Photo Credit: Justin McFarland
There was no harm in gambling for Brad Keselowski and Paul Wolfe today as a gutsy pit call took them to victory lane at Las Vegas.
It was an up and down day for the No. 2 team in Sin City. Keselowski led laps early in the race, but a speeding penalty on pit road with 89 laps to go sent him to the back of the lead lap.
The speeding penalty could have been a race ending mistake for Keselowski until two cautions later with 53 laps to go, Regan Smith and Kyle Larson spun to bring out the caution. Knowing that they could make it on fuel from here on out, the entire field pitted except for the Team Penske teammates of Keselowski and Joey Logano and Austin Dillon. The trio gambled on weather playing a factor in the race making it to the scheduled distance, which ultimately didn’t play a role.
Keselowski, Logano and Dillon would be more than 15 laps shorts on fuel, as their last pit stop came with 68 laps to go, but relying on caution laps, they would try to make it to the end without pitting.
On the restart with 44 to go, Kyle Busch propelled to the lead while Logano and Keselowski fell to second and third, but the Penske duo would be saved by a caution just a few laps later. Matt Kenseth got loose in dirty air and slowed down right in front of Chase Elliott. Elliott had no time to react and slammed into the back of Kenseth, effectively ending both of their races, while they were both contending for a top-five run. Kenseth and Elliott would finish 37th and 38th.
Elliott was visibly upset with the end result.
“Just a terrible job on my behalf. That is pitiful,” said Elliott. “We have run three races and finished one. Just a bad job on my end. I ought to know better to miss a wreck like that.”
A number of caution laps helped Logano, Keselowski and Dillon continue in fuel conservation mode before the race returned to green flag action.
Busch was able to jump out to a lead over Logano in second, but as the long run got to its later stages, the hometown kid began developing a vibration on one of his right-side tires. The vibration allowed Logano and Keselowski to chase Busch down, and cutting the lead to just over half a second.
With eight laps to go, Keselowski fought his way around his Penske teammate who was holding him up for a number of laps, and begun to chase Busch down on his own. Within three laps, Keselowski got around the No. 18 to take the lead and win the Kobalt Tools 400 after only leading 24 laps.
Logano and Jimmie Johnson both fought their way around the ailing No. 18 of Kyle Busch on the final lap to finish second and third. Logano’s second-place finish gave Team Penske their first one-two finish of 2016.
It was Keselowski’s first Sprint Cup win since last year’s West Coast swing at Auto Club Speedway, nearly a full year ago. Keselowski immediately had some good words to say about the new rules package after hopping out of his race winning car.
“I love this rule package,” said Keselowski. “The cars can be really fast at the start of a run, and at the end of a run, and we had speed at the end of a run. At the end, we got that big long run and it wouldn’t get going. I thought the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was going to get by me, but it got going and I was able to catch the 18 (Busch) and pass him there.”
The second-place finish for Logano came after leading 75 laps early in the race, and starting on the outside of the front row.
“It just sucks to keep coming so close,” said Logano. “We’ve been so close that we just want to get it so bad. I’m just proud of these guys at Team Penske for all their hard work.”
Jimmie Johnson led the most laps in the race at 76, one more than Logano who finished one spot ahead of him. Johnson seemed to be the class of the field midway through the race. He had fast short run and long run speed, but just couldn’t put it together at the end.
“My team gave me a fantastic car, and through the events at the end we lost some track positions, and the top-four or five cars were close on speed,” said Johnson. “I couldn’t get there.”
Kyle Busch started 23rd at his hometrack, and didn’t have much speed this weekend, but after getting some advice from his teammate Carl Edwards, Busch found a way to get the No. 18 car to come to life. It appeared to be race winning advice, but Busch’s tires couldn’t hold on at the end.
“I had a vibration when we put the rights on, and it just got worse and worse,” said Busch. “I didn’t know if the tire was coming apart and it was giving up, and then I moved the track bar up and it didn’t do anything. We struggled a lot this weekend so that’s not how we should’ve finished from where we started, but it’s a good day. I guess if we keep top-fiving it, we’ll eventually get a win.”
Along with Keselowski and Logano, Austin Dillon also take a gamble on fuel in the closing stages which would pay off for Dillon to finish in fifth, after a speeding penalty had him a lap down early in the race.
“We made a gutsy call to get back on the lead lap,” said Dillon. “We were running laps faster than the leader at times while a lap down. We got something to work with. I think you’ll see us in victory lane before the end of year.”
Rounding out the top-10 was rookie Ryan Blaney followed by Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., polesitter Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne. The sixth place finish was Blaney’s highest on a non-restrictor plate track.
“We had a great car all day, and were at the front at the most of the day,” Blaney noted. “Just a good day to forget about Atlanta last week, and hopefully a good momentum builder.”
Three races are in the books, and three drivers should now have their Chase spots locked as Denny Hamlin, Johnson and Keselowski have each a “winner” sticker beside their name.
