MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Despite an aerodynamic package designed to increase passing throughout the field, Brad Keselowski channeled short-track ace Fred Lorenzen and put a beatdown on the field Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Keselowski passed polesitter Joey Logano on the sixth round and then proceeded to lead 446 of 500 laps in the STP 500, cruising to his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season.
The Team Penske driver was only seriously challenged once during the entire distance, when Chase Elliott bumped Keselowski out of the way following a lap-320 restart, but Keselowski used lightning-fast pit work and the No. 1 pit stall to reclaim command under caution at lap 374 and never looked back.
Keselowski paced the final 127 circuits uninterrupted en route to the 29th win of his Cup Series career.
“Our car was really good,” Keselowski said in victory lane. “This Ford Mustang – Ford worked really hard in the off‑season to build these cars and make them real strong, and so far, it has been really good. Just a great day for our team. Awesome execution on pit road, and big credit to Doug Yates and all the engine stuff. Those guys worked really hard.
“This is just one of those days you dream of as a race car driver, where you’ve got a great car.”
Keselowski’s 446 laps led on Sunday were the most laps led in a single Cup race since Kyle Petty led 484 laps at Rockingham Speedway in October of 1992, as well as the first time since Jeff Gordon in 1997 that a driver led more than 400 laps in a single race at Martinsville.
That kind of dominance evoked memories of Lorenzen, the late NASCAR Hall of Famer who won three straight Martinsville Cup races by leading more than 400 laps and set the record for most laps led in a Cup race at the .526-mile oval in September of 1964 by pacing 493 of 500 laps in the Old Dominion 500.
While Keselowski didn’t quite hit Lorenzen’s mark on Sunday, he did set a career-best for laps led in one Cup race in his 12-year career at NASCAR’s top level, and even still didn’t feel like he had the best car.
“I don’t know if we were as good as the 9 car, Chase Elliott,” Keselowski admitted. “He was really strong, and when he passed me there with about 200 to go, I watched him and studied him and kind of broke it down and knew what I had to do to hold him off with that fast of a car. Luckily, we were able to pull it off on that that last run and had everything go our way.
“It’s almost a little bittersweet that we’ve only got two wins here, because I feel like we should have seven or eight of these grandfather clocks, but we got one today and it’s a really cool feeling.”
Elliott, who dogged Keselowski for much of the day, had a shot in the closing stages after a slowing Ross Chastain brought out the final caution of the race and set up a restart with 45 laps left.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver fired off third when the green flag waved, but dispatched Kyle Busch two laps after the restart with an outside sweep and wasted no time putting himself in Keselowski’s tire tracks.
However, try as he might, Elliott could never get close enough to take a true shot at Keselowski for the win and had to settle for second, despite making up time with a diamond line through the corners inside of 10 to go.
“I felt like we were about as even with him as we could be,” Elliott noted. “I felt like when he (Keselowski) did get the lead, there was a little advantage to being out front, being able to work traffic your way and kind of play off it and whatnot.
“I tried to move up there at the end, but I don’t know if I could have got to him. Maybe if I moved up a little sooner,” he added. “But I tried to get to him there in (turn) three. I was pretty well content on moving him out of the way. But maybe next time.”
After winning the previous two Cup Series races, Kyle Busch crossed the line third, ahead of Ryan Blaney and five-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin.
Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Aric Almirola and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.
Polesitter Joey Logano led the first five laps, but was never a factor and finished 19th.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.