Paraphrasing a common crew chief directive Brad Keselowski drove it like he borrowed it to win the STP 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday.
A long green flag run in the closing laps allowed the second year Penske driver to keep his Dodge ahead of the Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Toyota of Denny Hamlin by watching his fuel economy instead of the usual command “drive it like you stole it.”
“We got great gas mileage and that doesn’t hurt either,” Keselowski said adding “There are some secrets to it and I just maximized them all. I had plenty (of fuel) left.” He went 57 laps on one tank of fuel at the 1.5 mile track.
The winner took the lead with ten laps to go after his senior teammate and pole sitter, Kurt Busch pitted. Busch had led a race-high 152-laps. It was Penske Racing’s first Sprint Cup win since Charlotte in May of 2010.
Keselowski didn’t want to know he was leading “I don’t know when I took the lead. The scoreboard is right in the middle of the race track and I looked over and saw my name on the top with two to go. I started shaking. I’m glad that they didn’t tell me.”
It was Keselowski’s second career Sprint Cup victory, the first coming 60 races ago in Talladega.
For the second week in-a-row “Junior” finished second and while he wasn’t happy with the result he was realistic when he said “we had a good car. We just didn't have a second place car not at all, but we had a top 10 car. And it was so hot out there today. I mean I felt fine until I got stopped. And I don't know how everybody felt after that race, but it worked on me really good.”
With the weather in the 90s (F) drivers had to put up with extreme heat. As third place finisher Hamlin explained “sit in a sauna for four hours, and that's pretty much what you've got.”
Earnhardt and Hamlin were running on the same fuel window and Hamlin explained “usually it takes a really slow car to save gas to be honest with you.”
When Hamlin pitted Earnhardt followed him into the pits “so I thought that me and him were the only ones on that fuel strategy,” he said. “When he passed me (Earnhardt) I thought that was for the win. So the 22 (Keselowski) evidently saved a ton of fuel.”
Jeff Gordon finished fourth and series point’s leader, Carl Edwards, was fifth.
A long green flag run in the closing laps allowed the second year Penske driver to keep his Dodge ahead of the Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Toyota of Denny Hamlin by watching his fuel economy instead of the usual command “drive it like you stole it.”
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| Start of the race. (Photo: LAT1/NASCAR) |
“We got great gas mileage and that doesn’t hurt either,” Keselowski said adding “There are some secrets to it and I just maximized them all. I had plenty (of fuel) left.” He went 57 laps on one tank of fuel at the 1.5 mile track.
The winner took the lead with ten laps to go after his senior teammate and pole sitter, Kurt Busch pitted. Busch had led a race-high 152-laps. It was Penske Racing’s first Sprint Cup win since Charlotte in May of 2010.
Keselowski didn’t want to know he was leading “I don’t know when I took the lead. The scoreboard is right in the middle of the race track and I looked over and saw my name on the top with two to go. I started shaking. I’m glad that they didn’t tell me.”
It was Keselowski’s second career Sprint Cup victory, the first coming 60 races ago in Talladega.
For the second week in-a-row “Junior” finished second and while he wasn’t happy with the result he was realistic when he said “we had a good car. We just didn't have a second place car not at all, but we had a top 10 car. And it was so hot out there today. I mean I felt fine until I got stopped. And I don't know how everybody felt after that race, but it worked on me really good.”
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| Brad Keselowski, Dodge Penske (Photo: LAT/NASCAR) |
With the weather in the 90s (F) drivers had to put up with extreme heat. As third place finisher Hamlin explained “sit in a sauna for four hours, and that's pretty much what you've got.”
Earnhardt and Hamlin were running on the same fuel window and Hamlin explained “usually it takes a really slow car to save gas to be honest with you.”
When Hamlin pitted Earnhardt followed him into the pits “so I thought that me and him were the only ones on that fuel strategy,” he said. “When he passed me (Earnhardt) I thought that was for the win. So the 22 (Keselowski) evidently saved a ton of fuel.”
Jeff Gordon finished fourth and series point’s leader, Carl Edwards, was fifth.