NASCAR News: Keselowski holds off Gibbs to win Goodyear 400

After Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher banged together and gave each other flat tires, Brad Keselowski came through to win the Goodyear 400 Cup race at Darlington in his #6 Ford, holding off Ty Gibbs’ Toyota.

Not that Keselowski got lucky, he was right on the rear bumper of the two leaders when they touched.  It was Keselowski’s 2nd career Cup win at Darlington and it ended a 110-race winless streak.

Gibbs came up short by just 1.214 seconds.

Josh Berry was third in the #4 SHR Ford while Denny Hamlin came home 4th in his #11 Toyota.

William Byron rounded out the top-5 in his #24 Hendrick Chevy.

It was heartbreak two weeks in a row for Buescher who lost the closest Cup race in history to Lyle Larson last week in Kansas.

It was also Keselowski’s first win as a principal owner in RFK Racing, his second at Darlington and the 36th of his career.

“What a heck of a day,” exulted Keselowski, who finished 1.214 seconds ahead of runner-up Ty Gibbs. “It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win, your last win, this is a really special track. The history of NASCAR, it’s as tough as it gets, and that battle at the end with my teammate and Tyler Reddick, we just laid it all out on the line, it was freaking awesome.

“I thought it couldn’t get much better than Kansas. It did today. That was awesome. I’m so glad you guys got to see that (addressed to the fans). That was incredible. Thanks for being here.”

Keselowski was stubborn in the way he raced Reddick after the final restart on Lap 261 of 293, aggressively staying beside the No. 45 Toyota and running him up the track in Turn 3.

For four straight laps, Keselowski and Reddick battled side-by-side, allowing Buescher to slip past into the lead at the start/finish line on Lap 264. Reddick cleared Keselowski shortly thereafter and took off in pursuit of Buescher.

That’s when Keselowski exercised patience and stayed within striking distance, waiting for the drama that unfolded ahead of him.

On Lap 284, Reddick’s ill-timed bid for the lead went awry. His No. 45 Camry slid up the track into Buescher’s Ford, pinning it against the outside wall in Turn 4. Both cars were damaged and unable to maintain pace, and Keselowski charged into the lead on Lap 285.

Buescher, still smarting from last week’s loss to Kyle Larson at Kansas in the closest finish in Cup Series history (0.001 seconds), confronted Reddick on pit road after the drivers climbed from their cars.

“We got wrecked,” Buescher said later. “That one’s clear as day. Don’t need any cameras to tell us. I don’t know what to say. We’ve raced really clean through the years, tried to be really respectful about it, and we get used up.

“It (Reddick’s move) is just something that you know is not going to work. I’m just really pissed off about it right now. We certainly had a chance to win another one. I’m proud to have that speed. Just huge congratulations to Brad and the 6 bunch on their win. That’s awesome, but I wanted it for our group right here.”

Reddick took responsibility for the incident and punctuated his conversation with Buescher with the words “I know. I (screwed) up-I’m sorry.”

Reddick elaborated after he and Buescher separated.

“I completely understand where he is coming from,” Reddick said. “He was running the top, running his own race, running his own line to keep me at bay. I made a really aggressive move and was hoping I was going to clear him. When I realized I wasn’t going to, I tried to check up to not slide up into him, but, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that.

“I completely understand why he is that mad. He did nothing wrong. Just trying to win the race, and to take myself out-that’s one thing-I can live with that, but just disappointed it played out the way that it did, and I took him out of the race as well.”

All but lost in the late-race drama was Gibbs’ career-best second-place finish. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota also finished second in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2 behind respective stage winners Kyle Larson and Reddick.

Josh Berry finished third in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, followed by Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley and Michael McDowell completed the top 10.

Hamlin led one lap during a cycle of green-flag pit stops in the final stage, extending his streak of consecutive races with at least one lap led to 17.

Larson (34th on Sunday after a late-race crash) leads the series standings by 30 points over Martin Truex Jr., who finished 25th after suffering alternator issues.

Ryan Blaney was the race’s first retiree after a restart crash at Lap 129. William Byron dove three-wide beneath Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. in Turn 2 and drifted high, squeezing Truex into Blaney, who then contacted the outside wall. Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske crew was unable to repair the car within the allotted time on the Damaged Vehicle Policy clock, ending Blaney’s race. Blaney swerved at Byron on the race track to show his displeasure before returning to the garage.

NOTE: There were no issues in post-race inspection, confirming Keselowski as the race winner.

Race Results

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MANUF	BEHIND	LAPS
1	6	Brad Keselowski		—	293
2	54	Ty Gibbs		1.214	293
3	4	Josh Berry #		1.477	293
4	11	Denny Hamlin		3.059	293
5	14	Chase Briscoe		4.245	293
6	24	William Byron		6.137	293
7	23	Bubba Wallace		8.554	293
8	48	Alex Bowman		9.479	293
9	51	Justin Haley		10.682	293
10	34	Michael McDowell		11.702	293
11	1	Ross Chastain		15.004	293
12	9	Chase Elliott		15.322	293
13	20	Christopher Bell		15.859	293
14	10	Noah Gragson		16.242	293
15	38	Todd Gilliland		16.728	293
16	7	Corey LaJoie		17.248	293
17	41	Ryan Preece		17.668	293
18	15	Kaz Grala #		17.946	293
19	43	Erik Jones		20.084	293
20	2	Austin Cindric		20.419	293
21	22	Joey Logano		20.906	293
22	21	Harrison Burton		21.190	293
23	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		21.351	293
24	99	Daniel Suarez		22.463	293
25	19	Martin Truex Jr.		22.675	293
26	77	Carson Hocevar #		24.434	293
27	8	Kyle Busch		24.552	293
28	3	Austin Dillon		28.445	293
29	16	Derek Kraus		-1	292
30	17	Chris Buescher		-2	291
31	42	John Hunter Nemechek		-2	291
32	45	Tyler Reddick		-2	291
33	31	Daniel Hemric		-3	290
34	5	Kyle Larson		-41	252
35	71	Zane Smith #		-132	161
36	12	Ryan Blaney		-164	129

# DENOTES ROOKIE
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