After 1,113 days, the longest winless streak of Brad Keselowski’s NASCAR Cup Series career has come to a close.
The 40-year-old racer put himself in position to take home the win in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington after taking advantage of a close-quarters battle for the win between RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher and race dominator Tyler Reddick.
That battle resulted in major contact, and eventually a flat tire for both drivers, promoting then-third-place Brad Keselowski to the race lead with less than 10 laps to go.
“What a heck of a day. It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win or your last win, this is a really special track,” said Keselowski. “The history of NASCAR, it’s as tough as it gets, and that battle at the end with my teammate [and] Tyler Reddick, we just laid it all out on the line, it was freaking awesome.”
“I thought it couldn’t get much better than Kansas. It did today. That was awesome. I’m so glad you guys got to see that. That was incredible. Thanks for being here.”
Keselowski ended up having to play defense in the closing laps of the race, as 21-year-old driver Ty Gibbs quickly cut into the almost two-second advantage that the No. 6 Ford Mustang had built.
However, after finding his rhythm, the RFK Racing driver was able to stretch his gap back out in the final laps, beating the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to the start-finish line by 1.214 seconds.
The runner-up finish is a career-best in the NASCAR Cup Series for Gibbs, who improves upon his previous best finish of third, which the Joe Gibbs Racing driver did twice earlier this season at Phoenix and COTA.
After the chaos settled, Josh Berry and Stewart-Haas Racing pulled through for a third-place finish, by far the best result of the season for the No. 4 team, which records both its first top-five and top-10 of 2024
Denny Hamlin had a quiet afternoon at Darlington, finishing in fourth place, while Chase Briscoe locked in the first double top-five for Stewart-Haas Racing since the penultimate event of 2023 at Martinsville, finishing fifth.
William Byron was the highest-finishing driver from Hendrick Motorsports in sixth place, while Bubba Wallace recorded a finish of seventh, and Alex Bowman came home in eighth.
Justin Haley and Rick Ware Racing scored their first top-10 finish together, coming home in ninth place, while Michael McDowell rounded out the top-10 for Front Row Motorsports.
After the late-race contact and subsequent pit stop to deal with flat tires, Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick finished 30th and 32nd, respectively. After the race, words were had on pit road, which started when the RFK Racing driver delivered a shove to Reddick in front of his racecar.
After entering Sunday’s Goodyear 400 the points leader in the NASCAR Cup Series, Kyle Larson had a couple of meetings with the outside wall, which the second time, forced the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet to retire from the event, finishing 34th.
Ryan Blaney’s afternoon was also shortened due to an on-track incident, after a three-wide situation around the race’s halfway point shoved the No. 12 Ford Mustang into the outside wall, in a wreck that delivered damage to both Chris Buescher and Martin Truex, Jr.
Leaving Darlington, Kyle Larson maintains the NASCAR Cup Series points lead by 30 markers over second-place Martin Truex, Jr. Denny Hamlin is third, while Chase Elliott and William Byron complete the top five.
Next for the NASCAR Cup Series is a trip to North Wilkesboro Speedway for the NASCAR All-Star Race, the final exhibition event of the 2024 season. The following week will be the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
