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LAS VEGAS – Brad Keselowski made the final recovery and left the field in the scorching heat of Vegas.
With another huge performance in his late-season drive, Keselowski finished ahead – and he has the three NASCAR Grand Prix drivers looking over their shoulders.
Keselowski earned his third straight victory at Sunday's Cup Series, opening the playoffs by persevering in an afternoon filled with wrecks and taking overtime.
He also won team owner Roger Penske's 500th victory in all competitions with his ingenious performance in 99-degree conditions and his endless stop at the end of the race with 12 warnings and several wrecks.
"I did not think it would ever end," said Keselowski after his 27th career win and third place in Las Vegas. "I was afraid of running out of gas at the end."
Keselowski had a lot of trouble two laps from the end while he sat in his car and was waiting for the cleaning of the wreck of Michael McDowell with Kurt Busch. But after stopping the red flag, no one could follow Keselowski's Team Penske Ford.
The win allowed Keselowski to win an extraordinary run at the end of the season, which won at Darlington and Brickyard several weeks in a row before Vegas. Keselowski credited the efficiency of his crew for the last win in his unlikely invocation, which added intrigue to a NASCAR season largely dominated by the Big Three of Truex, Harvick and Kyle Busch.
"We have not been the best car in the last three weeks," said Keselowski. "We got everything together when it counted, and we kind of stole it today, same scenario for the last two weeks, I think we stole the last three races, we're not complaining. but we still have a lot of work to go out there and win heads-up without these problems. "
Penske was not present during his historic victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, instead of watching Sonoma during the IndyCar season finale. He trained the Penske team in 1966 and ran 50 drivers on 14 series over the next 52 years.
The owner fired his fist on the timekeeping pad in Sonoma after Keselowski's victory.
"We did it, boss!" Keselowski shouted. "It's all a number, is not it? It's really great to be part of that and to have the last one to get us there, it's rather good."
"Brad has clearly found the horseshoe," Truex said. "Three races in a row, he won (and) he did not have the best car, he did not drive the most laps in any of those races and he came to the end with good pit stops and a good I think clearly, it's pretty obvious how it worked.He's hot right now.It's on a series.It's like that.We finished third with the best car. "
Eight of the 16 playoff drivers had various problems during the race, which was preceded by six warnings in the last 60 laps alone. Four playoff drivers failed, including co-leader Kevin Harvick, who failed with 120 laps to go when he blew his right front tire.
Kyle Busch finished seventh in Vegas, even after crossing the wall and going 35 meters back.
Truex took the lead with Busch and Keselowski, who beat Harvick.
More things to know about Sin City:
Shots
Harvick's flat tire also destroyed poleman Erik Jones, who did not react quickly enough and discouraged Harvick. The former 42-year-old did not need a fantastic result in the first playoff series to qualify, but he was still furious about his tire failure. "There was something wrong with when we put the tires on," Harvick said. "It was like the Russian roulette every time you put these (terrible) tires and you try to roll around the track, once it is tight, once it is loose, once they are blistered. a set of tires on it and you will not be able to cross the field. "
THE BREAK
Jamie McMurray knocked down and destroyed the Chase Elliott playoff driver on the 211th lap. Elliott said he planned to drive next week to Richmond, despite his shoulder injury.
SECOND HEAT
Las Vegas will play a second race this season for the first time. The temperature reached only 58 degrees during its annual run of March, but the pilots transpired from the start. The desert sun made the tracklicker 1 1/2 mile that way. Even the fans obviously did not like the conditions: although ticket sales went well, some of the stands seemed to be half empty as many fans were running away from the heat and spending part of the day running. shadow.
WHO SHOT
Who is not
Keselowski booked his place in the second round of qualifying, but four drivers will be eliminated from the race in two weeks. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson is in the drop zone after suffering damage in a late wreck and finished 22nd in Vegas. Denny Hamlin is the last of the playoff drivers after going through the championship with 21 laps to go – and he got no style points for stopping his destroyed car in his stand.
FOLLOWING
At the Richmond Raceway Saturday.
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