BROOKLYN, Mich. (Aug. 15, 2009) \u2014 Hometown boy Brad Keselowski took advantage of a pitched battle between Kyle Busch and polesitter Brian Vickers \u2014 one that continued after Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Nationwide Series’ Carfax 250 race \u2014 to win for the third time in 2009.<\/p>\n
With Busch and Vickers battling on the bottom of the track, Keselowski took advantage of the outside line to pass both drivers on the final lap at Michigan International Speedway, with Vickers finishing second and Busch third in a race that stretched Busch\u2019s lead in the series standings to 339 points over Carl Edwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw \u2019em bobble in (Turns) 3 and 4 there at the one-to-go, and I had \u2019em,\u201d said Keselowski, who grew up in Rochester Hills, Mich. \u201cI knew it. I knew I could get to the outside and kill the 32 (Vickers). I wasn\u2019t sure about the 18 (Busch) \u2014 I don\u2019t know what happened to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, my God, I won at home! I\u2019m speechless. I can\u2019t believe it. I\u2019m terrible here, and to win here is a major accomplishment. \u2026 It\u2019s so cool to win in front of your home fans, and I thank all of them that came out tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vickers led Busch into Turn 3 on the next-to-last lap and slipped in the corner. Busch drove to the inside, and Vickers side-drafted the No. 18 Toyota and forced him down onto the apron as the cars roared out of Turn 4. With momentum to the outside, Keselowski made it three-wide as the cars took the white flag for the final lap.<\/p>\n
Keselowski crossed the finish line .199 seconds ahead of Vickers, with Busch a close third. David Ragan and Kevin Harvick finished fourth and fifth, respectively.<\/p>\n
Busch took issue with the way Vickers had raced him on the final two laps and confronted him on pit road after the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, man, I am so sorry \u2014 I forgot it was the Kyle Busch show,\u201d Vickers said sarcastically, after climbing from his car. \u201cHell, I thought we were racing for a win. \u2026 I thought it was my job to hold him off. Apparently not. He came over to the car after we came in and knocked the fender in, which was unnecessary, and then started crying like a little baby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked him if he\u2019d give me a minute to get out, and we could talk about it like men. If he wanted to fight, that was fine with me. When I got out, he ran off. It\u2019s a shame that it went down like that. We were racing hard. I thought it was a good race. Congratulations to the 88 (Keselowski). He snuck around both of us. I didn\u2019t see him coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Busch thought Vickers should have given him room and let the two strongest cars battle for the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so frustrating that you can\u2019t have a guy race you clean,\u201d Busch said. \u201cHe was on our right rear quarter panel all the way down the front straightaway and gave the win to the 88 car. He slowed us down so much \u2014 he had no idea the 88 car was coming, and the 88 just drove right by both of us on the outside, because Brian Vickers was trying to slow both of us down. Just stupid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he would have ran his own line up at the top of the track, and I had run my own line down at the bottom of the track, it could have been us two. But, unfortunately, you race with idiots, and I guess you\u2019ll have that sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
An accident on Lap 3 put a damper on Edwards\u2019 30th birthday celebration. Edwards was three-wide on the outside in Turn 2 with Trevor Bayne in the middle and Brad Coleman on the bottom when contact between Edwards\u2019 Ford and Bayne\u2019s Toyota sent Edwards into the marbles at the top of the track.<\/p>\n
Edwards fought to regain control, but the cars touched again and Edwards slammed nose-first into the outside wall. The impact eliminated the No. 60 Ford from the race \u2014 the first time Edwards has failed to finish a NASCAR Nationwide Series event since May 2008 at Darlington.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the replay, and it definitely looks like I didn\u2019t give Trevor enough room,\u201d said Edwards, who held second place in the standings but lost touch with Busch, the leader. \u201cI drove in and kind of pinched him down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: When Busch passed Vickers for the lead off Turn 4 on Lap 14, Busch extended his streak of NASCAR Nationwide Series races led to 20, advancing the record 19 he had shared with Sam Ard. \u2026 Busch\u2019s record streak of finishing either first or second in Nationwide Series races ended at 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BROOKLYN, Mich. (Aug. 15, 2009) \u2014 Hometown boy Brad Keselowski took advantage of a pitched battle between Kyle Busch and polesitter Brian Vickers \u2014 one that continued after Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Nationwide Series’ Carfax 250 race \u2014 to win for the third time in 2009. With Busch and Vickers battling on the bottom of the track, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[166,167],"class_list":["post-1242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-brad-keselowski","tag-nascar-nationwide-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}