NASCAR Cup Series: Brad Keselowski dominates 2019 STP 500

Brad Keselowski dominated the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway to earn his second victory of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski entered the sixth race of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, the STP 500, at Martinsville Speedway, as one of four drivers who had won at least one race so far this season. He became the second driver to become a two-time winner this season by winning this race in dominant fashion.

Keselowski started the 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) Martinsville Speedway oval in Ridgeway, Virginia in third place in his #2 Ford, and he went on to win it by 0.549 seconds over Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who finished in second in his #9 Chevrolet.

Elliott’s second place finish was his top finish of the season and since he won the October race at Kansas Speedway last season, Hendrick Motorsports’ top finish of the season and since Elliott won this race at Kansas Speedway, and Chevrolet’s top finish of the season and since Elliott won this race at Kansas Speedway.

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Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, the only driver aside of Keselowski who has won two races so far this season, was the highest finishing Toyota driver of the race. He finished in third place in his #18 Toyota. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five by finishing in fourth and fifth in their #12 Ford and #11 Toyota, respectively.

Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Daniel Suarez all finished in the top 10. They finished in sixth, seventh, ninth and 10th place in their #4 Ford, #14 Ford, #10 Ford and #41 Ford, respectively. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. finished in eighth in his #19 Toyota.

The race featured only three lead changes among only three drivers. Aside of Keselowski, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 446 laps led and won both stage one and stage two, two drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Elliott, who led 49 laps, and race polesitter Joey Logano, who led only the race’s first five laps and finished in a disappointing 19th place in his #22 Team Penske Ford.

A Cup Series race has not featured three or less lead changes since the September race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the 2000 season. This race featured only one lead change, as Jeff Burton started it in second place and took the lead from race polesitter Bobby Labonte. He never looked back and led all 300 of the race’s laps en route to earning the victory.

A driver has not led 446 laps or more in a Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway since Richard Petty won the 500-lap Old Dominion 500 at the track back in October of 1970 after leading 480 of its laps. At one point, Keselowski led 319 consecutive laps of today’s race.

The race featured a total of seven caution flag periods, including two as a result of the usual endings of stages one and two and five as a result of on-track incidents, for 56 laps. Of the 36 drivers who started the race, 33 finished it, and of the 33 drivers who finished the race, 20 finished on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2019 STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Race Results
1st – Brad Keselowski
2nd – Chase Elliott
3rd – Kyle Busch
4th – Ryan Blaney
5th – Denny Hamlin
6th – Kevin Harvick
7th – Clint Bowyer
8th – Martin Truex Jr.
9th – Aric Almirola
10th – Daniel Suarez
11th – Austin Dillon
12th – Kurt Busch
13th – Ty Dillon
14th – Alex Bowman
15th – Paul Menard
16th – Ryan Preece
17th – Darrell Wallace Jr.
18th – Kyle Larson
19th – Joey Logano
20th – Matt DiBenedetto
21st – Chris Buescher
22nd – William Byron
23rd – Ryan Newman
24th – Jimmie Johnson
25th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
26th – David Ragan
27th – Daniel Hemric
28th – Landon Cassill
29th – Matt Tifft
30th – Erik Jones
31st – Michael McDowell
32nd – D.J. Kennington
33rd – Corey LaJoie
34th – Ross Chastain
35th – Jeb Burton
36th – Cody Ware

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The seventh of 36 races on the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. This race is scheduled to take place next Sunday, March 31 at 3:00 p.m. ET, and it is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

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