Brad Keselowski’s victory Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway says as much about this season as it does about the next one.
Keselowski held off Martin Truex Jr. to win the Dollar General 300 and earn his fifth Nationwide Series win of the season and 11th of his career.
It’s also the second win for Keselowski in the four races this season with the new series’ car, which will be used during the entire 2011 season. The car includes safety enhancements and greater manufacturer identity. Charlotte Observer
“I’m so mentally exhausted after this race,” said Keselowski, who won at a 1.5-mile track for the first time in his Nationwide career. “I might be a little biased, but I thought that was the best race I’ve ever seen in my life. I can only imagine what the fans saw. That was awesome.”
“We made the decision to stay out because our car was really good,” Keselowski added. “We pitted five laps before the yellow flag came out and felt really good about it.”
With the win, Keselowski extended his lead to 450 points over Carl Edwards with just four races remaining. MiamiHerald.com
“We quite honestly weren’t very good on test day [Wednesday] and wasn’t very good the first half of the race, and I’ve got to give credit to Paul. That guy’s amazing. He gave me the car I needed to win with at the end. This Challenger flew.”
Martin Truex Jr. ran second, followed by Justin Allgaier, Joey Logano and pole-sitter Clint Bowyer, whose winning chances disappeared with a pit -road speeding penalty on his last stop. Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson, Aric Almirola, Ryan Newman and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10. NASCAR.com
Patrick continued her learning process.
Making her first start on the big track at Charlotte after running go-karts here as a teenager, Patrick vowed Thursday to be aggressive on the track, if needed. James Buescher wrecked her a week earlier at California to end her chances of a top-15 finish.
But Patrick never raced side-by-side with Buescher — and was never a factor in the 300-mile race. She bumped the outside wall early on and kept control of her No. 7 Chevrolet, but she soon fell a lap down after green-flag pit stops.
“It seems like every time we have a chance to have a great finish we crash,” Patrick said. “And every time we have a pretty average night we finish and we finish in the 20s.”
The previous best Nationwide finish for Patrick, primarily an IndyCar driver, was 24th. She has struggled with the boxier stock cars.
“We did our best and we had some high points this weekend,” she said. “That hasn’t happened a lot of other times I’ve been to a track for the first time. We’ll take the high points and take a non-crash home and learn from this new car this time.” The Canadian Press
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