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Keselowski takes Iowa Nationwide win

Brad Keselowski beat points leader Kyle Busch in a tight and exciting battle to win the inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway.

Although the JR Motorsports driver led nearly half of the distance, he had to face a strong challenge from Busch, who started from the rear of the field but stole the lead from Keselowski with 25 laps remaining, partly due to two new tyres he took on a late caution, while Keselowski chose to stay on the track on a used set.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver seemed to be making the most of his fresher rubber when he got by the leader, but after the final restart with only 10 laps remaining, Keselowski got a run on Busch and retook the lead, then fended him off until the chequered flag.

“If I’d finished second I’d be kicking myself right now but it worked out and I’m feeling pretty good about it,” said Keselowski about his team’s decision not to pit on the penultimate caution.

“Kyle was a little bit better on the short runs and he put those two tyres on and he had me. We were in trouble but just kept digging hard and forced the mistakes on Kyle’s part and were able to drive by him.”

Busch was left frustrated as yet another win slipped through his fingers on the closing laps. Not even tying Jack Ingram’s record for most consecutive top two finishes with nine in a row, was of any consolation to the 24-year-old, who further stretched his lead in the standings.

“Just imagine if all those seconds were wins,” said Busch, who has won three races in his last nine Nationwide Series outings.

“Good battle but our cars just wasn’t good enough today, or I wasn’t good enough, probably me,” said Busch. “We fought tight off [the corners] all day and then there at the end we were loose off. So I don’t know what to do here with these races but very, very disappointing, very, very frustrating. I guess I just come here to finish second in these deals.”

Jason Leffler was able to fend off former Nationwide Series champion Carl Edwards for third place, scoring his 14th top ten finish in the last 16 races. Behind Edwards, Kelly Bires rounded out the top five.

Penske rookie Justin Allgaier led the race early on but was involved in an incident with only 15 laps remaining when he made contact with Erik Darnell and Steven Wallace while battling for fourth place, managing just a 15th place finish in the end .

Busch has now a 207 point cushion to Edwards in the championship, with Keselowski 165 behind the Roush Fenway driver.

Pos  Driver              Car        Laps
 1.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet  250
 2.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     250
 3.  Jason Leffler       Toyota     250
 4.  Carl Edwards        Ford       250
 5.  Kelly Bires         Toyota     250
 6.  Jason Keller        Ford       250
 7.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet  250
 8.  Michael McDowell    Dodge      250
 9.  Scott Lagasse Jr    Toyota     250
10.  Stephen Leicht      Chevrolet  250
11.  Michael Annett      Toyota     250
12.  Benny Gordon        Ford       250
13.  Brad Coleman        Toyota     250
14.  Mike Bliss          Chevrolet  250
15.  Justin Allgaier     Dodge      250
16.  John Borneman III   Ford       250
17.  Steve Wallace       Chevrolet  250
18.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  250
19.  Morgan Shepherd     Chevrolet  250
20.  Eric McClure        Ford       250
21.  Matt Carter         Ford       248
22.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr  Ford       248
23.  Erik Darnell        Ford       247
24.  Danny O'Quinn Jr    Chevrolet  245
25.  Brendan Gaughan     Chevrolet  244
26.  Trevor Bayne        Toyota     244
27.  Sean Murphy         Dodge      222
28.  Austin Dillon       Chevrolet  211
29.  John Wes Townley    Ford       205
30.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  195
31.  Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet  168
32.  Brian Ickler        Toyota     165
33.  Ken Butler III      Chevrolet  108
34.  Aric Almirola       Chevrolet  74
35.  Casey Atwood        Ford       37
36.  Jeff Fuller         Chevrolet  31
37.  Kertus Davis        Chevrolet  26
38.  Mark Green          Chevrolet  21
39.  Kevin Lepage        Dodge      19
40.  Chase Miller        Chevrolet  9
41.  Coleman Pressley    Toyota     8
42.  Johnny Chapman      Chevrolet  7
43.  Mike Harmon         Chevrolet  6

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