An unscheduled pit stop surprisingly preceded an unexpected victory for Brad Keselowski on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But for Kevin Harvick, late-race adversity could not be overcome as a speeding penalty on pit road negated his race-long domination and left Harvick with only a 9th place finish.
After teams pitted during the fourth caution of the afternoon, it was soon discovered that Keselowski would need to return with a loose wheel. He did so and restarted 14th less than 60 laps from the checkered flag. He worked his way through the field, passed race leader Kyle Larson seven laps from the finish and kept the #2 Team Penske Ford in front the rest of the way to notch his 22nd career victory. Larson took 2nd place, a half-second behind Keselowski. Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Chase Elliott completed the top 5.
Pole sitters had won the first two races of the weekend, and for much of Sunday’s race, it looked like Harvick would follow suit. But after leading a race-high 292 of the 325 laps and winning the first two stages, the speeding ticket dropped Harvick from contention. He did come away from the 2nd race of the season with a consolation prize, of sorts. Harvick has the series lead by four points over Daytona 500 winner Kurt Busch with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series now headed into its three-week swing through the western United States.
Busch was bidding to become the first driver to open the Cup season with back-to-back wins since Kenseth in 2009 but fell short, finishing 7th.
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina
