SPARTA, Ky. — Brad Keselowski dominated the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Saturday night to become Kentucky Speedway’s first repeat winner.
The Penske Racing driver and 2012 race winner followed his record-breaking pole effort to lead 199 of 267 laps en route to his second victory of the season and 12th of his career.
Keselowski won from the pole for the first time, pulling away after chasing down and passing leader Kyle Busch on Lap 248.
Busch was second, followed by Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who rallied from a 29th-place start.
A night after dominating the Nationwide Series race before finishing second behind Kevin Harvick, partly because of a pit-road speeding penalty, Keselowski saved his heavy foot for the bumpy, rough track. The 2012 Cup champion went on to win by 1.014 seconds.
Keselowski’s postrace celebration was later marred after he cut his hand on a broken champagne bottle and was taken to the infield care center.
Teammate Joey Logano started second and led 37 laps and Busch 31 in a race that featured 12 lead changes — all but one featuring Penske drivers.
Keselowski, also the winner in Las Vegas, became the first driver this season with multiple victories on 1.5-mile tracks that make up much of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The circuit won’t see another such track until late August at Atlanta, and Keselowski made a case for being a favorite with arguably the most impressive run of his career.
It followed his track-record qualifying speed of 188.791 mph and 138 laps led in the Nationwide race, which also featured a furious late run before finishing second to Kevin Harvick, who was seventh in the 400-mile race. This time he had enough laps to pass Busch.
But the tone was set from the start, as Keselowski and Logano justified their front-row qualifying sweep with a vengeance. Keselowski wasted no time with that agenda, taking charge at the green flag and leading the first 78 laps before Logano took over for five laps.
The two traded leads from there with nobody else to challenge them until Aric Almirola’s wreck brought the sixth caution on Lap 213.
That sent the leaders down pit road and scramble off produced the race’s first non-Penske leader in Busch, whose No. 18 took over on Lap 217 and led the restart with Newman second.
The Penske duo needed just seven laps to draw a bead on both drivers and Keselowski was soon second and making a furious effort trying to chase down Busch, who had a 2-second lead at one point. Once Keselowski caught him in the backstretch, he again showed his Ford’s superiority.
Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart meanwhile overcame bad starting spots to finish in the top 11. Johnson was 10th after starting 25th and while Stewart recovered from a 42nd-place start because of a transmission change for 11th. He had qualified 13th.
Points leader Jeff Gordon finished sixth and leads Johnson and Earnhardt by 24.
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