Keselowski wins at Talladega to claim sixth NSCS victory

Victory celebration for Brad Keselowski at Talladega Superspeedway.
Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR

Talladega Superspeedway - those two words either incite fear in a driver or a feeling of excitement.

Brad Keselowski has now won at Talladega twice, scoring his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory at the track in April of 2009. Three years later and with five additional victories under his cap, Keselowski took the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for Roger Penske to victory lane, winning for the first time at Talladega in the history of Penske Racing.

"He ran a perfect race. That's what we hire these guys for," said Roger Penske in his post-race media availability.
Keselowski was leading at the white flag, Kyle Busch in second and he had a plan as he talked about after the race.

"I had this whole plan if I ever had a situation of when I was leading here. I thought about it, dreamed about it. I knew the move I wanted to pull, and it worked. The guy running second should have the advantage," Keselowski said on his pass for the win. "Now everyone's seen it, and they know. It was the right move, and I'm glad it worked."

It didn't work out for second place finisher Kyle Busch. "Just gave a win away over there, not sure what happened," he said after the race. Disappointment shared by Matt Kenseth, who led a race high 78 laps, "I think we had the winning car we just didn't have the winning driver."

'Dega mayhem

From engines overheating to wrecking, 'Dega was a beast to many of the drivers who will be championship contenders.

Jeff Gordon had issues with overheating, Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson both lost oil pressure, while Regan Smith blew up at Lap 17 and brought out the first caution.

After the race Gordon took a stance on the overheating issues seen today, saying, "This temps thing is kind of a joke. They're going to need to fix that. When you can't race because the temps in a regular pack are an issue, we have to address that."

The "big one" happened not once, but twice. At Lap 144 Aric Almirola and Dave Blaney made contact and collected the cars of Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr. and Landon Cassill.

The second wreck, just as much wrecked cars but thankfully after yesterday's Nationwide race, no injuries. Denny Hamlin and AJ Allmendinger misjudged space while drafting together, wrecking each other and in typical 'Dega style there was collateral damage. Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Joey Logano, Robert Richardson Jr., Paul Menard, Kevin Harvick and Michael Waltrip all received damage of varying degrees.

At the checkered flag only 19 cars were on the lead lap.

Race results:

1. Brad Keselowski
2. Kyle Busch
3. Matt Kenseth
4. Kasey Kahne
5. Greg Biffle
6. Clint Bowyer 
7. David Ragan
8. Trevor Bayne
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
10. Jeff Burton
11. Jamie McMurray
12. Aric Almirola
13. David Gilliland
14. Marcos Ambrose
15. AJ Allmendinger
16. Travis Kvapil
17. Paul Menard
18. Casey Mears
19. Michael Waltrip
20. Kurt Busch
21. Bobby Labonte
22. David Reutimann
23. Denny Hamlin
24. Tony Stewart
25. Kevin Harvick
26. Joey Logano
27. Robert Richardson Jr.
28. Martin Truex Jr.
29. Terry Labonte
30. Dave Blaney
31. Carl Edwards 
32. Juan Pablo Montoya
33. Jeff Gordon
34. Landon Cassill
35. Jimmie Johnson 
36. Ryan Newman
37. Bill Elliott
38. Tony Raines
39. David Stremme
40. Regan Smith
41. Joe Nemechek
42. Josh Wise
43. Michael McDowell