Keselowski hopes Clash victory is sign of good things to come,

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Before he turned a single lap, NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski opened Speedweeks as the 7-1 favorite to win the Daytona 500.

After racing to an exhibition victory Sunday, Keselowski is shaping up to be a safe bet.

Keselowski led Team Penske’s sweep of the top two spots in the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway, the first chance for Cup Series teams to show their offseason work.

“I have never won anything here during Speedweeks, and I feel like I have choked them away, to be quite honest,” Keselowski said in victory lane. “You need one to break through. Hopefully, this is our breakthrough.”

Keselowski is one of the best restrictor-plate racers in NASCAR. But while he’s a five-time winner at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, his lone victory at Daytona International Speedway was in the 2016 summer race.

When it comes to Speedweeks — the Clash, Thursday’s twin qualifying races and the season-opening Daytona 500 next Sunday — Keselowski always came up empty. His best finish in the Daytona 500 was third in 2013, and he finished fourth a year earlier. In his prior appearances in the all-star Clash, Keselowski finished inside the top nine in four of his five races.

“It was a good day, a great start to Speedweeks and now there’s two more to go,” Keselowski said.

The 17-car field is set by a draw, and Keselowski started last. He had 75 laps to race his way to the front, which was easy enough for the three-car Penske contingent. Keselowski had the race in control as the Penske drivers closed in on the checkered flag. He had a piece of garbage stuck to the front of his Ford, and that appeared to be his only challenge.

“I was worried about the (competitors),” he said, “but the car was way overheating there at the end, and I was more worried about it blowing up than anything else.”

Ryan Blaney pulled out of line from behind Keselowski on the final lap in an attempt to beat his teammate, but he was left alone in the bottom lane and faded into traffic. Joey Logano, the 2017 Clash winner, didn’t have enough help to mount a challenge on Keselowski and had to settle for second.

“It is fun when you are up there running and you don’t know what is going to happen,” Logano said. “The suspense keeps building as you are running single-file: Three to go, two to go, here comes the white flag — when do you make the move? Do you make a move? … You are waiting to see what everyone else is going to do, and you are thinking about the type of people they are and what the possible moves are they will make.

“Then as soon as we hit the white flag, Blaney was able to go to the bottom. I had to stay on top because I would have gotten passed.”

Kyle Larson made contact with Jimmie Johnson on the final lap to trigger an accident that allowed Keselowski an easier route to victory lane.

Blaney faded to fourth — Kurt Busch was third — as Ford drivers took the top four spots. For the manufacturer, it was a nice rebound from qualifying earlier Sunday, when the fastest Ford driver was Kevin Harvick in eighth.

In a race that means nothing beyond an early glimpse of who might contend in the Daytona 500, Blaney was disappointed with his finish.

“I thought we were in a good spot. Even though Brad is one of the best at doing this, I thought we had a good chance at it,” Blaney said. “I probably didn’t pull out at a very good time. I thought it was enough, but I got hung out.

“I should know better than that. I need to learn from that.”