Brad Keselowski claimed victory on Sunday night as the Penske Racing driver bettered Dale Earnhardt Jr’s tight fuel strategy and passed the #88 car with half-a-lap remaining to win the Kobalt Tools 400 in Las Vegas.
Keselowski raced down the #88 after it initially looked like the Hendrick car’s gamble might have paid off as the race entered its latter stages. Earnhardt Jr looked set to take his second win of the season but came up short less than one mile from the finish.
A caution for debris with 47 laps remaining reset most of the field’s fuel gambles – with many cars being able to easily race 50-lap stretches – but Earnhardt Jr stayed out on track having pitted just nine laps previous to keep track position.
A clear track out front for the Daytona 500 Champion meant he could edge out a lead but with around 18 laps to go Keselowski began his surge and raced into second place. Junior knew he was around 3/4 of a lap short but kept his foot down to hold off the chasing Ford.
With nine laps to go the #88 showed their hand and set about racing hard. This race was only going to go one of two ways from this point – either Earnhardt’s speed would give him the easy win, or he’d run out of gas and gift the race to the #22.
Things were looking good for Junior Nation as the 39-year-old took the white flag 0.5 seconds ahead of Keselowski, but a splutter on the back stretch followed by a wiggling front end meant only one thing – Junior was out!
Keselowski steamed past the slowing Chevrolet to take the win and begin his case for Chase contention in 2014, something he was clearly very excited about as he told Fox Sports’ Krista Voda in his Victory Lane interview:
“This is a big deal, we’re very happy (to be) locked in the Chase early. I don’t have to hear that crap all year about not being in the Chase.”
Keselowski struggled in 2013 and could only manage 14th in points. Granted he finished ‘best-of-the-rest’ following a 13-car Chase, but expectations had been higher for the driver who took home the 2012 Championship.
He praised crew chief Paul Wolfe in his interview, putting much of their win down to his strategy:
“(It was a) heck of a call throughout the race to get us out front and get us some track position and clean air.
“At the end this car was just really fast and I’m really proud of it. This is a big deal for Ford, they done a heck of a job. Carl Edwards helped me out there, he gave me a little break so I could go run down the #88 and that’s what we needed for a Ford to win. We needed to put pressure on Dale and not let him get in fuel save mode.”
Earnhardt’s initial pace gave him enough of a lead to see him take second place as his slowing Chevrolet coasted to the finish, just ahead of an impressive drive by Richard Childress Racing’s Paul Menard. Joey Logano and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five, just ahead of Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon. Matt Kenseth raced hard from a struggled start to finish in the top-10.
With three top-2s in the first three races Earnhardt Jr leads the way from a close-challenging Keselowski, who in turn has two thirds to go with his victory as the series packs up and heads to Tennessee next weekend. Keselowski will be looking to keep pressure on the #88 at a track where he already has two victories, but the way Junior is running this year it seems that nothing is going to beat him very easily.
Las Vegas Results: https://nascareporting.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/kobalt-tools-400-las-vegas-motor-speedway-9-mar-2014/