Brad Keselowski wins at Kansas for third victory of 2019
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Brad Keselowski slipped past Alex Bowman with seven laps to go and sprinted away on a final two-lap restart to get his third win of 2019 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night.
As Keselowski started alongside Erik Jones on the race’s final restart, he got to the gas as soon as he could. Maybe a little too soon. An early jump could certainly explain why Keselowski was unchallenged over the race’s final two laps.
“I think he definitely went early,” Jones said. “I expected it but he maybe went 10-15 feet early. It’s the nature of the game. It’s hard to call. NASCAR’s not going to make a stick and ball strike call on that. We’ve all done it, we’ve all been there and it’s frustrating as a driver but it happens.”
NASCAR has a designated restart zone in front of the start/finish line at every track. The leader of the race has the option of accelerating toward the green flag at any point within the zone.
The zone is designed to give the leader an advantage on the car alongside of him. And, as Jones said, NASCAR drivers like to game the system whenever possible. This is a racing series that’s built on pushing the limits, after all.
“I was right at the line,” Keselowski said with a smile. “The first line.”
By going as soon as possible — and even maybe pushing the boundaries of legality — drivers can catch their competitors off-guard and give them less of a chance to anticipate when the leader will accelerate.
It worked perfectly for Keselowski, who ties Kyle Busch for the Cup Series lead in victories. The two drivers have combined to win half of the 12 races contested so far this season.
Harvick’s unscheduled pit stop jumbles things up
Kevin Harvick’s third-stage pit stop set the race up for an unpredictable finish.
Harvick had the best car throughout the first two stages but came to pit road not long after the third stage started because his car started handling poorly. His team changed right side tires — nothing appeared wrong with them after they were taking off the car — and removed a windshield tearoff that had gotten stuck to the grille.
The tearoff, according to crew chief Rodney Childers, got wrapped around the splitter of the car and cost Harvick precious aerodynamic downforce.
The part that killed it was the tear off being wrapped over the front edge of the splitter and messing the flow up to the big pan underneath. https://t.co/obeEOqxIOx
— Rodney Childers (@RodneyChilders4) May 12, 2019
The pit stop cost Harvick any chance at the win. He struggled to get his lap back and never came close to sniffing the top 10 after leading 105 laps before the stop. He finished 13th.
Kyle Busch’s top 10 streak ends
Kyle Busch did not make it 12 top-10 finishes in 12 races.
Busch was on pace for a top-10 finish but suffered a cut left-rear tire while racing in the top five after a restart with 40 laps to go. He had to pit again to fix a tire rub and ended up finishing 30th.
Full results
1. Brad Keselowski
2. Alex Bowman
3. Erik Jones
4. Chase Elliott
5. Clint Bowyer
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Kurt Busch
8. Kyle Larson
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Chris Buescher
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12. Aric Almirola
13. Kevin Harvick
14. Daniel Suarez
15. Joey Logano
16. Denny Hamlin
17. Austin Dillon
18. Daniel Hemric
19. Martin Truex Jr.
20. William Byron
21. Matt Tifft
22. Corey LaJoie
23. Ryan Newman
24. Paul Menard
25. Ryan Preece
26. Michael McDowell
27. David Ragan
28. Ty Dillon
29. Bubba Wallace
30. Kyle Busch
31. Ross Chastain
32. Ryan Blaney
33. Bayley Currey
34. Quin Houff
35. Reed Sorenson
36. Matt DiBenedetto
37. Landon Cassill
38. Joey Gase
39. Timmy Hill
40. Cody Ware
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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