Keselowski Wins Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway

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DARLINGTON, SC - RIS - Brad Keselowski guided his Rusty Wallace throwback scheme Ford into victory lane after only leading 24 laps near the end.  Keselowski got the lead after final pit stops and beat teammate Joey Logano to the line to get the lead.  On the restart, he took the lead and never looked back.

“This has got to be the biggest (win of my career), Darlington, it’s a major…This thing was flying, it was a Rusty Wallace hot rod here today,” Keselowski said.

“Am I dreaming? I’ve got to give a lot of credit to my pit crew. We were running second, that last stop they nailed it…In 2015, we lost it on the last pit stop, today my team won it on the last pit stop.”

The win was keseloski's 25th career win and first since Talladega in October 2017, nearly a season's length (29 starts between).

Logano, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five. Larson dominated the race, leading 284 laps and winning the first two stages. He came out second to Keselowski on the final stop.

“This car was extremely fast and we proved it,” Larson said. “We just came up a little bit short. It’s nice to show some dominant speed like that.”

Larson was forced to settle for a not bad but could have been better third place night.  He appeared to have the car to beat and the two Team Penske Fords did just that.  Harvick has finished top-10 in the last six races at Darlington on a night where he showed some stout long runs, he was in the mix for the win late in the race.

Elliott scored his sixth straight race of 2018 finishing in the top 10, but only had speed on short runs.

"I feel like we have to get better for the playoffs,' Elliott said.  "I think we can."

Kurt Busch had his seventh straight top-10 finish of 2018, tied for his second longest streak of his career.Busch had trouble with the No. 41 Ford overheating.

"We finally cut a hole in the car to help, but discovered it was the inner radiator that was the problem," Busch said.  "I'm just glad Doug Yates makes a great morror.  We had all kinds of red lights flashing in the car.  Great Roush Yates engines."

Jimmie Johnson’s horrific season continued at Darlington. He was forced to start at the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment after qualifying and things got worse from there. He pitted for a vibration, made a commitment line mistake that ended in a penalty and finally was eliminated by an oil pump issue.

Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman got involved in an accident late in the race that eliminated both drivers on lap 312 (of 367). To add to the list of maladies, rookie William Byron, who had a fast car, was taken from competition by an engine issue.

It was the fifth 1-2 finish for Team Penske. Keselowski has won at least one race a season for the last eight years. It was the third Darlington win for Team Penske, but the last two were in 1975 with Bobby Allison.That was when Team Penske teams were runing American Motors Matadors.

Unofficial Race Results for the 69Th Annual Bojangles' Southern 500 - Sunday, September 2, 2018 - Darlington Raceway - 1.366 Mile Paved

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status

1) 13, Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Genuine Draft Ford, 367, 5, 2, 2, 24, 5, 55, Running
2) 8, Joey Logano, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford, 367, 4, 3, 1, 18, , 50, Running
3) 2, Kyle Larson, No. 42 DC Solar Chevrolet, 367, 1, 1, 3, 284, 2, 54, Running
4) 22, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Busch Beer Throwback Ford, 367, 6, 10, , , , 39, Running
5) 11, Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Throwback Chevrolet, 367, 10, 4, , , , 40, Running
6) 9, Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation Ford, 367, 8, 6, , , , 39, Running
7) 5, Kyle Busch, No. 18 Skittles 1998 Retro Toyota, 367, 9, 8, , , , 35, Running
8) 7, Erik Jones, No. 20 Sport Clips Throwback Toyota, 367, 2, 5, , , , 44, Running
9) 31, Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald's 50 Years of Big Mac Chevrolet, 367, , 9, , , , 30, Running
10) 1, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Throwback Toyota, 367, 7, , 1, 11, , 31, Running
11) 3, Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, 367, 3, , 1, 30, , 34, Running
12) 25, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 John Deere Ford, 367, , , , , , 25, Running
13) 19, Chris Buescher, No. 37 Bush's Best Since 1908 Chevrolet, 367, , , , , , 24, Running
14) 12, Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Helping Hungry Homes Ford, 367, , , , , , 23, Running
15) 21, Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford, 367, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 18, Austin Dillon, No. 3 American Ethanol e15 Chevrolet, 367, , , , , , 21, Running
17) 14, Paul Menard, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford, 366, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 23, David Ragan, No. 38 Citgard 700 Ford, 366, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 6, Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, 366, , 7, , , , 22, Running
20) 26, Michael McDowell, No. 34 Love's Travel Stops Ford, 365, , , , , , 17, Running
21) 28, Ty Dillon, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 365, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 24, AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Kroger ClickList Chevrolet, 365, , , , , , 15, Running
23) 4, Alex Bowman, No. 88 LLumar Chevrolet, 365, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 29, Kasey Kahne, No. 95 Dumont JETS Chevrolet, 364, , , , , , 13, Running
25) 15, Matt Kenseth, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Ford, 364, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 27, Bubba Wallace #, No. 43 STP Chevrolet, 363, , , , , , 11, Running
27) 34, Corey LaJoie, No. 72 BCT The Blockchain Terminal Chevrolet, 360, , , , , , 10, Running
28) 33, Ross Chastain(i), No. 15  Chevrolet, 360, , , , , , 0, Running
29) 16, Daniel Suarez, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota, 358, , , , , , 8, Running
30) 35, Landon Cassill(i), No. 00 StarCom Fiber Chevrolet, 357, , , , , , 0, Running
31) 32, * JJ Yeley(i), No. 52 Trading View Chevrolet, 350, , , , , , 0, Running
32) 37, BJ McLeod(i), No. 51 Jacob Companies Chevrolet, 347, , , , , , 0, Running
33) 38, * Derrike Cope, No. 99 Bojangles' Chevrolet, 346, , , , , , 4, Running
34) 40, * Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 96 Xtreme Concepts Toyota, 344, , , , , , 3, Running
35) 10, William Byron #, No. 24 AXALTA Throwback Chevrolet, 329, , , , , , 2, Engine
36) 17, Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Carolina Ford Dealers Ford, 309, , , , , , 1, Accident
37) 36, * Timmy Hill(i), No. 66 Rewards.com Toyota, 268, , , , , , 0, Engine
38) 30, Matt DiBenedetto, No. 32 Keen Parts/CorvetteParts.Net Ford, 254, , , , , , 1, Rear End
39) 20, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Throwback Chevrolet, 227, , , , , , 1, Oil Pump
40) 39, Joey Gase(i), No. 23 Agri-Supply/Sparks Toyota, 120, , , , , , 0, Accident
 (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie, (*) non-charter team

Total Race Length - 367 Laps - 501.322 Miles 
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 48 Mins, 54 Secs.
Average Speed: 131.408 MPH
Margin of Victory: 1.224 Seconds
Race Comments: Brad Keselowski won the 69th Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, his 25th victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Prior to the start of the race, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reasons indicated: Nos. 1 and 23 (engine changes), Nos. 96 and 48 (unapproved adjustments).

Caution Flags: 6 for 35 laps:
Laps: 102-107 (End of Stage 1 [37]);
129-133 (No. 23, 18 Incident Frontstretch [1]);
202-207 (End of Stage 2 [3]);
313-322 (No. 14, 31, 96 Incident Turns 3 and 4 [4]);
330-333 (Debris Turn 2 [41]);
345-348 (No. 96 Spin Turn 2 [78]).

Lead Changes: 7 among 5 drivers: 
D. Hamlin 1-11;
K. Larson 12-129;
M. Truex Jr. 130-159;
K. Larson 160-258;
B. Keselowski 259-260;
J. Logano 261-278;
K. Larson 279-345;
B. Keselowski 346-367.

American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award:  Kyle Larson, No. 42 
Busch Pole Award:  Denny Hamlin, No. 11 173.571 mph
Fastest Lap:  Denny Hamlin, No. 11 
Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race:  Hendrick Engines, No. 42 
Moog Go the Extra Mile:  Brad Keselowski, No. 2 crew chief Paul Wolfe, 0.254 seconds
Sunoco Rookie of the Race:  Bubba Wallace, No. 43

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2018, Issue 8, Posted 12:33 AM, 09.03.2018