You could see it coming. The drivers in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series wouldn’t be able to hold back the fire and determination of Brad Keselowski forever. Saturday night at Nashville, the dominoes fell into place and the young driver found himself in Victory Lane for the first time at the end of a wild night of racing.
Wheeling the No. 88 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Keselowski passed three race leaders in the final eight laps to win Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. “It’s awesome. I’ve come a long ways to get here and I owe a lot of people to be here. I had a couple of bad weeks there and now we get a good week. I’ve got to thank Dale and the Navy for giving me this opportunity,’’ said Keselowski.
“I’m just really proud of everyone on my team. This is what we’ve been fighting for and what we need. We made a guess and it worked out. We finally caught a break.’’ Keselowski, making his 49th career Nationwide start, started fourth with eight laps to go but was clearly the quickest car on the track.
“When the race started we were a little tighter than we wanted to be,” said Keselowski’s crew chief, Tony Eury Sr. “We worked on it every stop, made some adjustments and it worked out.”
A caution with 12 laps to run played into Keselowski’s hands.
“We just caught up to Clint there when yellow came out (for Brad Teauge) and it’s what we needed to catch back up. We were gaining but we wouldn’t have had a chance without the caution,” Keselowski said.
“We had a strong car, there’s now doubt about that. It came down to strategy. We pitted with about 40 laps to go. We were digging and passing one at a time. It seemed like we were taking forever.
When racing resumed, it only took Keselowski three laps to take the lead.
“That’s what it takes to win these races,” Keselowski said. “The shoe’s been on the other foot before.”
A year ago, Keselowski left Nashville unemployed as his previous team folded. He was picked up by Earnhardt shortly thereafter.
“It was about as bad as you could get,” Keselowski said. “We came here with a road course car. We broke down about five times and it made me question why I was doing this.
“They folded up right after that and I was out of a job until I got with Dale.”
Keselowski became the first Nationwide driver this season to take his first victory in the series.
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