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Keselowski Emerges with Top-Three Finish;
The JR Motorsports team of
Brad Keselowski and Scott Wimmer had another solid showing in Saturday's
Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway. Keselowski and the No. 88 Delphi
team continued its long streak of consecutive top-five finishes, with
a third-place finish. Keselowski led twice for seven laps, and now
has seven consecutive top-five finishes. Joey Logano earned his fourth
victory of the season, followed by Kyle Busch and Keselowski. Kevin
Harvick and Greg Biffle
rounded out the top five.
No. 88 Delphi Team / Keselowski
Start – 19th / Finish – 3rd / Laps Led – 7 / Points – 170
/ Point Standings – 3rd
Starting 19th, Keselowski immediately set sight on the leaders as his
car was very good on long runs. By lap 41, he cracked the top-five.
Green-flag pit stops began on lap 53, and Keselowski stayed on track
to lead two laps before pitting on lap 57. This is the 15th time this
season Keselowski has led laps in a NASCAR Nationwide Series event,
bringing his season total to 316 laps. While the No. 88 was on pit
road, the caution flag waved. After all the cars had cycled through
pit stops, Keselowski restarted in the second spot.
Keselowski would remain in the top five for the remainder of the race,
taking the lead again on lap 76 for five laps. Keselowski was very
happy with his car but felt it needed more grip to catch the leaders.
While in fourth, the caution was shown for debris on lap 109, and Keselowski
brought the Delphi Chevrolet to pit road for four tires and an air
pressure adjustment. The No. 88 crew performed service quickly and
gained two spots on pit road. Keselowski restarted in second on lap
112.
Keselowski continued to race in the top five, trading positions with
Logano and Biffle. The caution waved on lap 184 with Keselowski in
second. The team debated on hitting pit road for its last set of tires,
but decided to stay on track because there were too many cars on the
lead lap.
On the ensuing restart, Keselowski lost a spot and settled into third,
where he would eventually finish the race for his ninth third-place
finish of the season.
The finish at Kansas was Keselowski’s 18th top-five and 23rd
top-10 of the season. Keselowski has not finished outside of the top-10
since his June 10th race at Chicagoland. While Keselowski lost 10 points
to series points leader Kyle Busch, he gained 24 points on second place
Carl Edwards. Keselowski also continues to add to his DNF streak which
now stands at 61 races.
Next Up for JR Motorsports:
Event: Copart 300, Auto Club Speedway
Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009
TV/Radio: ESPN2 (coverage begins at 4:00 p.m. EST) / MRN (broadcast
begins at 4:00 p.m. EST)
JRM Entries: No. 88 GoDaddy.com Chevy (Brad Keselowski)
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On
the Kansas Race – "We had a really strong Delphi
Chevrolet today. I think this was the
best mile-and-a-half car I’ve ever driven, and I’m excited
to get my first top-five at Kansas Speedway after three tries.
We
were able to run with the 18 and 20 there at the end, but they could
just beat me off the corners so well.
I was trying different lines
on the track and doing anything I could to make up for that, but just
couldn’t get it done."
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