CLERMONT, Ind. – Brad Keselowski stayed close to the leaders all night and was strong in the two green-white-checkered laps at the end to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Kroger 200 on Saturday night.
Keselowski led only seven of the 204 laps and took his first lead in Lap 198. He had earned the pole in his previous two races but hadn’t won.
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It was a good overall day for Keselowski, who earlier in the day qualified fifth for today’s Brickyard 400.
James Buescher finished second after finishing second in the trucks race on Friday night.
Pole-sitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led 189 laps before finishing third. He led by nearly four seconds in Lap 175 before the field tightened because of a caution following an accident.
Stenhouse still moved ahead of Reed Sorenson into the points lead. Sorenson finished ninth.
The race was clean until the end. The first caution didn’t come out until Lap 48.
Carl Edwards was penalized for speeding in the pits while trying to edge past Stenhouse and Bayne and was sent to the back of the pack and was in the 15th position when racing resumed. Stenhouse was in front heading into Lap 184.
SPRINT CUP: David Ragan, in the midst of a career breakthrough, added the pole for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to his suddenly improved resume.
Ragan earned his first career Sprint Cup Series victory earlier this month at Daytona, a track long considered to be the crown jewel track of NASCAR. Indianapolis ranks among the most prestigious tracks in the world, and Ragan’s pole-winning run Saturday was no small feat.
He made his run late in the session, with three-time Brickyard winner Jimmie Johnson holding down the top spot on the leaderboard. Ragan turned a lap of 182.994 mph in his Roush Fenway Racing Ford to bump Johnson from the pole.
It’s Ragan’s second career pole. His first came in April at Texas.
WITH A RECORD $119 million in winnings in his NASCAR career, Jeff Gordon is quite accustomed to the finer things in life. A fact-finding mission to Congo last week has left the four-time NASCAR champion feeling a bit guilty about the luxuries he enjoys.
“It was an experience that will change me forever,” Gordon said of last week’s trip with the Clinton Global Imitative.
“I feel guilty about buying a bottle of water for two bucks. You look at your refrigerator and you go like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s so much waste here.’ You just start looking at every aspect of your life and the things you take for granted.”
Gordon made the 28-hour flight to Africa following the July 17 race at New Hampshire. He spent almost three days in Congo, where he saw children walking barefoot along busy roads and women carrying sacks of coal on their backs. The father of two young children said he didn’t expect to see such struggles.
Gordon has had many new experiences this season, his first with the Drive to End Hunger as the primary sponsor of his No. 24 Chevrolet. The AARP Foundation has used the sponsorship — the first major cause-related sponsorship in NASCAR — to raise money and awareness of hunger in America.
Since partnering with Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports at the start of the year, the campaign has delivered 2.7 million meals to hunger relief organizations near NASCAR tracks.
FORMULA ONE: Red Bull reminded its Formula One rivals that it remains the team to beat after world champion Sebastian Vettel was quickest in the final practice before qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, Hungary.
Vettel’s crew worked on his car through the night, and the payoff was immediate as the championship leader stormed to a fastest time of 1 minute, 21.168 seconds at the close of the 60-minute session as temperatures rose at the Hungaroring circuit.
Teams are allowed to work beyond a 2 a.m. curfew limit four times during the season.
Ferrari and McLaren remained right on the Austrian team’s heel as Fernando Alonso of Ferrari finished 0.30 seconds behind the German.
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