Brad Keselowski is back in victory lane.
Keselowski won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington after Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick made contact while racing for the lead with 11 laps remaining.
Reddick got inside Buescher and pushed him against the wall. That allowed Keselowski to pass them both from third place after Reddick and Buescher slowed due to tire issues.
The win is the first for Keselowski since he was with Team Penske in 2021. He left Penske after that season to join Roush Fenway Racing as a minority owner.
The first season at the renowned Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing was tough. Keselowski finished 24th in the points standings and only had one top-five finish. The team took a leap forward in 2023 when Keselowski had seven top-five finishes and finished eighth in the points standings. But he entered Sunday’s race on a 110-race winless streak dating back to the spring race at Talladega three seasons ago.
Now, he is guaranteed to return to the playoffs for the second consecutive season. That 2022 season was the first time since 2016 that the 2012 champion finished outside the top 10 in points.
“When Tyler got under Chris I knew I had another chance, but they made contact and I couldn’t get past and I was like ‘Ahhh,'” Keselowski said on Fox after getting out of his car. “And (Buescher) must have had a flat, I don’t know what happened. We had a break. And we’ve had enough bad breaks over the last year or two, it’s nice to have a good one.”
Ty Gibbs finished second, ahead of Josh Berry in third and Denny Hamlin in fourth. Buescher finished in 30th place and ahead of Reddick in 32nd. After the race, an angry Buescher got out of his car to confront and push a seemingly apologetic Reddick. The two drivers had a frustrated conversation that did not lead to anything else after the initial push.
“We were torn apart,” Buescher said on Fox. “That’s clear as day. “We don’t need cameras to tell us.”
The camera comment is a reference to a week ago at Kansas, where Buescher lost by inches to Kyle Larson in the closest finish in NASCAR history. He seemed to be on his way to a victory after that agonizing finish, but Reddick’s move to win ruined that.
Buescher took the lead thanks to contact between the two drivers who started the race on the front row. Reddick and Keselowski were the two fastest cars all day and resumed the race on the front row after the final caution of the race with less than 40 laps remaining.
Keselowski did his best to pass Reddick on the inside of the egg-shaped track and the two drivers made contact several times. After racing for laps with neither driver pulling away, they collided again and slowed enough to allow Buescher to take the lead on lap 265 of the 293-lap race.
Keselowski dropped to third as Reddick stayed in contact with Buescher and would likely have no chance of winning if the two drivers had not made contact.
“I completely understand where he’s coming from,” Reddick said of Buescher. “He’s running on top, running his own race, running his own line, keeping me at bay. I made a really aggressive move and I was hoping I could clear him and I realized I wasn’t going to do it. I tried to control him and not slide into him and… yeah, I wish I hadn’t done that, unfortunately.”
“I completely understand why he’s so angry. He didn’t do anything wrong. Just trying to win the race and get out, that’s one thing, I can live with that. I was just disappointed that it all worked out the way it did and took him out of the race. race was not the goal either.
Blaney, Larson and Truex have disappointing endings
Three recent Cup winners had frustrating days at Darlington.
We will start with the most recent Cup champion. Ryan Blaney finished last after essentially being knocked out of the race when Martin Truex Jr. and William Byron pinned him against the wall.
Blaney was on the outside as the three were three wide and Truex slid toward him. The contact ruined the day for both Truex and Blaney.
Truex finished in 25th place.
Larson crashed out of the race in the third stage after suffering a puncture. The 2021 Cup champion finished 34th before his foray into IndyCar. Larson will begin practice for his first attempt at the Indianapolis 500 this week and will qualify for the race next weekend before the All-Star Race in North Wilkesboro.
Larson will be the fifth driver to race in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, May 26.
Race results
1. Brad Keselowski
2. Ty Gibbs
3. Josh Berry
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Chase Briscoe
6. William Byron
7. Bubba Wallace
8. Alex Bowman
9. Justin Haley
10. Michael McDowell
11. Ross Chastain
12. Chase Elliott
13. Christopher Bell
14. Noah Gragson
15. Todd Gillian
16. Corey LaJoie
17. Ryan Preece
18. Kaz Grala
19. Erik Jones
20. Austin Cindric
21. Joey Logano
22.Harrison Burton
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24. Daniel Suarez
25. Martin Truex Jr.
26. Carson Hocevar
27. Kyle Busch
28. Austin Dillon
39. Derek Kraus
30. Chris Buescher
31. John Hunter Nemechek
32. Tyler Reddick
33. Daniel Henric
34. Kyle Larson
35. Zane Smith
36. Ryan Blaney
