Brad Keselowski Gets First Darlington Victory

Brad Keselowski wins at Darlington
Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

Right place, right time. Sometimes that's all it takes to win at Darlington Raceway.

For Brad Keselowski – right place, right time was his ticket to his first-ever win at the famous "Lady in Black", taking advantage of the race leaders taking each other out to win Saturday's Sports Clips Haircuts VFW 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Darlington.

After an earlier bobble that cost him the lead, Keselowski grabbed the lead for good after race leader Ross Chastain and second-place Kevin Harvick tangled on the backstretch while battling for the top spot with 32 laps to go. Keselowski restarted in the lead and never looked back, beating out Cole Custer by 0.738 Seconds.

Finishing out the top five were Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin and Elliott Sadler

The victory was the first for Keselowski at Darlington in any of NASCAR's major touring series, topping his previous best finish of second in the Cup Series race back in September of 2015.

"I could keep up with Ross (Chastain), but I couldn't pass him," said Keselowski. "I tried to make the move to get by him and I just brushed the wall and him and Kevin (Harvick) got back by me and then they had their issue off of two and were just so strong that we pounced on it and took advantage of the opportunity. That's a testament to this team. I drove five races this year and we've won three of them. That's pretty darn good and I'm really proud of that."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"] "It means a lot to me. This has been a track where I started my career very well with the Cup car here and had some great runs, and then the last half-dozen races I think I've ran here have gone quite awful. I'm trying to figure out why that is and running this race certainly helps. It's nice to be able to check this track off, like you said, and I think I have one track left back through the circuit with Sonoma and I'm hungry to win there."

Although Keselowski had been in the top five all afternoon, Chastain had been the class of the field since the drop of the green flag.

Starting on the pole for the first time in 130 Xfinity Series starts, Chastain led 74 of the opening 96 laps to sweep both of the first of two 45-lap stages with Harvick and Keselowski following closely behind in the top five.

At the start of the final 57-lap stage, Chastain had a mirror-full of Keselowski as the Cup Series regular began reeling Chastain's No. 42 Chevrolet as they tried to tread their way through lapped traffic.

After chasing him down for 15 laps, Keselowski managed to pull ahead of Chastain but brushed the wall in turn three, allowing Chastain to retake the top spot and Harvick to slip into second place.

On lap 111, Chastain got hung up behind the lapped car of Chad Finchum and tried to make a pass to the inside, but Harvick was already there hugging the yellow line, using the lapped car as a pick to force Chastain off the gas.

Chastain refused to give an inch, and neither did Harvick, as the two cleared Finchum and flew into turn two side by side. Harvick's car pushed up and into Chastain, pinching him against the outside wall. Chastain bounced off the wall and then drove into Harvick's right-rear, sending Harvick's No. 98 Ford around and into the wall.

Harvick was done for the day, and Chastain suffered enough damage to put to an end any chance he had of winning. Meanwhile, Keselowski had quietly slipped past on the inside and into the lead.

After the incident, both drivers had their own take on who was at fault.

"That's just a really inexperienced racer and a really bad move there and got the air and got on beside me and just kept going up the race track. I couldn't do anything with the wheel," said Harvick. "So, you've got a really inexperienced guy in a really fast car and made a really bad move, and then wrecked me down the back straightaway and hooked me to the right. That's probably the reason that he'll never get to drive many of them again."

Chastain, who managed to limp home in 25th spot, felt he had raced Harvick clean.

"I'm just trying to race. If I made a mistake, it's on me," said Chastain. "Being the (race) leader I thought like we're just trying to race. We'd given each other room all day."

Saturday's race had serious implications on the Xfinity Series playoffs with just two races remaining in the Xfinity "regular season", as rookie Austin Cindric dropped from 10th to 11th following his second straight DNF and puts him within striking distance of Michael Annett who sits 54 points behind the 12th and final spot in the playoff field.

RACE RESULTS

Finish Start # Driver Sponsor/Make Laps Led Points Status
1 9 22 Brad Keselowski Snap On Ford 147 35 0 Running
2 6 0 Cole Custer Haas Automation Ford 147 0 39 Running
3 3 9 Tyler Reddick Old Milwaukee Beer Chevrolet 147 0 47 Running
4 5 18 Denny Hamlin Sport Clips Toyota 147 0 0 Running
5 8 1 Elliott Sadler Armour Chili Chevrolet 147 0 39 Running
6 38 23 Chase Elliott GMS Fabrication Chevrolet 147 0 0 Running
7 10 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet Accessories Chevrolet 147 0 43 Running
8 16 2 Matt Tifft Surface Sunscreen/Tunity Chevrolet 147 0 29 Running
9 12 3 Ty Dillon Daniel Defense Chevrolet 147 0 0 Running
10 15 5 Michael Annett Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 147 0 27 Running
11 4 21 Daniel Hemric South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet 147 0 32 Running
12 39 19 Brandon Jones Hope for the Warriors Toyota 147 0 25 Running
13 14 16 Ryan Reed Drive Down A1C Lilly Diabetes Ford 147 0 24 Running
14 21 1 Landon Cassill Flex Seal Chevrolet 147 0 23 Running
15 13 11 Ryan Truex LeafFilter Chevrolet 147 0 22 Running
16 17 51 Jeremy Clements RepairableVehicles.com Chevrolet 147 0 21 Running
17 23 39 Ryan Sieg ionomy/Offroad Heat Chevrolet 147 0 20 Running
18 24 90 Brandon Brown Coastal Carolina University Chevrolet 147 0 19 Running
19 18 36 Alex Labbe VRVictoriaville.com Chevrolet 146 0 18 Running
20 20 4 Garrett Smithley SC Education Lottery Chevrolet 146 0 17 Running
21 19 35 Joey Gase Agri Supply/Sparks Chevrolet 146 0 16 Running
22 25 8 Tommy Joe Martins Chevrolet 146 1 15 Running
23 29 15 BJ McLeod Flex Tape Chevrolet 146 0 14 Running
24 32 78 Cody Ware Chevrolet 145 0 0 Running
25 1 42 Ross Chastain DC Solar Chevrolet 145 90 32 Running
26 30 55 Bayley Currey Prevagen Toyota 135 0 0 Running
27 35 74 Mike Harmon Shadow Warriors Project Chevrolet 131 0 10 Running
28 40 45 Josh Bilicki Prevagen Toyota 128 0 9 Running
29 7 98 Kevin Harvick Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford 111 18 0 Accident
30 22 38 JJ Yeley RSS Racing Chevrolet 99 3 7 Electrical
31 31 76 Spencer Boyd Grunt Style Chevrolet 95 0 6 Running
32 37 40 Chad Finchum MBM Motorsports/TLC Resorts Chevrolet 90 0 5 Running
33 34 66 Carl Long CrashClaimsR.Us Dodge 67 0 4 Brakes
34 2 20 Christopher Bell
Rheem Toyota 65 0 12 Accident
35 27 72 Timmy Hill CrashClaimsR.Us Toyota 54 0 2 Vibration
36 28 52 David Starr Chevrolet 40 0 1 Engine
37 26 0 Vinnie Miller
Flex Glue Chevrolet 32 0 1 Suspension
38 33 89 Morgan Shepherd Visone RV Chevrolet 24 0 1 Handling
39 36 93 Jeff Green RSS Racing Chevrolet 13 0 1 Transmission
40 11 60 Austin Cindric
Ford Hall of Fans Ford 2 0 1 Accident


[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]