Call Brad Keselowski’s victory in the first round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ unexpected. But don’t call it surprising. How the No. 4 seed scored his first Chase victory – and grabbed his initial NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings lead – was the bigger story.
He faced down five-time champion Jimmie Johnson when it counted, passing the Coors Light Pole winner and leader of the most laps of the GEICO 400 in a final, green-flag, pit-stop exchange.
Keselowski’s lead is three points over Johnson while 15 is the difference between first and sixth place as the Chase moves to Sunday’s SYLVANIA 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
New Hampshire figures to be another slugfest: Chase qualifiers, led by resurgent Kasey Kahne, took the first nine and 12 of the 13 spots in July’s Loudon race. Kahne, the No. 1 Wild Card qualifier for this year’s chase, advanced six spots from his seeding of 11th with a third-place finish in Chicago.
Four of the last five New Hampshire races have been won by drivers in this year’s Chase: Kahne, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Johnson.
This week’s non-Chase "spoiler" alert: Ryan Newman, last year’s July Loudon winner, who swept both Coors Light Poles and seeks his 50th pole. Newman finished 10th earlier this summer.
The points leader changed in all three national series on the same weekend for the first time in 2012. Keselowski replaced Denny Hamlin in NASCAR Sprint Cup; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. passed Elliott Sadler in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Ty Dillon ousted Timothy Peters in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
While the Chase continues in New Hampshire, Nationwide and truck teams share a doubleheader weekend at Kentucky Speedway. Each series saw action at the 1.5-mile track in mid-summer with Austin Dillon scoring his first Nationwide victory and James Buescher annexing one of three truck wins to date.
Stenhouse carries a nine-point lead over Sadler into the Saturday afternoon’s Kentucky 300, but that’s not the only hot battle in the Bluegrass State.
The Nationwide Series owners championship remains very much in play with Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota holding a four-point advantage over Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 6 Ford.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ second trip of the season to Iowa Speedway saw Ryan Blaney become the division’s youngest race winner (18 years eight months) and hand Brad Keselowski Racing its first victory. Dillon finished second to surge past Peters, who was involved in an early accident and finished 19th. Dillon’s lead is eight points over Peters, 11 over Buescher.
Both Blaney and Dillon, age 20 and hopeful of becoming the NCWTS’ youngest and first rookie champion, will go head-to-head again in Friday night’s Kentucky 201.
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