Keselowski captures rain-shortened race
Associated Press
SPARTA, Ky.
Brad Keselowski took his final lead on the 156th lap and went on to a rain-shortened victory Friday night in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway.
Showers halted the race at lap 170 in the scheduled 200-lap event, but drivers were expecting it to resume before another pocket of rain forced officials to it off. Keselowski settled for doing victory spinouts, being careful to avoid sliding into the wall on a night mostly spent on firm footing.
A night after finishing second in the Truck Series race, the Sprint Cup champion led four times for 59 laps en route to his second series victory in three years. Elliott Sadler was second, followed by Truck Series points leader Matt Crafton, Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch.
Series points leader Regan Smith saw his 28-point advantage over Justin Allgaier coming in whacked to only one following an engine problem that forced him behind the wall and left him 30th, 17 laps down.
Sprint Cup
The questions during NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying were how many drivers would raise Kentucky Speedway’s record and by how much.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. provided the answer of the eight that broke it, clocking 183.636 mph to wrest the mark from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson and the pole for Saturday night’s race.
Earnhardt’s speed was nearly 2 mph faster than Johnson’s 181.818 mph last June, which he needed to keep Johnson from keeping the record.
Minutes before, Johnson had a lap at 183.144 mph to hold off Ryan Newman (182.254). Earnhardt set the standard in the No. 88 Chevy soon after and survived several attempts to unseat him before coming away with his 12th career pole.