Keselowski Wins in California, Stewart-Haas Dominant

Originally written for CLNS Radio. 

Brad Keselowski made a last lap pass to steal a win in the Auto Club 400 on Sunday.

Keselowski was able to get the surprise victory on a weekend that saw Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick dominate.  Busch led every practice and won the pole for the race, while Harvick qualified second.

 

Photo courtesy Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

“I knew the 4 [of Harvick] and 41 [of Busch] had kind of been the class of the weekend, and those cars…definitely deserved to win,” Keselowski said in victory lane.  “We kind of stole one today.”

Debris brought out a caution with just two laps to go, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.  While many of the leaders took two tires, Keselowski and his team took four.  When a caution came back out during the first attempt at a GWC, Keselowski was able to put his four tires to good use, outrunning Harvick and Busch for the victory.  

Busch said he understood the outcome was just a product of the racing at Auto Club Speedway.

“We just got hung out on the yellows at the end,” Busch said.  “On that last restart I just didn’t get the job done.  Brad outmuscled us with four tires.”

Harvick, who got his eighth-straight top 2 finish, said it all came down to the amount of cautions at the end of the race.

“The second restart doesn’t come about and two tires was the right call,” Harvick said.  “You never know how the strategy’s going to work out, and you’re kind of on both sides of the fence there as to what you should or shouldn’t do.”

Unofficial results

1. Brad Keselowski

2. Kevin Harvick

3. Kurt Busch

4. Paul Menard

5. Ryan Newman

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

7. Joey Logano

8. Martin Truex Jr.

9. Jimmie Johnson

10. Jeff Gordon

11. Aric Almirola

12. Justin Allgaier

13. Carl Edwards

14. Tony Stewart

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16. Austin Dillon

17. Kasey Kahne

18. David Ragan

19. Danica Patrick

20. Chris Buescher

21. Jamie McMurray

22. Brett Moffitt

23. Casey Mears

24. Cole Whitt

25. Landon Cassill

26. Kyle Larson

27. Brian Scott

28. Denny Hamlin

29. Trevor Bayne

30. Clint Bowyer

31. Matt Kenseth

32. Greg Biffle

33. Alex Bowman

34. AJ Allmendinger

35. David Gilliland

36. Josh Wise

37. J.J. Yeley

38. Michael Annett

39. Jeb Burton

40. Mike Bliss

41. Brendan Gaughan

42. Matt DiBenedetto

43. Sam Hornish Jr.

Photo courtesy Robert Laberge/Getty Images