Keselowski, fellow Cup regulars dominate Nationwide Series race at Charlotte

Brad Keselowski won the History 300 Nationwide Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday.

Full-time Sprint Cup drivers took the top four positions in Saturday afternoon's History 300 Nationwide Series race at sparsely populated Charlotte Motor Speedway. Brad Keselowski won by taking a fuel gamble that paid off. 

Cup colleagues Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick were second, third and fourth, hoping that Keselowski would stumble. Nationwide regular Elliott Sadler nipped Cup driver Kasey Kahne for fifth place in the final laps.

Keselowski, in a Penske Dodge, took the lead from Kahne in turn one at lap 134. Moments later, under caution, he made a half-hearted move for the pits but abruptly went back on the track, where he led the final 67 laps. Even slowing late to save fuel, he won by slightly less than a second over Hamlin, in a Toyota from Joe Gibbs Racing. 

Busch (for his own Toyota-based team) and Harvick (in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet) were more than three seconds behind, with Sadler (in a Childress Chevy) six-plus seconds down. Pole winner Joey Logano, James Buescher, Justin Allgaier, Sam Hornish Jr. and Joey Coulter completed the top 10 in the 200-lap race.

Afterward, Busch questioned how Keselowski could go that far on one tank of fuel. “There's no way our stuff would have done that,” Busch said. “That's definitely different, but I guess anything is possible sometimes. Maybe they saved really hard under cautions and everything. I don't think we could have pushed it like that.”

Keselowski said he didn't find anything unusual about his mileage. 

“When you look at different manufacturers, Dodge has always had a slight fuel advantage,” he said. 

“Penske engine people have always done a great job with mileage and they deserve a lot of credit. 

They've always worked hard on mileage. When [crew chief] Jeremy Bullins said we had enough fuel, I knew we had enough fuel. I didn't question him. It was a big gamble, but it paid off.”

Bullins said the call wasn't that difficult, especially with so many caution laps once they took the lead. 

“We'd been getting good mileage all day,” he said. “At one point, we had at least a lap on everybody else. It was a gamble, but that big a one. If there had been a late caution and everybody had come for tires or fuel, we would have, too. But if the last 67 were under green [as they were], we weren't going to come in.” 

Harvick led four times for 92 laps, Keselowski once for 67, Logano three times for 26 and Kahne twice for 11. Nationwide regulars Mike Wallace, Jason Bowles and Allgaier combined to lead four laps during cautions or while pit stops cycled through at the 1.5-mile track. 

The race was slowed seven times for 38 caution laps. Cole Whitt and Brian Scott crashed out together for one caution, and Bowles and Josh Richards crashed out together for another. Erik Darnell was the only other accident-related DNF, but there were 11 mechanical-related DNFs. There were no injuries in any of the incidents.

It was a difficult day all around for 43rd-starting Travis Pastrana. After spinning in turn two in qualifying, he spun twice without contact in turn four within the first 60 laps. He repeatedly apologized to his crew, telling them over the radio, “I'm so frustrated. I just don't know what's going on. I don't understand what's going on.” Even so, he persevered to finish in 24th-place, five laps behind.

Sadler's strong run and problems for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brought him from 28 points behind to within 13. Stenhouse Jr. lost 18 laps in the garage with driveshaft repairs en route a 26th-place finish, only his second finish outside the top-10 in 11 races this year.