Keselowski holds off Busch

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Brad Keselowski got a huge push from Kyle Busch to take the lead with a lap to go Sunday, then used a calculated move to prevent Busch from taking the win away from him at Talladega Superspeedway.

A nine-car accident with four laps remaining brought out the yellow flag, setting up a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish.

Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth was the leader, and chose the outside line for the restart so Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle would line up behind him and presumably push him to the victory.

That put Keselowski and Busch together on the inside line, but they drifted back on the restart as Kenseth indeed was able to jump out to a huge lead.

Probably too big of a lead.

Kenseth got a little too far away from Biffle, which gave the tandem of Keselowski and Busch a chance to catch him. Busch pushed Keselowski to the front on the outside line, then waited to make his attempted pass for the lead on the final lap.

Keselowski had played this scenario out in his head and was prepared for the challenge.

“I had this whole plan if I ever got into that situation where I was leading,” he said. “I thought about it and thought about it and dreamed about it, what to do. Sure enough going into 3 it was just me and Kyle.

“I knew the move I wanted to pull and it worked.”

It put Keselowski in Victory Lane for the second time this season.

Busch settled for second for the second day in a row and Kenseth was third. Kasey Kahne finished fourth and was followed by Biffle, Clint Bowyer and David Ragan. Trevor Bayne was eighth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ninth and Jeff Burton rounded out the top 10.

NHRA

Ron Capps won the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., to end John Force Racing’s season-opening Funny Car winning streak at six.

Capps raced to his 34th career victory, outrunning JFR’s Robert Hight in the final round with a 4.166-second run at 303.91 mph in a Dodge Charger. Hight finished in 4.399 at 273.44 in a Ford Mustang.