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Keselowski 12th in last race with JRM;
The JR Motorsports team turned
to sunny Florida for the NASCAR Nationwide Series season finale in
Saturday’s Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Brad Keselowski
finished 12th driving the GoDaddy.com Chevy in his final race with
JRM. Keselowski finished the 2009 season third in points with four
wins, 22 top-fives and 28 top-10s.
Kyle Busch won his ninth race
of the year and clinched the 2009 Nationwide Series championship.
Following Busch to the line was Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Joey Logano,
and Denny Hamlin. Busch, Edwards, Keselowski, Jason Leffler and Mike
Bliss rounded out the top-five finishers in the season's point standings.
No. 88 GoDaddy.com Team / Keselowski
Start – 8th / Finish – 12th / Laps Led – 0 / Points – 127
/ Point Standings – 3rd
Keselowski started the Ford 300 in eighth but quickly discovered
how loose his car was when he spun and tapped the wall on lap nine.
The damage was minimal, and the GoDaddy.com team made quick repairs.
The excitement was not over for Keselowski, as he was hit from behind
by the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin on lap 35 which sent him spinning down
the front straightaway. Fortunately, Keselowski kept the No. 88 off
of the wall and no contact was made. He came to pit road again for
quick repairs and new tires. The No. 11 was penalized one lap for
aggressive driving.
Restarting 30th, Keselowski again carved his way toward the leaders,
moving up to 12th by lap 86 and eighth by lap 165.
The caution waved one final time on lap 186. The GoDaddy.com team
opted to stay on track while others dipped to pit road. Keselowski
restarted in sixth, but began to fall backward as those directly
behind him had come to pit road for tires. Keselowski took the checkers
in 12th for the final race of the season.
The 12th-place finish was Keselowski’s first outside of the
top-10 since Chicagoland in July. He went the entire season without
a DNF (did not finish), the only fulltime Nationwide Series driver
to do so. Keselowski also completed 99.3 percent of the laps this
season, finishing off the lead lap only three times.
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On
the race at Homestead “This
was a tough race for us. We were so
loose most of the afternoon, and the guys did quite a bit to try to
fix it.
While today wasn’t what we hoped it would be, this has
just been an awesome season. I said earlier I didn’t want what
happened today to take away from what we were able to achieve this
year.
The four wins and all the top-fives and top-10s are what I will
remember, and how we were able to do it all as a team. I’m proud
of all these guys and very thankful for my time at JR Motorsports.”
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