Keselowski takes thrilling win in Digital Ally 400

Brad Keselowski prevailed in a thrilling green-white-checkered finish to take his second win of the season win at Kansas Speedway in the Digital Ally 400.

The win in tonight’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race gives Team Penske a double victory on the day following Simon Pagenaud’s win at Indianapolis earlier in the day.

The final 160 lap stage kicked off with Kevin Harvick winning the race off pit road followed by Ryan Blaney, who took two tires during the stage break, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch.

Harvick looked to be on pace to replicate his opening stage performance as he quickly built up a 2 second lead over Alex Bowman. Fate dealt a cruel hand to the driver of the No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Mustang as he suddenly slowed with what he diagnosed as a deflating right front tire.

Bowman picked up the lead as Harvick pitted and made the most of his time up front by building up a large margin on Kyle Busch as Ricky Stenhouse, Jr cruised along in third and Chase Elliott and Erik Jones completed the top five.

The final set of green flag stops began with around 55 laps to go but was disrupted by a caution for an uncontrolled tire from Ryan Newman’s pit.

The yellow trapped seven cars on the lead lap - Bowman, Busch, Stenhouse, Jr, Elliott, Chris Buescher, Clint Bowyer and Tyler Reddick.

Busch was the first off pit road but was dropped to the rear of the field for driving through too many pit boxes.

That moved Bowman to the front followed by stage two winner Chase Elliott, Stenhouse, Chris Buescher when the field lined up the restart on Lap 228. Elliott got the jump on the restart, but Bowman kept him at arm’s length while Stenhouse rode along in third ahead of Clint Bowyer and Tyler Reddick.

The yellow flew on Lap 239 for Ryan Blaney’s cut tire. That brought Kevin Harvick on the lead lap. The majority of the lead lap cars stayed out as Erik Jones, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson all pitted for fresh tires.

The ensuing restart saw Ricky Stenhouse, Jr muscle his way to the front with a three-wide pass on the Hendrick duo of Elliott and Bowman. He wasn’t able to build up a gap and saw Bowman retake the lead on three laps later on Lap 249.

Keselowski meanwhile clawed his way up to second while contact between Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer saw Busch suffer a cut tire – taking him out of contention.

Keselowski stalked Bowman for a handful of laps and caught Bowman at the right moment on Lap 261 as they were lapping Cody Ware and Keselowski passed him.

He saw his progress slowed when Matt DiBennedetto suffered a mechanical failure with four laps to go and forced the race into overtime.

That brought Kyle Larson, Jones, Harvick, Bowyer and Stenhouse onto pit road for fresh tires for the upcoming two-lap dash.

Keselowski cleared Bowman on the restart and ran uncontested to the checkered flag.

Bowman held off Erik Jones for second, his third straight runner up finish. Elliott claimed his third consecutive top five by finishing fourth and Clint Bowyer ended up fifth after tearing through the field in the final two laps with fresher tires.

Jimmie Johnson finished sixth and led a freight train of Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s in sixth followed by the Ganassi Pair of Kurt Busch in seventh and Kyle Larson in eighth.

Richard Childress Racing rookie Tyler Reddick topped off his second career Cup start by finishing ninth while Chris Buescher rounded out the top ten with his second top ten finish of the year.

A couple of championship contenders had disappointing finishes as Kevin Harvick ended up 13th after recovering from his tire issue earlier in the stage. Kyle Busch never recovered from cutting a tire late and ended the night 30th, his first finish outside of the top ten this season.