Keselowski stretches fuel to finish, wins at Ky.

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July 9, 2011

Harvick takes second, unhappy with pit strategy

BY KEN de la BASTIDE Tribune enterprise editor The Kokomo Tribune Sat Jul 09, 2011, 12:00 AM EDT

SPARTA, Ky. — Brad Keselowski dominated most of the Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway but recorded the victory by conserving fuel.

Keselowski ran the final 66 laps without a pit stop as all of the front runners on Friday were in a fuel conservation mode.

Driving the Discount Tire Dodge, Keselowski took the lead from Kevin Harvick during a round of pit stops on lap 66, and except for surrendering the lead twice during caution periods, dominated most of the race.

At times he was running close to 3-seconds ahead of second-place running Kevin Harvick, who closed to a couple of tenths of seconds, but had to conserve fuel finishing 1.18 seconds behind Keselowski.

“I started conserving fuel right after the last pit stop,” Harvick said. “The crew never told me anything. I wasn’t real happy with the pit strategy tonight.”

Harvick appeared ready to make a pit stop for fuel with four laps remaining but stayed on the track and fell to more than 2.7 seconds behind Keselowski.

With two laps remaining Keselowski slowed noticeably in an effort to save fuel and record his 13th win in the Nationwide Series. It was his first win since last October at Gateway International Speedway.

“This car was awesome,” Keselowski said. “This was all about strategy; we did what we had to do to win.”

Pole sitter Elliott Sadler grabbed the lead at the start but quickly gave way to Harvick, who led until the second pit stop when Keselowski won the race off pit road.

Kyle Busch, who crashed during qualifying and started 43rd in the starting field, drove to a third place finish. On Thursday Busch went from last to first to win the University of Northern Ohio 22 Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

“Worked our way through the field,” Busch said. “Properly had a 10th place car and made the right adjustments. Became a fuel mileage race at the finish, I was trying to hold off the 7 [Kasey Kahne] and 20 [Joey Logano].”

Kahne finished fourth followed by Sadler. Kenny Wallace finished sixth after starting 19th in the field followed by Michael Arnett, Steve Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Logano.

Sadler took over the points lead when Reed Sorenson finished 17th. Sadler now leads by four points.

The race was slowed by cautions five times for a total of 24 laps. There were eight lead changes among six drivers.

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