselowski Wins Wild One at Dega

April 27, 2009 - Brad Keselowski had only competed in four NASCAR Sprint Cup races before Sunday’s outing at the big Talladega Speedway, so a first time win was not exactly their game plan. But, just as Yogi Berra would say, “It’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings’ was never so true as Keselowski and leader Carl Edwards battled to the stripe.
Edwards had been hanging out in the back of the pack all day, before putting himself among the top ten with less than 10 to go. Keselowski pushed Edwards around leaders Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr within sight of the flag. Keselowski fainted to the high side, Edwards moved up slightly, then the young driver moved down, Edwards moved down slightly, the two touched and Edwards went for a wild ride flipping into the front grandstand catch fence, ala Bobby Allison 25 years ago.
Keselowski wound up with his first Cup win ever, offering an apology to Edwards, but wanted that first win and wasn’t going be squeezed below the infamous yellow line. The James Finch driver simply held his ground and came away with the win. It really could have gone either way with either car wrecking or both.
Edwards climbed out of battered ride OK, then took a page right out of Talladega Nights by jogging across the finish line, much to the delight of the Rickie Bobby crowd. The Roush driver did not fault Keselowski for his final lap actions.
Juan Montoya did surprise more than a few people by claiming his first NASCAR pole ever. The Columbian driver led the field to the stripe on a hot Alabama afternoon with Greg Biffle alongside.
It didn’t take long for the first ‘big wreck’ to take place as all heck broke loose on lap 7, gobbling up 14 cars in the process, four of which were done for the day, four more needing extensive repairs and the rest put large band aids on their cars to rejoin the fray.
The wreck started when Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth barely touched each other, but being towards the front of the pack left many drivers with nowhere to go. Among those involved were last weeks winner Mark Martin, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne and more.
Montoya led for a while as did Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch and two dozen other drivers before the checkers fell on Keselowski.
Capping the top five finishers included Dale Jr, Newman, Marcos Ambrose and Scott Speed.
On the Nationwide side, David Ragan led only the last few hundred feet of the race at Dega with an up-the- middle move between race leader Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr. The third year Roush-Fenway driver has been long overdue to hit the winner’s circle after nearly 200 NASCAR events without a checkers.
Once again, Kyle Busch led the most laps, but a late race incident sent him to the pits for repairs, still wound up with a very credible 10th, Carl Edwards had a number of issues, yet managed to finish 13th, falling 14 points further away from leader Busch, now with a 62 point lead.
Crossing the line behind Ragan were the cars of Newman, Joey Logano, a surprising Tony Raines and Dale Jr.
Trucking - This week’s truck race in Kansas started with a 52-lapper on Saturday before Mother Nature stepped in to squash the party. Race officials pulled the plug until Monday afternoon when Mike Skinner led the field to the green. A series of numerous cautions fell while Hornaday and Skinner swapped turns out front.
With 45 laps to go, the rains stepped in again, slowing the field down as Johnny Benson, Brian Scott, Hornaday and Brian Ickler followed Skinner across the final stripe. Thirty minutes later, race officials finally pulled the plug handing Skinner his latest win (26th career) and the new points leader as well.
Open Wheel News - Graham Rahal grabbed the pole for the Indy Racing League’s run in Kansas and ran strong to finish seventh, but it was reigning champion Scott Dixon standing tall in victory lane. Dixon managed to hold off Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe and Manica.
Across the pond, the sweltering heat of Bahrain didn’t deter Formula One point’s leader Jenson Button from notching his third win of the season, this one in front of Sebastian Vettel and Jarno Trulli. Ferrari finally scored their first points of the season as Kimi Raikkonen wound up sixth. Button remains on top by 11 points over teammate Rubens Barrichello.
From Rumorville - Team Swaps? Richard Childress is a ‘get things done’ kind of owner. If it doesn’t work, fix it has prompted the long time owner to make wholesale changes among two of his teams. After this weekend, the entire crews of drivers Kevin Harvick and Casey Mears will swap places to try and improve their rather dismal results so far this season.
--- Not to be outdone, Bobby Labonte’s Cup team will replace Todd Parrot with Ben Leslie to try and get their racing effort back on track.
--- Swan Song for Pontiac? More than likely as General Motors needs to trim the fat off the hog to stay a viable car manufacturer. Look for announcements soon declaring the end of Pontiac, Hummer, Saab and Saturn. Affect racing? More in the sports car ranks than NASCAR.
That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the NASCAR Cup and Nationwide action from Richmond along with more racing news from around the globe.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@comcast.net