LEBANON, Tenn. — Brad Keselowski made headlines recently for refusing to back down to Sprint Cup Series drivers.
Today, he’s savoring that choice. Keselowski won his first-career Nationwide Series race Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway, passing Sprint Cup Series regular and Nationwide point-leader Clint Bowyer six laps from the finish in the Federated Auto Parts 300.
“It’s not like I came into the sport winning,” Keselowski said. “I feel like I paid some dues. I did some stuff with some lower-level teams. When you are doing that…you always question yourself.”
David Reutimann led with 10 laps remaining, but a caution flag eliminated his shot at a runaway finish. The restart fell on lap 217 of the 225-lap race and played perfectly into Keselowski’s hands.
“We caught up to Clint (Bowyer) there and the yellow came out. That’s what we needed to catch back up to the 99 (of Reutimann),” he said. “It jumbled the field up. I thought I was going to be able to get by Clint, and I thought David was going to drive away. For some reason, David didn’t go. I got behind him, took the air off of him. The next thing I knew, we were by David, and I knew I could take down Clint.”
Reutimann and Bowyer both slipped at the finish, losing positions not only to Keselowski but to David Stremme as well. Stremme has finished runner-up twice this season, and has tallied six top-10 runs over the course of the last seven races.
“It’s hard for us, an independent team. We’ve run this car nine or 10 times this year. We’re consistent,” Stremme said. “I thought we were going to run third or fourth. Reutimann should have won. He had the best car, by far. We just have to go to work on our stuff, keep contending and hopefully, we can get one.”
Reutimann finished third while Bowyer took fourth and David Ragan closed out the top five.
“We had a straightaway lead and when you end up running third… these races aren’t all that easy to win. When you have a chance to win and you don’t, it’s cause for me to get a little upset,” Reutimann said.
Reutimann gained two positions in the point standings with his run. He now sits second to Bowyer, trailing by 166 markers.
Mike Wallace, Scott Wimmer, Kelly Bires, Landon Cassill and Greg Biffle rounded out the top 10.
Reutimann, Bowyer, Ragan, Biffle, Carl Edwards, Jason Leffler and Kyle Busch all made the trip from Pennsylvania and Sprint Cup competition at Pocono Raceway to compete in Saturday’s Nationwide event.
Joey Logano claimed the pole in his second series start and led 64 laps. His night ended early, however, after being involved in a four-wide battle gone wrong on lap 89. Logano got sideways and made slight contact with Busch. Busch finished the event 20th, one lap down. Logano was 31st.