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 [May 13, 2024]
All Brad Keselowski needed Sunday to snap his career-long
losing streak was a good break.
The No. 6 RFK Racing driver finally got one.
Keselowski took advantage of a tussle up front, grabbed the lead
with nine laps to go and won the NASCAR Cup Series' Goodyear 400 on
Sunday at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C.
In a 33-lap dash after Kyle Larson's wreck, Tyler Reddick ran down
leader Chris Buescher on the backstretch, but the two cars made
contact in Turn 3 with 10 laps left, knocking both cars out of the
season's 13th race as it stayed green.
Third-place Keselowski assumed the point and went on to break his
110-race winless streak, which dated back to Talladega in 2021, by
beating Ty Gibbs by 1.214 seconds in the six-caution race.
"When Tyler got underneath (Buescher), I knew I had another shot at
it," Keselowski said after his 36th career win. "We caught a break.
We've caught enough bad breaks in the last year or two. It's nice to
catch a good one."
The Buescher-Reddick incident in front of him wasn't good for either
of them.
A week after coming in second in the closest finish in NASCAR
history, Buescher finished 30th. Reddick, who led a career-high 174
laps, ended up 32nd.
Buescher, Keselowski's RFK teammate, angrily grabbed Reddick on pit
road and expressed his disgust at the incident.
"We got wrecked, that one's as clear as day," Buescher said. "I
totally got used up. ... That's two weeks in a row we've had a shot
to win races.
"One, I'm going to live in my head forever what I'd have done
different. This one here? I need someone else to be more mature
about it."
Keselowski's win gave Ford its first victory of 2024 as three blue
ovals finished in the top five, rounded out by Josh Berry, Denny
Hamlin and Chase Briscoe.
Two-time Darlington winner Erik Jones, who suffered a lower vertebra
fracture in a violent wreck at Talladega, started 30th and finished
19th in his No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota after missing two races.
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May 12, 2024; Darlington, South Carolina, USA; NASCAR Cup Series
driver Brad Keselowski (6) celebrates winning the Goodyear 400 at
Darlington Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports
On Throwback Weekend at the famed 1.366-mile
speedway, drivers sported paint schemes on their cars commemorating
ones from decades ago.
Top qualifier Reddick, driving his No. 45 Toyota decked out in a Tim
Richmond paint scheme that he drove for two races in 1982, led from
the outset and steadily pulled away from fellow front-row starter
Keselowski.
Following a series of varied pit-stop strategies, Larson, last
week's winner at Kansas, easily beat Gibbs by two seconds for the
90-lap Stage 1 win with Keselowski well behind in third.
The 293-lap race's first major incident occurred on a restart on Lap
129 when William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney raced
three-wide between Turns 1 and 2.
On the low side, Byron's Chevrolet crowded the Toyota of middle-man
Truex, who made contact and forced Blaney's Ford into the wall.
Buescher got into the back of Truex, who hit Blaney's No. 12 again
as the third caution waved.
In the race's tightest early racing, Reddick and Keselowski made
contact with 16 laps to go in the second segment before the
polesitter squeezed by Keselowski and claimed his second stage win
of 2024 and first ever at Darlington.
--Field Level Media
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