HomeUncategorizedKeslowski Wins the Nationwide Kroger 200

Keslowski Wins the Nationwide Kroger 200

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Brad Keslowski won the Kroger 200 at the Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

“I am going to have to go back and watch this race again,” said Keslowski. “I am not sure how it all happened.”

How it happened was the race was dominated by pole sitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who led for 189 laps of the race. But after a wild ending, the race ended on a green-white checker as Keslowski held of Stenhouse and James Buesher who tied for second place. First Stenhouse was declared the second place winner but then NASCAR came back after reviewing video and gave Buescher third place.

For Keslowski it was his first win at Lucas Raceway Park, a place where his family had raced at for many years.

“It’s a very special win being from Michigan,” said Keslowski. “I’ve been coming to this race track for years. I’ve been to Victory Lane as a team guy and a mechanic but never a driver. It’s so special to win here.

Stenhouse won the pole with a lap of 22.808 seconds, 108.278 mph. And he did not waste time quickly jumping to the lead.

He held of the first 49 laps until a caution came out for debris. When all the leaders came in for fuel and tires, he got pinned in his pit and his Rousch teammate Carl Edwards grabbed the lead.

This setback did not hurt Stenhouse too much because he was able to quickly regain the laps within four laps. From there he set sail and was not challenged

The speed of the race was heading toward a record time finish when a massive accident happened on lap 176.

Michael Annett was trying pass a lap car of Tim Andrews when they made contact. The first phase of the accident did not appear to be too serious.

“It was horrible. I was trying to the car refired,” said Arnett “I was ready to get racing.”

But following closely behind Steve Wallace got hit causing the right end of his car to kick out and skid directly into Andrews car causing Wallace to go airborne and slam into the Annett car. Fortunately all three drivers walked away with no injuries but none of the cars were able to continue in the race.

“I hate it that both Rusty Wallace Inc race cars were wrecked,” said Arnett.

Then 6 laps after go back to green flag racing, Trever who was chasing Stenhouse in second place, blew an engine causing another caution. This allowed Justin Allgaier to assume the second place spot but just as the race was going to green again, his car caught fire. Keslowski found himself in second.

“I just thought if I could get to front row,” said Keslowski, “We had good short run speed.”

After the restart Stenhouse once again to the lead but Keslowski on the next lap dove behind Stenhouse on the low side of the track and took the lead and held to victory on what could be the last Nationwide race at Lucas Raceway Park since next year the race will be held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the day before the Brickyard.

“I would love to see this track get back on the schedule,” said Keslowski. “Hopefully something could be worked out.”

And with that, a 30 year tradition of Nationwide racing came to a close at the legendary race track known originally as Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Story by: Kevin Proot
Photos by: Larry Vancil

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