BRISTOL, Tenn. — Brad Keselowski has done it again. After winning the Coca-Cola 600 over Chase Elliott, Keselowski managed to get the win once again at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 31.
Keselowski started on pole with car #2 for this race due to the random draw format. He led the first portion of the race before Elliott and car #9 took over the lead and won Stage One.
Ryan Blaney, who drove the #12 car, showed promise as well. A teammate of Keselowski and Joey Logano (car #22), Blaney finished third in his last two races and led some laps at Bristol until he spun around at lap 200, which ended Blaney’s day as well as Ty Dillon’s (#13). Blaney finished in the last position.
That is when the action started to pick up at The Last Coliseum.
Just 30 laps after Blaney’s race-ending crash, car #48 driver Jimmie Johnson clipped Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s #48 car, sending last week’s fourth-place finisher into the inside wall and back up the racetrack into oncoming traffic. With nowhere for numerous cars to go, the red flag was brought out to stop the racing and clean up the mess of cars. The wreck collected drivers like Alex Bowman (car #88), Cole Custer (car #41) and Tyler Reddick (car #8).
With 100 laps remaining, it was a battle between the Toyota and Chevrolet teams. The leading Toyota drivers at the time were Denny Hamlin in car # 11 and Kyle Busch in car #18, facing off with the charging efforts of Chevrolet drivers Johnson and Elliott.
After using some lap cars as a pick to get past Hamlin, Johnson went on to stalk Busch, trying to chase him down for the win. It would have been Johnson’s first win since June 2017.
But the 15th caution of the day came out with 67 laps to go, bringing almost all the cars into pit. Johnson had a great pit stop and beat out Busch, but Hamlin emerged first overall.
Hamlin led the field to green with 37 laps to go after Gray Gaulding hit the wall in car #27, but it was fewer than three laps later when Martin Truex Jr. (car #19), Aric Almirola (car #10) and Michael McDowell (car #34) brought out the 16th caution of the day.
The closer the cars got to the green flag, the more urgency they felt to have a good jump on the restart. Track position is key, especially at a place like Bristol. Hamlin was the beneficiary of this as he pulled off, looking for his third win in ten races.
Hamlin led for about 20 laps until he slowed down when the drivers came up on lap traffic, allowing Logano to pass him for the lead. Elliott took full advantage of this opportunity and went from third to first in one turn. Hamlin then brought the caution out, as he had gone to the pits after spinning around.
Elliott led the field to green and was in winning position for the fourth time in as many races, but would see his dreams slide away in the next few laps. With three laps remaining, Elliott drove into the corner hot to retain the lead. However, as he tried to get in position to win back-to-back races, he ended up moving up the race track to collide with the second-positioned Logano, giving the lead to Keselowski.
No caution came out despite the two cars slamming the wall. Keselowski, who started on the pole position, finished where he started because he was in the right place at the right time. Clint Bowyer (car #14), Johnson, Busch and Erik Jones (car #20) rounded out the top five.
“I think everybody on our Discount Ford Mustang team should go to Vegas when it opens up again,” Keselowski said after the race. “What luck we have been having, things have really been going our way. With qualifying on the pole, and then those last few laps there. [Logano] and [Elliott] were racing really hard up there and I knew if I stayed in my position, I would have a chance to take the win.”
The Cup cars will be back in action on Sunday, June 7, at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. Can Ryan Blaney rebound? Will Keselowski stay lucky? And will Logano have any retaliation for Elliott knocking him out of a win? The race will begin at 3 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Jared C. Tilton
