By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
While Brad Keselowski raced Kyle Busch in what was a long, clean battle for the lead Saturday night, it followed the path laid down from a long, clean night at Richmond Raceway.
For Keselowski, the Team Penske driver entered the Virginian track looking for a fourth straight win in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. And after starting the 400-lapper from seventh spot, Keselowski became one of the top cars of the night, leading the event for 67 laps.
However, the race fell out of his hands when Kyle Busch’s long-run-savvy No. 18 rose in the 67-lap green-flag run to the end.
“We were so good on the short runs and nothing was working for us on the long runs,” Keselowski said. “I can try to save tires and fall back to fourth or run up front and win the race.”
To the joy of the Richmond fans, Keselowski chose to race for the lead, battling Busch until his No. 2 couldn’t muster any defense, losing the lead for good with 37 to go.
“I worked real hard, did everything I could to hold him off,” he said. “I just didn’t have enough.”
Following the fight, Busch stuck his hand out the window of his Toyota. Keselowski was unable to translate the message.
“I don’t try to read his mind [laughs],” he said. “That’s the last place I need to be.”
Unlike Busch, it was Keselowski’s car that fell off on the long runs. And unfortunately for Keselowski, the race was dominated by green runs, as only one non-stage yellow flew all night.
“It was one of those races that didn’t give us a lot of opportunities,” he said. “We threw what we had at it. If we could have gotten the caution fest we were thinking this race might be, we wouldve been in good shape.”
Considering Saturday was the first playoff race at Richmond, Keselowski expected it to be quite the slugfest.
“I was honestly shocked what we saw today,” he said. “I thought this would be a slugfest, I thought there would be five cars running at the end. All these guys are so scared of next week [at the Charlotte ROVAL] that they didn’t dare put a fender on each other. Maybe I’m wrong but I think they’re saving the slugfest for next week.”
It would be a slugfest that would have little to no effect on Keselowski’s championship pursuit. Following his Las Vegas victory, Keselowski knows he is locked into the Round of 12 that starts in two weeks at Dover.
“It’s good we have a win and we don’t have to worry about next week,” he said. “That feels good. We can coast through that.”