Shrugging off one sideways moment, Kevin Harvick held off a determined Brad Keselowski to win the NASCAR Nationwide Race in Richmond Saturday.
“Just good racing there at the end,” said Harvick who led 170 laps of the 250 laps race at Richmond International Raceway. “I didn’t want it to be that close, but it wound up being that close and it was good fun.”
For the final ten laps it looked like the series leader, Keselowski, was going to close the deal. The tight, three-quarter mile track, bunched up the field in spots.
Harvick continued “I caught lapped traffic in the wrong spot for me, right spot for him. I bounced off the wall.”
Keselowski put on quite the performance returning from a two-lap deficit. “Probably weren’t fast enough to get by Kevin, but we put on a great showing,” said Keselowski adding: “To come back and get to the front and have a shot at the win, that’s the sign of a really good team.”
Trevor Bayne tied a career high in third place. Referring to the fact that this was the first outing for the new model Nationwide cars on a short track he said: “Really excited about this run we had today. That was awesome to get a top-three here with these new cars.
“Everybody at our shop has worked their butts off to get these new cars right and they were that way when we unloaded.”
Second place was good enough for Keselowski to extend his points over tenth place finisher, Carl Edwards, to 373 points with eight races remaining in this 2010 season.
“Just good racing there at the end,” said Harvick who led 170 laps of the 250 laps race at Richmond International Raceway. “I didn’t want it to be that close, but it wound up being that close and it was good fun.”
For the final ten laps it looked like the series leader, Keselowski, was going to close the deal. The tight, three-quarter mile track, bunched up the field in spots.
Harvick continued “I caught lapped traffic in the wrong spot for me, right spot for him. I bounced off the wall.”
Keselowski put on quite the performance returning from a two-lap deficit. “Probably weren’t fast enough to get by Kevin, but we put on a great showing,” said Keselowski adding: “To come back and get to the front and have a shot at the win, that’s the sign of a really good team.”
Trevor Bayne tied a career high in third place. Referring to the fact that this was the first outing for the new model Nationwide cars on a short track he said: “Really excited about this run we had today. That was awesome to get a top-three here with these new cars.
“Everybody at our shop has worked their butts off to get these new cars right and they were that way when we unloaded.”
Second place was good enough for Keselowski to extend his points over tenth place finisher, Carl Edwards, to 373 points with eight races remaining in this 2010 season.