Brad Keselowski breaks through to win at Pocono

Brad Keselowski breaks through to win at Pocono

 

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(August 7, 2011)

 

LONG POND, Pa.—Brad Keselowski’s challenge to the rest of the Sprint Cup field: “I can beat you with a broken leg.”

 

And he did.

 

Staying out on the track on old tires under a caution with 21 laps left in Sunday’s rain-interrupted Good Sam RV 500 at Pocono Raceway, Keselowski pulled away from Kyle Busch after a restart on Lap 185 to secure his second victory of the season—despite driving with a broken left ankle.

 

Keselowski, who was injured in a hard crash during testing Wednesday at Road Atlanta, kept Busch at bay over the final 10 laps. With the second win this year—and the third of his career—Keselowski’s fortunes took a dramatic turn with respect to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

 

Having cracked the top 20, Keselowski is in position to claim the first wild card spot, being the only driver in positions 11-20 with more than one victory.

 

Busch came home second, followed by Kurt Bush, Jimmie Johnson,  and Ryan Newman.

 

Just past the halfway point, rain began to fall, and on Lap 124, NASCAR parked the cars on pit road with polesitter Joey Logano in the lead.

 

But the race resumed after a stoppage of 1 hour, 40 minutes, 46 seconds , dashing Logano’s hopes of claiming a second career victory the same way he got his first one (New Hampshire in June 2009)—with an assist from the elements.

 

Before the lengthy red-flag period, Joe Gibbs Racing cars had dominated the race. Logano had set the pace for 39 laps. Denny Hamlin, a wizard at Pocono from the day he set eyes on the track as a rookie in 2006, had led a race-high 65 laps to that point, and Kyle Busch chipped in with six laps led for a team total of 110 of the first 124.

 

Immediately before the rain delay, Logano had withstood the persistent efforts of Johnson to pass him for the lead. But for the vagaries of nature, that could have been a battle for the win, and both drivers raced as if it were.

 

“We knew the rain was coming, and I was trying to hold off the 48 (Johnson),” Logano said. “I saw him coming—and coming pretty hard. My spotter said it was raining pretty hard in (Turn) 3, so I tried to hold him off through the Tunnel (Turn) there.

 

“It was pretty exciting there coming to the end, when my crew chief, Zippy (Greg Zipadelli), told me about five laps (before) the caution came out that the 48 was catching me, and the rain was coming. I just kept on digging, and finally it just started downpouring in (Turn 3).”

 

Neither Logano nor Hamlin was a factor at the end, though. Logano had to make an unscheduled pit stop on Lap 189 and finished 26th. Hamlin’s No. 11 crew had trouble with lug nuts on his right rear tire on his last pit stop, and Hamlin was buried in the pack on the restart and finished 15th.