Sunday, October 15, 2017

Keselowski Survives Wild Talladega Finish

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Brad Keselowski won the Alabama 500 from Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon in his 300th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start.

Keselowski had to survive a wild finish, one that saw three major accidents collect most of the field in the final 17 laps.  With the field cut to about only 10 cars, Keselowski was able to pass Ryan Newman on the final lap to pick up his fifth victory at Talladega.

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Keselowski said he was excited to survive and move on to the next round of the Playoffs.

“What a special day…I survived,” Keselowski said.  “We haven’t been as good as we’ve needed to be on the [1.5 mile tracks], so we knew we had to come to Talladega and get it done.”

Keselowski said a late block on his teammate Joey Logano helped propel him past Newman on the final lap.

“I just had to make all the right moves…right at the end I put the block on my teammate…and it was just enough to get the momentum to win at the start/finish line,” Keselowski said.  “You’ve got to have a little bit of luck to win these races…we got through some big wrecks there.”

“To be able to win and get to the next round of the Playoffs and not have to deal with any of that…this is one we really needed.”

Newman finished second, but said he was disappointed he couldn’t close out a victory while leading late in the race.

“When there’s only that many cars left running, you want to be the guy…I’m really disappointed we didn’t win,” Newman said.  “I don’t think there was a car out there that didn’t have any damage.”

“We’ll take it for what it’s worth and we’ll keep digging.  Wish we were still in the Playoffs, but we’re not.  We’ll keep moving our way up if we can.”

Unofficial results:
1. Brad Keselowski
2. Ryan Newman
3. Trevor Bayne
4. Joey Logano
5. Aric Almirola
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
8. Kasey Kahne
9. Gray Gaulding
10. David Ragan
11. Ty Dillon
12. Paul Menard
13. Kyle Larson
14. Matt Kenseth
15. Daniel Suarez
16. Chase Elliott
17. Chris Buescher
18. Ryan Blaney
19. Brandan Gaughan
20. Kevin Harvick
21. Danica Patrick
22. AJ Allmendinger
23. Martin Truex Jr.
24. Jimmie Johnson
25. Kurt Busch
26. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27. Kyle Busch
28. Landon Cassill
29. Austin Dillon
30. Michael McDowell
31. Matt DiBenedetto
32. Joey Gase
33. DJ Kennington
34. Cole Whitt
35. Clint Bowyer
36. Erik Jones
37. Jamie McMurray
38. Jeffrey Earnhardt
39. Mark Thompson
40. Justin Marks

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

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