Brad Keselowski was in position to take advantage of a couple of late-race cautions in the Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday to take the race win. It was Keselowski’s second win of the season, both coming in the last three races. Sunday’s win also was Keselowski’s third-career victory at Bristol.
“I think everybody on this Discount Tire Ford Mustang team is gonna go to Vegas,” Keselowski said. ”Is it open yet? Because things have been going our way from the luck of the draw on the qualifying to the last few laps, there. We couldn’t get anything to go our way at the start of the race with cars staying out, and I kept getting the bottom lane on restarts, and nothing was working out, and then, right at the end, we came in and put two tires on the left and drove up to, I guess, fourth or sixth, I don’t know, something like that and put ourselves in position. I could see Joey [Logano] and Chase [Elliott] were getting really racy, there, and I didn’t know what was gonna happen, but I knew if I kept my eye open, something good might happen, and, sure enough, it did. An incredible day. I’m so happy for the team. This was a never-give-up effort. That’s what we’re becoming as a team.”
Chase Elliott and Keselowski’s Team Penske teammate Joey Logano were on the front row for the final restart of the race with five laps remaining. A side-by-side battle for the lead between the two drivers with three laps to go in the race resulted in Elliott getting into Logano and Keselowski taking his race-winning lead.
“We kind of got a Christmas present, here, in Bristol,” Keselowski said. ”We’ll take it. We’re in position and able to strike when it counted with the Discount Tire Ford Mustang. Joey and Chase got together, there. I don’t know what all caused it, but we were just in position to strike, and here we are in victory lane.”
The final restart was the result of a 17th-caution for a Denny Hamlin spin with 10 laps to go. Hamlin was the race leader when his car got loose with 11 to go, allowing Logano and, then, Elliott to take the lead.
Hamlin wound up 17th at the checkered flag after leading a race-high 131 laps. Logano was 21st and Elliott 22nd at the finish.
“He [Elliott] wrecked me,” Logano said. ”He got loose underneath me. The part that’s frustrating is that afterwards a simple apology — like be a man and come up to someone and say, ‘Hey, my bad.’ But I had to force an apology, which, to me, is childish. Anyways, man, we had a good recovery with our Autotrader Mustang and had a shot to win. That’s all you can hope for. I passed him clean. It’s hard racing at the end. I get that. It’s hard racing, but, golly, man, be a man and take the hit when you’re done with it.”
Clint Bowyer finished second, Jimmie Johnson third, and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Erik Jones finished fourth and fifth. Keselowski and Busch’s top-five finishes came after pit-road speeding penalty. Logano also was among several drivers assessed speedign penalties throughout the 500-lap race.
Elliott won both of the 125-lap stages that made up the first half of the race. He won the opening stage after taking the lead from Ryan Blaney on lap 105. The Team Penske duo of Keselowski and Blaney combined to lead nearly all the laps to that point. Keselowski started on the pole and ran up front until Matt DiBenedetto stayed out to inherit the lead during a lap-60 competition caution. Keselowski retook the lead when the race restarted, but that lead was short-lived, as Blaney got by him on lap 84.
Blaney also led in the second stage, getting off pit road first during the caution after the first stage to restart first early in stage two. Keselowski took the lead from him on lap 170, and fewer than 20 laps later, Blaney was out of the race because of a wreck with Ty Dillon.
“I was running up there for a little bit,” Blaney said. ”I didn’t think I was that high, and all of a sudden, I hit a slick spot. I was way high, and that’s, obviously, not where I wanted to be, but I didn’t think I was that high getting in there. It might have just been trying to get too much and got in the marbles and spun out. I thought we were gonna be okay, and then, we got destroyed about six seconds later, so that’s just Bristol and a part of Bristol. I probably shouldn’t have been pushing that hard but trying to get back to the lead. I thought we found some speed up there, just a mistake on my part. I hate it for Menards and Richmond and everybody on this 12 team. After having two strong weeks, you go and you wreck not even halfway, so that’s just a bummer. We’ll go to Atlanta and see what we can do.”
Elliott retook the lead by being first out of the pits during the caution for the Blaney-Dillon wreck.
A multi-car crash that began when Johnson got into Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and included Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman put the race under the red flag with about 20 laps remaining during the second stage that ended on lap 250.
“We just got crashed,” Stenhouse said. “Our Kroger Camaro was just so good. Two weeks in a row, I feel like, we had one of the best cars I’ve had at that given race track. We were just racing hard. The #42 [Matt Kenseth] had to check-up and the #48 [Johnson] just ran into our left-rear and spun us. But it was a bummer. I felt like we had a really good shot at racing them for the win. We were getting it dialed-in, there. Starting on the inside was a little tricky on restarts in trying to get yourself up, and we were starting to get some momentum back to the top-five, there, and just got crashed. He about got us last week. He got us this week, but it’s just part of it. It’s short-track racing. Hopefully, our guys bring another good car to Atlanta next weekend, and we’ll go get ‘em.”
Elliott was still in the lead at the red flag and remained up front through the end of stage two at the midway point of the race.
After his second stage win, Elliott gave up the lead to pit. Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Busch were among the drivers who stayed out to restart on the front row, Hamlin as the race leader. Both Hamlin and Busch led laps before Elliott took advantage of Hamlin’s last-lap spin.
Austin Dillon finished sixth after a pit-road speeding penalty, Kurt Busch finished seventh, William Byron was eighth, Christopher Bell was ninth, and Darrell Wallace Jr. finished 10th after two pit-road speeding penalties.
