Brad Keselowski was dominant on the race track during Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
Keselowski’s pit stops were another story.
Keselowski was able to overcome clutch problems—stalling twice during pit stops—to win the CARFAX 250 before an estimated crowd of 30,000 to increase his points lead to 347 over bitter rival Carl Edwards with 12 races left.
Keselowski, a native of Rochester Hills, had to overcome a four-second deficit during the final 15 laps to overtake Edwards. He defeated Edwards by 3.2 seconds to win for the fourth time this season. The Detroit News
“The clutch problems just affect our pit stops, and at the end, it affected my [celebratory] burnout,” Keselowski said. “It still was an awesome race car. When you’ve got cars this good, man, life is a lot easier.”
Kyle Busch finished third, followed by Justin Allgaier and Paul Menard. Joey Logano, Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson, rookie Colin Braun and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10.
Edwards was aware that the second caution had deprived him of his best opportunity to win the race.
“Until that last caution, I thought, ‘Man, we might win this thing,’” Edwards said. “Then we had the caution, and Brad was able to just launch out front on that last run. It was just a battle for second then.
“But I could taste victory. I thought, ‘Man, this is going to work out—we’re going to steal one here today.’ But the best car ended up winning. Those guys did a good job.” NASCAR.com
Meanwhile, it was another rough day at the racetrack for Danica Patrick, who went down a lap to the leaders early on and struggled to a 27th-place finish.
Patrick said her car was extremely loose early on — “I hope I don’t crash,” she remembered thinking — but the team got a handle on the car’s handling late in the race.
“If we could have started the race the way we finished it, it would have been a very different story,” Patrick said. “It’s all right. It’s all part of it.” The Associated Press
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NASCAR Nationwide Series: Carfax 250 at Michigan - Race Results
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