Brad Keselowski Wins at Richmond

Brad Keselowski won the Nationwide race at Richmond after a long night of wild racing, some 4 wide action, hard hits and some pushing and kicking…below the belt. Yep, it was certainly a crazy 250 laps at RIR. Sam Hornish Jr. dominated the early part of the race leading 83 laps but three men rose to the top and stayed there throughout the night without fading. They were NASCAR Sprint Cup regulars Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch who was trying to win his 4th NNS race in a row.

Brad Keselowski celebrates after winning the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond International Raceway in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Photo Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Late in the race, a big wreck ensued in turn three sending Austin Dillon, Justin Allgaier and Brian Scott spinning. Austin hit the wall hard and Justin was tore up badly as well. Brian was able to continue but his night wouldn’t get much better…stay tuned. I have to mention Jeffrey Earnhardt who was getting his first chance in a competitive car tonight driving for his uncle, Dale Jr. He was able to fight his way up to as high as 7th at one point late in the event but lost about 10 spots after a stack up and heavy contact following a restart. Travis Pastrana did a good job as well fighting back from one lap down to finish 9th which is his 3rd top 10 of 2013. Ryan Reed was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes a couple years ago but made his NNS debut tonight driving for RFR. The 19 year old raced very well and finished 16th after running around the top 10 the whole night.

In the end, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick were battling it out for the win running door-to-door when contact was made sending Harvick sideways down the back stretch. The two slowed to avoid a wreck and Kyle Busch jumped at the opportunity moving to the outside of Brad. He impressively passed both of them on the high side taking the lead before a caution flew for Mike Wallace. Brad fought he was past Kyle and was quickly followed by Kevin while Busch faded back to a distant 3rd. The fight was on but Harvick didn’t have enough to catch the defending NSCS champion and had to settle for 2nd. It was the 21st victory of Brad’s Nationwide career and his second at Richmond International Raceway.

Things got very interesting on the cool down lap when Nelson Piquet Jr. and Brian Scott decided to partake in some extracurricular activities. Scott finished 20th after Nelson gave him a shot in the rear while battling for 15th and he wanted to show his his displeasure with the move made by the Bazillion born racer. After door slamming Nelson, the #30 decided to turn Brian sending him spinning. He drove into the nose of the car after spinning him out and Scott decided to talk to him on pit road. Well, Nelson was ready to throw down and immediately shoved the approaching Brian Scott. As crews intervened, Nelson kicked Brian in an area you really shouldn’t be kicking another man. Both gave very heated interviews and were called to the hauler by NASCAR officials.

Sam Hornish Jr. finished 7th and continues to lead the standings but not by much over Regan Smith who is just a single point back after his 5th place run for JR Motorsports. The two have separated themselves from the rest of pack with the next closest competitor being Brian Scott who is 23pts behind. The next race on the schedule is the treacherous Talladega Superspeedway and you can bet that race will shake up the standing big time!