With 20 laps to go, it didn’t look as though Brad Keselowski was going to win, even after leading 131 laps of the 200-lap race.
Restarting with 46 laps to go, Keselowski lost the lead to Kevin Harvick, who drove off to over a three-second lead, looking like the race was his to lose.
Catching lapped traffic which included the Amber Cope car in turn two, Harvick slowed, allowing Keselowski to close up to him and eventually take the lead for the rest of the race.
“Every time you come to her, she doesn’t know whether she’s going high or low,” said a frustrated Harvick after the race. “I committed to the bottom, and she came down.
“It’s not one of those deals. It’s someone who shouldn’t be on the race track. She wants to be Danica Patrick, but she can’t hold her helmet.”
While Harvick was thinking about a race that got away, Keselowski was celebrating in victory lane.
“Great day for this team,” said Keselowski after winning his first win at New Hampshire and his second win of the season.
“We went to Richmond with this car, and struggled really bad. My guys took it to heart and went testing without me. I’m proud of them for putting that effort in.”
Although Keselowski was ultimately happy about taking the win, the racer inside the Penske Racing driver would have liked to have won without interference from lapped traffic.
“Kevin(Harvick) raced me hard, and it was great racing there. There’s very few other guys I’d like to race than Kevin.
“I caught a little bit of a break in traffic. That’s the way it goes.
“You’re always going to have some drivers that don’t know where they’re at. That’s part of this series. Different drivers are learning at different rates and try to pick up their awareness for that on the race track, sometimes that goes against it.”
As the season progresses, the Nationwide Series championship winds tighter and tighter.
Heading into next Sunday’s race at Chicagoland, Elliott Sadler holds a three point advantage over his Richard Childress Racing teammate, Austin Dillon.
Behind the two RCR cars, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trails by 16 points, while Sam Hornish Jr. finds himself 32 points back of the championship lead.
F.W. Webb 200 Unofficial Results
1: Brad Keselowski
2: Kevin Harvick
3: Austin Dillon
4: Sam Hornish Jr.
5: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
6: Kasey Kahne
7: Elliott Sadler
8: Justin Allgaier
9: Jamie McMurray
10: Ryan Truex
11: Michael Annett
12: Brian Scott
13: Mike Bliss
14: Danica Patrick
15: Mike Wallace
16: Jason Bowles
17: Jeremy Clements
18: Cole Whitt
19: Joe Nemechek
20: Tayler Malsam
21: Timmy Hill
22: Eric McClure
23: Tony Raines
24: Josh Richards
25: Matt Frahm
26: Amber Cope
27: Joey Gase
28: Kyle Busch
29: Danny Efland
30: Jamie Dick
31: Travis Pastrana
32: Morgan Shepard
33: Kevin Lepage
34: Scott Riggs
35: TJ Bell
36: Mike Harmon
37: Matthew Carter
38: Chase Miller
39 Charles Lewandoski
40: Erik Darnell
41: Josh Wise
42: Stephen Leicht
43: Jeff Green
