Late pass gives Keselowski victory in 1,000th Nationwide race
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Distributed by The Sports Xchange
RICHMOND, Va.--You can call Brad Keselowski the heartbreaker.
Unlike the antagonist in the Rolling Stones' hit song by that name, Keselowski broke Brian Scott's heart with a 22--his No. 22 Ford Mustang, to be precise.
Grabbing the lead for the first time after a restart on Lap 240, Keselowski subsequently survived a seventh caution and a final restart to beat Scott to the finish line by 1.947 seconds in Friday night's Virginia 529 College Savings 250, the 1,000th race in NASCAR Nationwide Series history.
With a dominant car and excellent work by his pit crew, Scott had led the first 239 of 250 laps before Keselowski grabbed the lead from the outside lane on the next-to-last restart and held it the rest of the way.
The victory was Keselowski's fifth in 12 starts this season and the 25th of his career. Regan Smith ran fourth, followed by Kyle Busch and Trevor Bayne. Series leader Sam Hornish Jr. finished sixth.
Scott dominated from the outset while Keselowski worked his way toward the front. By the time Keselowski cleared Busch for the second position on Lap 195, Scott held a lead of more than 1.5 seconds over the No. 22 Ford. But slowly, inexorably, Keselowski began to close on Scott's No. 2 Chevrolet.
By Lap 210, the margin was .823 seconds. After Scott worked traffic on Lap 217, his advantage shrank to .428 seconds, roughly three car-lengths. But Scott pulled away to a lead of more than a second before caution for Hal Martin's brush with the wall slowed the race on Lap 229.
