Keselowski pulls away, wins at Martinsville

No problem with being bumped: Busch

MARTINSVILLE, Virginia, April 3, (AP): Brad Keselowski had sampled success at Martinsville Speedway, but had never put everything together to get to Victory Lane.

He changed that on Sunday, passing Kyle Busch with 43 laps to go and pulling away to win for the 23rd time in his career.

“It felt like we were due, and if you ever can be, this is one of those tracks and today was one of those days where we persevered in a special way,” Keselowski said.

“The battle there with Kyle at the end was a lot of fun to be a part of. I hope it was a lot of fun to watch.”

The victory came in team owner Roger Penske’s 1,000th start in NASCAR’s top series, and gave Ford its first victory on NASCAR’s oldest and smallest track since 2002. It also made Keselowski the first two-time winner this season, and was his fifth consecutive top-five finish.

“This is one I’m never going to forget,” said Keselowski, who had been the runner-up twice in the past four races here.

Keselowski or Busch led the last 160 laps and swapped the lead several times during a green flag run that began with 64 laps to go. Keselowski had the lead coming out of the 14th and final caution, but Busch quickly slipped underneath him to go back in front. Keselowski stalked him for 14 laps, the nose of his Ford inches from the rear bumper of Busch’s Toyota.

When he finally got around Busch again, he gradually pulled away, opening a lead of nearly two seconds as Busch’s car, dominant for much of the day, faded. The lead paid off at the end when Keselowski had to navigate around lapped traffic. He won by 1.8 seconds.

“All we did was put four tires on, and when we did, it went to junk,”

Mahindra Racing driver Nick Heidfeld (left), crashes with his teammate Felix Rosenqvis, past Panasonic Jaguar Racing driver Adam Caroll (front), during

the Formula E Mexico City ePrix auto race, in Mexico City on April 1. (AP)