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Brad Keselowski takes NASCAR Sprint Cup win at Kentucky

Brad Keselowski claimed his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of the season on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway

The Penske driver fought back from a tough start to his weekend after he crashed his primary car on the opening practice lap on Friday, following a clash with Juan Pablo Montoya. Despite losing almost half the practice time available he went on to qualify eighth and then be a contender for victory, taking a commanding win after 400 miles.

Keselowski showed his speed from the early going, grabbing the lead for the first time on lap 34 and remaining a top-five factor throughout the evening. He grabbed the lead for good during the final caution, staying out as others pitted but then storming clear on the last restart to pull away and grab his seventh Cup career win.

His third victory of the season gives him more possible bonus points towards his Chase seeding than any other driver thus far. Keselowski currently ranks 10th in the standings following reliability issues that hampered him during the early part of the year.

"To put together a back-up car from last year in 100-degree heat in an hour's time and get it on the race track - not even an hour, I think it was like 40 minutes... Got it on the racetrack and got to run our laps for practice to make the adjustments we needed to be fast today... That's what badasses do and that's what got us to Victory Lane today and I'm proud of these guys, damn proud of them," said Keselowski.

The former Nationwide Series champion was also forced to change his steering wheel just before the race after finding the one fitted to the car was damaged. Keselowski's Cup win following second places in the Truck and Nationwide races on Thursday and Friday.

Hendrick Motorsports' Kasey Kahne headed a great day for the team as all its cars finished among the top six. Kahne was the man on the move in the closing stages of the race, charging through the top 10 up to second but running out of laps to contend for victory.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, fresh from announcing a new multi-year deal with his outfit right before the race, had the speed to fight for victory but the need to save fuel on the final stint stopped him from demonstrating if he had anything for Keselowski.

Behind him, Hendrick's Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five with a strong run in the deciding stages of the race. Their team-mate Jimmie Johnson seemed to have the speed to challenge for victory but a slow final restart, in which he apparently ran over some fluid on the track, dropped him down the order and out pf contention for the win.

Last year's Kentucky winner Kyle Busch (Gibbs) led the most laps but clipped the wall while running up front, with Keselowski in his rear-view mirrors. Although the contact did not seem to affect his speed initially, he would then struggle with a broken shock mount, plus he ran out of fuel right before his final planned stop.

Reigning champion Tony Stewart had a disastrous day as his Stewart-Haas car suffered ignition issues early on and had to return to the garage for repairs.

Matt Kenseth was the best Ford in seventh, keeping the points lead for yet another week. His Roush Fenway team-mate Carl Edwards was forced take a late splash of fuel in the final laps while running among the top five.

Results - 267 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 2h45m02.000s
 2.  Kasey Kahne         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 4.399s
 3.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                     + 5.511s
 4.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet               + 6.099s
 5.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet               + 6.359s
 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet               + 6.995s
 7.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford                + 7.376s
 8.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota                   + 8.470s
 9.  AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dodge                    + 10.585s
10.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                    + 10.647s
11.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet             + 12.354s
12.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet             + 13.343s
13.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                      + 14.067s
14.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet     + 17.347s
15.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet     + 21.280s
16.  Clint Bowyer        Waltrip Toyota                  + 22.368s
17.  Travis Kvapil       BK Toyota                       + 25.560s
18.  Casey Mears         Germain Ford                    + 25.834s
19.  Kurt Busch          Phoenix Chevrolet               + 28.533s
20.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford                 + 1 lap
21.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford                 + 1 lap
22.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                      + 1 lap
23.  David Reutimann     Baldwin Chevrolet                 + 1 lap
24.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet               + 1 lap
25.  Landon Cassill      BK Toyota                         + 1 lap
26.  Aric Almirola       Petty Ford                        + 1 lap
27.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota             + 2 laps
28.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford                   + 2 laps
29.  David Ragan         Front Row Ford                   + 4 laps
30.  Michael Waltrip     Waltrip Toyota                   + 5 laps
31.  Ken Schrader        FAS Lane Ford                    + 5 laps
32.  Tony Stewart        Stewart-Haas Chevrolet          + 36 laps

Retirements:

     Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet          209 laps
     Ryan Newman         Stewart-Haas Chevrolet           208 laps
     Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet                144 laps
     David Stremme       Inception Toyota                  71 laps
     Josh Wise           Front Row Ford                    60 laps
     Michael McDowell    Parsons Ford                      58 laps
     Scott Speed         Leavine Ford                      55 laps
     Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                      52 laps
     Stephen Leicht      Circle Sport Chevrolet            47 laps
     Mike Bliss          Humphrey Smith Toyota             18 laps
     Scott Riggs         R3 Chevrolet                      12 laps

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