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Keselowski keeps title hopes alive

Alex Bowman, Tony Stewart and Aric Almirola found out that being in the wrong place at the wrong time can ruin a day at Talladega. Kyle Busch also was caught in a wreck that ultimately knocked him out of Chase contention.

TALLADEGA, Ala.

Coming off a tumultuous week and backed into a must-win situation, Brad Keselowski pulled off one of his biggest victories.

Keselowski drove a perfect final two laps in overtime Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, where he had to win to advance into the third round of NASCAR’s championship race. Anything but a victory would have ended his title chances, which took a huge hit last week with a poor finish at Charlotte and a post-race meltdown that earned him a $50,000 fine.

“I know there’s probably some people out there that aren’t really happy I won,” Keselowski said. “I can understand that. But I’m a man like anyone else and not real proud of last week. But I’m real proud of (Sunday).”

The 2012 champion sparred on the track at Charlotte with Denny Hamlin, intentionally hit Matt Kenseth on pit road and ran into the back of Tony Stewart. He was then accused of recklessly driving through a dark and crowded garage. Hamlin had to be restrained from going after him, and Kenseth jumped him from behind in a scrap that was quickly broken up.

His professionalism under attack throughout the garage and his season slipping away, Keselowski managed to come to Talladega focused on the difficult task at hand. He was in a three-way race to Victory Lane with six-time and defending champion Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., all three needing to win to stave off elimination.

It was Keselowski who grabbed the checkered flag.

“I’ll take the 50 grand and the win this week, wouldn’t you?” Keselowski team owner Roger Penske said.

Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano, the winners of the first two races in the second round, also advanced to the third three-race round along with Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Hamlin, Kenseth and Ryan Newman. The field will be cut to four after the ninth race. Points are reset after each round, and the title will be decided by finishing order in the Nov. 16 finale at Homestead.

But Talladega, one of only two tracks in NASCAR that requires horsepower-sapping restrictor plates and most of the field runs in one giant pack, is a crapshoot. One slip can trigger a massive accident, and a drivers’ fate often comes down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That’s what happened to Kyle Busch, who entered the race ranked second in the 12-driver field but was the fourth driver eliminated from the Chase because he was caught in an early accident. He was hit from behind, had to go to the garage for repairs and finished 40th on Sunday.

“We are destroyed. We are absolutely killed,” said Busch, who appeared to be hit by Austin Dillon. “I got wrecked from behind. We are done.”

The drivers in danger of elimination paced the early parts of the race. Keselowski had to drop to the back of the field at the start for an unapproved change to his Ford, but he picked his way through traffic and made it to the front of the field to lead.

Earnhardt and Johnson also charged to the front, and the three drivers who needed to win tried to set the early pace of the race.

Only Keselowski was where he needed to be at the end.

Johnson has to look ahead at chasing No. 7 in 2015.

“This year for sure there’s disappointment,” he said. “But the disappointment has been the weeks leading up to right now. We’ve dealt with that. You’re not going to win every championship battle you go into. You’d like. The numbers show you don’t win a lot of championships.”

Clint Bowyer, Landon Cassill, Kenseth, and Newman completed the top five. Danica Patrick led 26 laps late in the race before fading to 19th.



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