Brad Keselowski survived a fierce duel with Kyle Busch during the final stage of Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway, taking his last lead 43 laps from the finish and keeping the #2 Team Penske Ford in front the rest of the way to record his second victory of the season. The two drivers swapped the lead five times over the final 100 laps before Keselowski prevailed. Combined, he and Busch led all but four of the final 228 trips around the Virginia half-mile.
Keselowski’s margin of victory was 1.8 seconds over Busch with Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Austin Dillon completing the top five. Pole sitter Kyle Larson, bidding for his 2nd straight victory, led only the first 23 laps and finished 17th in the first short-track race of the season. Furniture Row Racing’s Erik Jones was the highest-finishing rookie, placing 12th in the 38-car field.
Sunday’s win is the 23rd of Keselowski’s career, but first at Martinsville. He’s the first repeat winner through the first six races of the 2017 Monster Energy Series, adding yesterday’s victory to his win last month at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This is Ford’s first Cup Series victory at Martinsville since Kurt Busch won the track’s fall stop in 2002 – 29 races ago – while driving for team owner Jack Roush.
Sunday’s race included 14 cautions for 95 laps, nearly 1/5 of the race distance. There were 18 lead changes among just seven drivers: Larson, Keselowski, Logano, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex, Jr. and Denny Hamlin.
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina
