NNS Recap: Aggressive Keselowski Taking Home Elvis
Brad Keselowski picked up an extra $75,000 from Nationwide as part of its Dash 4 Cash program. He won a $25,000 bonus for winning the race and $50,000 for scoring the most points in the four Dash 4 Cash races.
Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
MEMPHIS,
Tenn.— An aggressive Brad Keselowski won his fourth NASCAR Nationwide
Series race of the season, banging his way to victory in the Kroger On
Track For The Cure 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park on Saturday
afternoon.
Keselowski was involved in at least three incidents
in the race, the last when he bumped Carl Edwards with a handful of
laps remaining.
Keselowski then got the lead when he whipped
past the front row of Michael Annett and Tony Raines on a restart with
12 laps to go. He then held off NASCAR Nationwide points leader Kyle
Busch on a green-white-checkered restart to secure the win.
Keselowski
picked up an extra $75,000 from Nationwide as part of its Dash 4 Cash
program. He won a $25,000 bonus for winning the race and $50,000 for
scoring the most points in the four Dash 4 Cash races.
But the
most prized possession was the last-in-its-series Elvis trophy that
track officials award race winners. Keselowski carried it to the
post-race news conference and planned on taking it with him on the
plane ride home.
"I've got this Elvis—man, I really wanted that
trophy bad, just as bad as I wanted the Dash 4 Cash," Keselowski said.
"To be able to finally get it today is a special thing."
Busch
ended up second, with Jason Leffler overcoming a sinus infection to
finish third. Mike Bliss, who led the most laps but also was involved
in an incident with Keselowski, finished fourth.
Brendan
Gaughan finished fifth, though he was leading comfortably when the
yellow waved for debris with 23 laps remaining. Gaughan lost track
position during pit stops.
The rest of the top 10: Edwards, Scott Wimmer, David Reutimann, Stephen Leicht and Landon Cassill.
Neither
Edwards nor Bliss were that angry with Keselowski, though they both
said if that's the way he wants to race, they will race him the same
way. Keselowski admitted to driving hard throughout the race.
"Today,
I was very aggressive and put myself in a lot of those situations that
led to contact," Keselowski said. "Two of them led to spins. I didn't
do myself any favors by that. It's not like I came out on top with
that. I tore my car up and slowed it down. It wasn't like that was what
won me the race.
"What won me the race was being aggressive throughout. The specific contact didn't win me the race. They actually hurt."