BK KO's Bristol
BRISTOL, TENN. — Brad Keselowski was out to prove his win last August at the Tennessee half-mile was not a fluke.
Consider this back-to-back victory at the fastest short track on the planet proof enough the Penske driver is the real deal. BK drove the Miller Lite Dodge to his fifth Sprint Cup win in 93 starts.
He was followed closely to the finish line by second-place Matt Kenseth.
A great day for the Michael Waltrip Racing team as his drivers filled out the top five. Martin Truex Jr. took third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Brian Vickers, fifth. Today marked Vickers return to Sprint Cup since his Red Bull Racing deal fell apart last year.
Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmie Johnson and Paul Menard made up the top 10.
After BK's Bristol win last August many people thought he took an unfair advantage of the timing lines coming out of his pit that allowed him better acceleration than other teams and that advantage was the root of his victory. NASCAR added two timing loops at each end to eliminate any advantage that might come from those pit positions.
Keselowski did not like hearing he won the race because of the timing line advantage. It has been under his skin ever since.
"I got on Twitter, and I got kind of PO'd at some people that said I won it because of the timing line," Keselowski said after today's win. "I knew this Blue Deuce was fast enough to win the race last fall with or without timing lines. It feels so good just to prove it here in the spring race.
"This car here, this brand-new car that Penske Racing built — everybody back at the shop did a phenomenal job. The last few races have been really good, and I knew we had a shot at winning one if we closed the deal. Matt didn't make it easy."
An early wreck wiped out several top cars, including Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Marcos Ambrose and Kyle Busch. Contact between Regan Smith and Kahne triggered a chain reaction in front of a pack of hard charging race cars. Kahne moved up on the word of his cousin/spotter who said he was clear when in fact he was not.
Racing next week moves on to Fontana, California, for the Auto Club 400, live on Fox at 2:30 PM, EST.
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