Truex crashes in first stage

I NDIA N A P LI S » Brad Keselowski snatched victory from Denny Hamlin in the final laps of the Brickyard 400 on Monday to give Roger Penske a sweep this year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Will Power won the Indianapolis 500 in May for Team Penske’s 17th victory in that event. Despite all the organizational success at Indy, no Penske driver had been able to win NASCAR’s Brickyard 400.

Keselowski, an afterthought most of this season, used fresher tires and timely late cautions to put Penske in victory lane. Keselowski has now won two consecutive races headed into NASCAR’s playoffs. The victories are big ones, too: the Southern 500 last week and now the Brickyard 400, two of NASCAR’s crown jewel events.

Meanwhile, a rough few days for Martin Truex Jr. ended with a crash.

Denverbased Furniture Row Racing said last week it was closing at the end of the season. Truex and the team won the Cup championship last year and go into next week’s playoffs trying to defend their title.

Truex’s race came to a halt in the first stage when his Toyota blew a right brake rotor and Truex crashed.

Truex is part of the socalled “Big 3” in NASCAR of the top drivers this season. He has been competitive with Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick as the trio dominated the regular season.

Now Truex has to find a new job next season, as does his entire crew.

Said Truex: “Nobody is going to put their heads down and give up.”

Meanwhile, Keselowski and his No. 2 crew climbed the Indianapolis fence to celebrate, a move made famous by Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves, a threetime Indianapolis 500 winner.

Keselowski wasn’t a factor until two late cautions gave the 2012 series champion a chance to use fresher tires to chase down Hamlin. The race went green with three laps to go and Clint Bowyer, in second, spun his tires. Keselowski darted around Bowyer into second, then caught Hamlin. The two cars touched a handful of times as they raced for the lead, and Keselowski finally surged ahead with a little more than one lap remaining.

He won by 0.904 seconds over Erik Jones. Hamlin was third 1.703 seconds behind. The victory was the first for Ford at Indianapolis since 1999.

Steady rain for three days in Indianapolis washed out all activity surrounding NASCAR’s regularseason finale and Monday was a doubleheader with the Xfinity Series, won by Justin Allgaier, followed by the Brickyard. At stake was a wildcard slot in the 16driver playoff field, available only to a firsttime winner this season.

Jamie McMurray gave it a late go and challenged Bowyer for position on a restart with 12 laps remaining. McMurray, however, couldn’t get past Bowyer.