Keselowski wins in wild Fontana finish

Associated Press

FONTANA, Calif.

While Kevin Harvick chased Kurt Busch down the stretch in a battle of the best cars in the Fontana field, Brad Keselowski was buried in 17th place — until the yellow flags started flying.

A caution for debris allowed Keselowski to move up to sixth. When a second flag went up, he took four new tires while Harvick and Busch got only two.

Keselowski burned that extra rubber all the way to Victory Lane.

Keselowski roared past Busch on the final lap and held off the streaking Harvick to win at Fontana on Sunday, earning his first NASCAR victory of the season in a wild finish.

“I knew (Harvick) and (Busch) had been the class of the weekend and deserved to win on speed,” Keselowski said after his 17th career Sprint Cup victory. “Maybe we kind of stole one today.”

Although their Team Penske Ford led only one lap, Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe concocted a strategy to capitalize on the green-white-checkered finish after a caution for debris prevented Busch from cruising to a probable win. They made up track position under the first yellow flag, and Wolfe then made the winning decision after Kyle Larson’s bumper flew off to cause another caution.

“Paul made the call to come down pit road and put four tires on, and I said, ‘Well, this could either go really good or really bad,”’ Keselowski said. “I didn’t know which one it was going to be. Some guys stayed out, some guys took two tires, all kinds of different strategies.”

“On the restart, we were just able to find our way through the lanes and get to the front there and somehow end up in Victory Lane leading the last lap there,” he added. “That’s kind of a race car driver’s dream. This is one we’re going to sit back and go, ‘Wow,’ for a while.”