USA TODAY International Edition
Keselowski cruises in New Hampshire
Brad Keselowski’s third win of the NASCAR Cup Series season came dominantly Sunday afternoon.
Keselowski led 183 of the 301 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, including the last 81. He took the lead for the final time on lap 221, having swapped the top spot back and forth most of the afternoon with Denny Hamlin. But after getting around Hamlin again, Keselowski drove away to a winning margin of over one second.
The Team Penske driver was the only one whose laps led were in the triple digits. The win is the 33rd for Keselowski in the Cup Series and his second at New Hampshire.
“We’ve had a lot of great races this year with the 2 car, but we just haven’t really gone out and kind of dominated a race,” said Keselowski. “Talking to ( crew chief) Jeremy Bullins, ( it’s) like, ‘ Man, what do we need to get to that next level? We’re right there. We need to go out and just dominate a race,’ and that’s what today was for us with the Western Star/ Alliance Parts Ford Mustang.
“I’m really proud of my team and the effort that they gave today. A great race car. And to all of Team Penske, thank you.”
Hamlin came home second after leading 92 laps. His Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led the field to the green flag on lap 219, which was the final restart of the day.
Keselowski and Hamlin were the only two drivers who led multiple times throughout the afternoon. The two combined to lead 276 laps. Five other drivers also led laps, with the most coming from Chase Elliott ( nine).
“We just kind of were second there to the 2 ( Keselowski),” said Hamlin. “We could really do well on restarts, and we were going back- and- forth. Wow, that was some really, really good short- track racing there. Hopefully, the fans liked what they saw there with me and the 2 for most of the day.
“Some great side- by- side racing. We treated each other fairly, and it’s good that we got one- two out of it.”
Rounding out the top- five finishers were Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, and Kevin Harvick. Truex rebounded from a lap 97 penalty for an uncontrolled tire during a pit stop.
Matt DiBenedetto finished sixth with pole- sitter Aric Almirola finishing seventh. Almirola only led the first two laps.
After a spin on lap 64, while racing with Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson drove back into the top 10 late in the race but faded to a 12th- place finish.
Kyle Busch did not finish the race. Busch completed 15 laps and had an early exit after cutting a tire and hitting the Turn 3 wall. He finished last.
• Formula One: Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix on three wheels after a dramatic last- lap tire failure threatened to derail an otherwise perfect afternoon.
Hamilton was cruising in the lead with half a lap to go when his left front tire spectacularly failed, forcing him to crawl to the checkered flag with Max Verstappen in hot pursuit.
Verstappen started the lap with a 40second deficit on a fresh set of soft tires and homed in on the stricken Mercedes at a rapid rate. But he fell just short, Hamilton limping across the line with five seconds to spare in a dramatic conclusion to what should have been a straightforward victory.
“That was definitely a heart- inmouth kind of feeling,” Hamilton said. “Just driving it, trying to keep the speed up. I was just praying to try to get it around, to not be too slow. I nearly didn’t get it around the last two corners, but I did.”