As if Brad Keselowski didn’t have a big enough challenge keeping Kyle Busch out of his rearview mirror, the battery in his car was losing a winning battle. Keselowski had shut off everything he could to save what battery power he had and whatever he did it worked. Keselowski had enough power drive his Discount Tire Ford for Team Penske to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon.
Keselowski started on the outside pole for this race while Ty Dillon captured the first spot to start the race. It only took Keselowski seven laps to find the front and there he stayed until the first caution of the day on lap 55 for debris.
Rookie Dylan Kwasniewski spun on the restart lap which brought out another caution.
Kyle Busch claimed the lead after a round of green flag pit stops and a caution on lap 153.
On lap 158, Busch, Matt Kenseth and Keselowski raced hard for the same spot on the track when the rear of Kenseth’s car gave way and he spun – narrowly missing Keselowski. Chase Elliott barely raced by Kenseth’s sideways race car.
When the race restarted after the caution, Keselowski went right back to the lead but another quick caution came out for a spinning Ryan Sieg. It was around this time when Keselowski radioed his crew chief Jeremy Bullins that his car was losing power. He had shut off everything he could inside the car and the volts were going in the wrong direction. He maintained his position even though Kyle Busch was hot on his trail.
Even lapped traffic couldn’t falter Keselowski and he was able to win the race. He led 144 laps on the day.
It was a rough day for pole sitter Ty Dillon. While he ran well for most of the day, he sped on pit road and was black-flagged to serve a pass-through penalty. As he served his penalty, he sped AGAIN. He had to serve another pass-through penalty. His other Richard Childress Racing teammates also had speeding issues on pit road.
It was quite the day at the office for Kyle Busch as he started the race in 37 place. Did you think that was going to give him any trouble? Busch was running in the top five after 31 laps. He even led 33 laps on the day. He finished in second place.
Rookie Chase Elliott put in quite a performance as he ran out front with the Sprint Cup Series regulars through most of the race. He was the highest finishing rookie in the race.
The top ten looked like this: Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chase Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Brian Scott, Trevor Bayne, Chris Buescher, and Regan Smith.
Post-race inspection found that the left front of Chase Elliott’s car was too low and a shock on Brad Keselowski’s car was taken by NASCAR officials. Those issues will be dealt with early next week.
The next NASCAR Nationwide Series race will be Saturday, March 15 at 2 p.m. ET at Bristol Motor Speedway.
