Brad Keselowski wins at Pocono despite broken ankle; Championship Prediction
What a week for Penske Racing’s Brad Keselowski. He was involved in a practice crash on Wednesday while testing at Road Atlanta and broke his left ankle. Because of that he had to withdraw from Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway to concentrate on Pocono and the decision paid off as he won the Good Sam RV Insurance 500, beating a hard charging Kyle Busch by .390-seconds.
Keselowski took the lead from Busch on the final restart of the race, coming on lap 183, and then had to keep him at bay in notching his first win at the Long Pond tri-oval. It was his second victory of the season, his first coming at Kansas.
“There’s really not any time for emotions right now. It was a hell of a week. I felt we could run strong here and I was a little surprised that we weren’t a little faster at the beginning of the weekend and I knew that some of the struggles I went through with the wreck and how that was probably holding everybody (team) back a little bit and I guess we tried to work around that as best we could and did a good job on that,” said Keselowski who led twice for 19 laps.
“I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to win but I thought we could at least run about fifth. Paul Wolfe (crew chief) adjusted on it, we got that rain delay which was a great recharge session for me and that’s what we needed.
“We were able to overcome adversity and I think when we look back on this years from now, personally that’s what I’ll think about.”
By winning for a second time Keselowski becomes the top driver for a wild card spot in the Chase which starts in four races.
In a battle that came right down to the finish Kurt Busch just barely held off Jimmie Johnson after both traded paint on the final lap while Ryan Newman completed the top five. Jeff Gordon, point leader Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Paul Menard rounding out the top ten.
The race was stopped on lap 124 due to a hard rain fall that crossed the area with pole winner Joey Logano clinging to a slim lead over Johnson. Logano was having a great day until late in the race when his car developed a vibration and he faded to 26th at the end after a late pit stop, the final car running on the lead lap.
I was amazed Brad Keselowski was able to hold off Kyle Busch, who arguably had the fastest car for most of the race, especially after the weeks unfortunate events for Keselowski that many questioned if he’d even be able to race at Pocono.
I have believed from the beginning that Kyle Busch would be a contender for the Championship when all said and done, I’m not backing away from that belief. Kyle Busch has been strong everywhere this year and is arguably the most talented driver currently in the Sprint Cup Series. He is my pick to dethrone Jimmie Johnson from his sixth-consecutive Championship.
Current Sprint Cup Series Standings:
RANK | +/- | DRIVER | POINTS | BEHIND | STARTS | POLES | WINS | TOP 5 | TOP 10 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | — | Carl Edwards | 720 | Leader | 21 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 14 | |
2 | — | Jimmie Johnson | 711 | -9 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 13 | |
3 | +1 | Kyle Busch | 709 | -11 | 21 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 13 | |
4 | +2 | Kurt Busch | 706 | -14 | 21 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 12 | |
5 | -2 | Kevin Harvick | 700 | -20 | 21 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 10 | |
6 | -1 | Matt Kenseth | 694 | -26 | 21 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 11 | |
7 | — | Jeff Gordon | 668 | -52 | 21 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 10 | |
8 | — | Ryan Newman | 658 | -62 | 21 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 10 | |
9 | — | Tony Stewart | 642 | -78 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | |
10 | — | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 641 | -79 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 | |
11 | — | Denny Hamlin | 618 | -102 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | |
12 | — | Clint Bowyer | 600 | -120 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | |
13 | — | Greg Biffle | 597 | -123 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | |
14 | — | Paul Menard | 587 | -133 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | |
15 | +3 | Mark Martin | 567 | -153 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 |