Keselowski survives to win at Talladega

To win the championship this year, Team Penske told Brad Keselowski he had to win at Talladega Superspeedway. So he did. Again. Keselowski earned an automatic berth into the third round of the playoffs with a victory Sunday at the Alabama track, where he considered himself lucky to finish after a sloppy day for NASCAR.

“I survived,” Keselowski said. “I feel like only eight cars finished the race. It was one of those crazy days; a lot of attrition.”

There were just 14 cars running at the end, and only four were playoff drivers. The race was red-flagged three times for nearly 35 minutes.

By avoiding the carnage, Keselowski won for the fifth time at Talladega, gave Ford a season sweep of the four restrictor-plate races and kept him in the hunt for his second Cup title. The win lifted him from 10th to second in the playoff standings.

“You’d love to be able to pat yourself on the back and say it’s all skill, but there is some luck that’s involved in this,” Keselowski said. “When you come here, probably three out of every four races you’re going to get caught up in a wreck. But the races where you have the good fortune, where you don’t get caught up in a wreck or you don’t have something break or any of those things, you have to take those races, run up front and win them. That’s what we’ve been able to do.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seventh in his final race at Talladega, where he and his late father combined to win 16 Cup races. Alabama declared Sunday “Dale Earnhardt Jr. Day.”

In other news, Furniture Row Racing announced a full sponsorship package for Martin Truex Jr. in 2018.

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