It’s a big weekend for Brad Keselowski Racing as its team sponsor hosts Saturday’s Careers for Veterans 200 presented by Cooper Standard and Brad Keselowski’s Checkered Flag Foundation. Series points leader Tyler Reddick and NASCAR Next alum Ryan Blaney will represent the team in the No. 19 and No. 29 Fords. Reddick claims two wins this season and leads second-place Matt Crafton in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings by 11. Blaney has made two Camping World Truck Series starts this year, finishing seventh at Dover and third at Kentucky. Continue reading →
Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway on August 2, 2015 Photo – Todd Warshaw/Getty Images
Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway on August 2, 2015 Photo – Tim Bradbury/Getty Images
Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, celebrates with the trophy in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway on August 2, 2015 Photo – Tim Bradbury/Getty Images
Matt Kenseth, the unexpected winner of Sunday’s Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway, had to do a double take.
So did second and third-place finishers Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon.
Kenseth got a gift on the last lap of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race when Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch ran out of fuel halfway through the last lap at the 2.5-mile triangular track. Continue reading →
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, leads a pack of cars during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2015 Photo – Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2015 Photo – Ranier Ehrhardt/Getty Images
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, celebrates with the checkered flag after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2015 Photo – Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2015 Photo – Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, poses with the trophy in Victory Lane with wife Samantha and son Brexton Locke after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2015 Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, celebrates by kissing the bricks after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2015 Photo – Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, places the winner’s decal in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2015 Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty images
A detailed view of the Brickyard 400 trophy prior to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26, 2015 Photo – Ranier Ehrhardt/Getty Images
“This is awesome!”
…Kyle Busch screamed as he crossed the finish line at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and continued a run that has grown from extraordinary to downright other-worldly.
Holding off Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano during three late-race restarts, Busch beat Logano to the finish line by 0.332 seconds to win Sunday’s Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at The Brickyard.
The victory was Busch’s fourth in the last five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, all coming after an 11-event absence to start the season, the result of a broken right leg and left foot suffered in a crash during the Feb. 21 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway. Continue reading →
Kyle Busch, driver of the #54 Monster Energy Toyota, stands on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR XFINITY Series Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25, 2015 Photo – Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Kyle Busch, continued his streak of excellence in the sport of NASCAR by winning the Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon. With a last lap pass on Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney, the win gave Busch his second win at Indianapolis in three years.
This victory came after overcoming multiple problems throughout the day. First issue was a communication problem resulting in not pitting at the beginning of the race. Busch was noticeably upset over the radio, forcing his team to use a different strategy which actually ended up playing in his favor.
“The caution flew about Lap 23, and pit road wasn’t open till about Lap 26,” noted crew chief Chris Gayle. “That then put us on a one stop strategy to where we could make it to the end even with the misunderstanding communication wise.”
Busch went on to lead 53 laps the rest of the day, collecting his second win and fourth top-ten of 2015.
Busch also battled the heat all day, noting that he…
‘melted inside the car, the whole race.’
Busch also mentioned that the car had no openings for air, which obviously did not help the heat situation. When asked, Busch talked about having NASCAR make a change that would make the air openings fair for everybody.
One of the ideas Busch suggested was for NASCAR to mandate an eight inch opening on the right side window that every team could use.
Battling through the obstacles, Busch was still able to overcome the odds of a pit road misunderstanding and excessive heat all day by ensuing a last lap pass for the lead.
“I just got close enough to make him (Blaney) mess up and he got tight off (turn) two and then I was able to capitalize underneath him losing his momentum off of two and being able to get under him,” said Busch. “Can’t say enough about Chris Gayle and all these guys on this Monster Energy Camry. It was the class of the field, we should have won this thing going away, but I guess we had to make it exciting.”
That pass came at the expense of 21-year-old Ryan Blaney.
“It’s my fault, obviously. You saw it. I screwed up,” Blaney said. “This team doesn’t deserve that. I dropped the ball for them today and I take full responsibility. It’s my fault.”
Blaney was able to beat Busch on the final restart of the race on lap 76 and maintain a lead through the next 24 laps with limited pressure from Busch.
“There was no pressure for 24 laps and the last one I just made a mistake,” said Blaney post race.
Being the competitor that he is, Blaney was tremendously hard on himself after race as he kept highlighting on his mistake time and time again. Many fans and drivers offered their support to Blaney after the race.
Although there were problems for Busch and his team, they overcame their issues to continue their amazing streak of excellence.
