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Keselowski wins Michigan Nationwide

Brad Keselowski snatched victory from Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch on the last lap to claim his third Nationwide Series win of the season at Michigan International Speedway

The Michigan native had been a spectator of the battle for victory that unfolded ahead of him between Vickers and Busch, until the final lap of the race, where a mistake from Vickers allowed Keselowski an unexpected shot at the win.

With two laps remaining, Vickers got loose at Turn 4 while leading, sliding up the track and right in front of Busch. Keselowski immediately closed on them as Vickers shut the door on Busch into the front stretch, forcing the Joe Gibbs racer to drive on the apron.

Keselowski drove on the outside of both and almost passed Vickers, running side by side with him into Turn 3 on the final lap. The JR Motorsports driver made the most of his run on the outside, finally pulling off the pass for victory out of the last turn to claim a spectacular win.

"I saw them battling on [turns] three and four with one to go and... I had them," said Keselowski after winning at his home track for the first time in his career. "I knew it. I knew that I could get on the outside and kill the 32 [Vickers]. I wasn't sure about the 18 [Busch]; I don't know what happened to him.

"I'm speechless. I can't believe it. I'm terrible here and to win here is a major accomplishment."

When the race finished, and as they drove into the pits, Busch parked his car in front of Vickers' and went to show his frustration to the Braun Racing driver. When Vickers got out of his car he went to confront Busch, who pulled up the visor of his rival's helmet before a mechanic from Joe Gibbs Racing split the two to avoid tempers running any higher.

"He hung on my right rear quarter panel all the way down the front straightaway and gave the win to the 88 car," said Busch after finishing third. "He slowed down so much, he had no idea the 88 car was coming and he just drove by both of us on the outside because Brian Vickers was trying to slow both of us down.

"It's stupid. If he would've run his own line at the top of the track and I would've ran my own line right at the bottom of the track, it could've been a battle between us two. But unfortunately you race with idiots and I guess he'll have that sometimes.

"I'm sure I'm complaining and I'm whining and I'm a cry-baby but that's just uncalled for, it's stupid. I would've run my own line instead of giving it to a third placed car in order to battle it out between the top two, who deserved to win and deserved to battle for the race right at the end. [Keselowski] didn't deserve to win."

Vickers, who led 78 of the race's 125 laps, was obviously not very forthcoming of Busch's comments, although he accepted that he didn't know Keselowski was coming from behind with a run at them.

"Oh man, I tell you. I'm so sorry, I forgot it was the Kyle Busch show," said Vickers sarcastically after finishing second. "I thought we were racing for a win. I'm really sorry for my team. We were too loose from the start of the run. [Busch] was better. I thought it was my job to hold him off, apparently not.

"He came over to the car after we came in and knocked our fender in, which was unnecessary, then started crying like a little baby and asked me to get out and battle like men. If he wants to play that's fine with me, and since I got out he ran off.

"It's a shame that it went out like that. I thought it was a good race. Congratulations to the 88 [Keselowski]. He snuck around both of us. I didn't see him coming. I let my guys down.

"We should have been able to win this race but last I checked it weren't the Kyle Busch show, it was a Nationwide race and we're supposed to race here for the win."

Despite ending a run of ten consecutive top-two finishes, Busch was able to set a new Nationwide Series record by leading a race for the 20th consecutive time, breaking the previous mark set by Sam Ard in 1984.

He grabbed the lead for the first time on lap 15 when he got by pole-sitter Brian Vickers out of Turn 4, although he was able to hold it for just a few laps before Vickers passed him again. The pair exchanged the lead a number of times until the stakes were raised in the closing laps.

Behind them David Ragan was a distant fourth ahead of Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman, while Justin Allgaier was the next among the Nationwide Series regulars in seventh, beating Gregg Biffle and Jeff Burton.

Carl Edwards could not celebrate his 30th birthday as he would have liked, because as soon as lap three his race turned awry when he made contact with Trevor Bayne while running three-wide with another car at Turn 2. Edwards seemed to have the car saved after the first hit, but he then came towards Bayne again and rebounded towards the wall, hitting it hard.

"It definitely looks like I didn't give Trevor enough room," admitted Edwards after the incident. "I assume the 20 car or whoever was on the very inside was going to go to the bottom and I was thinking about the rest of the corner and just drove in there and kind of shut him down."

Edwards' retirement allowed Busch to further stretch his lead in the championship to 339 points, while Keselowski has now closed to within just 50 points of second place in the driver standings.

Pos  Driver                 Make        Laps
 1.  Brad Keselowski        Chevrolet   125
 2.  Brian Vickers          Toyota      125
 3.  Kyle Busch             Toyota      125
 4.  David Ragan            Ford        125
 5.  Kevin Harvick          Chevrolet   125
 6.  Ryan Newman            Chevrolet   125
 7.  Justin Allgaier        Dodge       125
 8.  Greg Biffle            Ford        125
 9.  Jeff Burton            Chevrolet   125
10.  Paul Menard            Ford        125
11.  Jason Leffler          Toyota      125
12.  Reed Sorenson          Chevrolet   125
13.  Michael Annett         Toyota      125
14.  David Reutimann        Toyota      125
15.  Steve Wallace          Chevrolet   125
16.  Justin Lofton          Toyota      125
17.  Michael McDowell       Dodge       125
18.  Shelby Howard          Chevrolet   125
19.  Austin Dillon          Chevrolet   125
20.  Jason Keller           Ford        124
21.  JJ Yeley               Dodge       124
22.  Kenny Wallace          Chevrolet   124
23.  Brad Coleman           Toyota      124
24.  Robert Richardson Jr   Chevrolet   123
25.  Jeremy Clements        Chevrolet   123
26.  Matt Carter            Ford        123
27.  Mike Bliss             Chevrolet   123
28.  Eric McClure           Ford        123
29.  Brendan Gaughan        Chevrolet   123
30.  Trevor Bayne           Toyota      122
31.  Danny O'Quinn Jr       Chevrolet   121
32.  Denny Hamlin           Toyota      117
33.  Tony Raines            Dodge        74
34.  Mike Wallace           Chevrolet    44
35.  Scott Wimmer           Chevrolet    42
36.  Mark Green             Chevrolet    32
37.  Chase Miller           Toyota       11
38.  Terry Cook             Chevrolet     8
39.  Johnny Chapman         Chevrolet     6
40.  Carl Edwards           Ford          2
41.  Kevin Hamlin           Chevrolet     1
42.  Dennis Setzer          Dodge         1
43.  Willie Allen           Dodge         1

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