Image via WikipediaBrad Keselowski pulled away from the rest of the field on a restart with eight laps to go to easily win Friday night's Nationwide race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was Keselowski's eleventh career win in the series, his fifth win of the season and the second in the new Nationwide car. It was Keselowski's first win at Charlotte.
Keselowski inherited the lead when his crew opted for track position over new tires and he stayed out during a caution on Lap 154 (of 200). Other than a brief battle for the lead with Martin Truex Jr. and a couple of late restarts, he had no problem running the last 56 laps on the same set of tires.
Keselowski crossed the finish line 1.137 seconds ahead of Truex. Justin Allgaier was third. Joey Logano was fourth. Clint Bowyer had the car to challenge Keselowski for the win, but had to rally to finish fifth after a pit road speeding penalty on his final stop. Kyle Busch lead a race-high 84 laps, but faded at the end to finish sixth. (Race results)
That Lap 154 caution, where Keselowski inherited the lead and Bowyer got his speeding penalty, was a strange call by NASCAR to correct a mistake. Brian Scott was given a pass-through penalty for a missing lugnut on Lap 146. When NASCAR officials later determined that there was no missing lugnut, they called the caution to give Scott a chance to get his lap back. Kevin Harvick claimed that the "ghost caution" ruined his strategy and his chance of winning. Harvick fell back on the restart, later pitted for fresh tires and finished tenth. Scott spun out on the front straightaway on Lap 182 to bring out the seventh caution and finished 28th.
Danica Patrick finished 21st, her best showing in nine Nationwide starts. JR Motorsports announced Friday that Patrick will compete in the first four races of the 2011 Nationwide season, including her first trip to Bristol Motor Speedway. She will run a similar schedule to this year's 13-race campaign.
There's no drama in the Nationwide title race now. Go ahead and start engraving Keselowski's name on the trophy. He now leads Carl Edwards, who finished 13th, by 450 points with just four races remaining. (Points standings)
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