Brad Keselowski wins STP 500 at Martinsville
By Nick Tylwalk
Short track racing brought out the beating and banging as expected, but Brad Keselowski made it through the chaos and emerged with the STP 500 victory.
A kinder, gentler NASCAR? The STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway says you can forget about that.
After a wreck-filled Daytona 500 to kick off the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, drivers have mostly been able to avoid running into each other the last few weeks. That changed at Martinsville, though, as Brad Keselowski was able to avoid the trouble and emerge with his first career STP 500 victory.
Kyle Busch, the defending race winner, finished second after leading 273 laps, with Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Austin Dillon rounding out the top five. Cup Series points leader Kyle Larson was never fast on long runs and had power issues late in the race, finishing a season-worst 17th.
“We’ve run so good here, but something always happens and we haven’t been able to bring it home,” Keselowski said to the Fox Sports crew in Victory Lane. “This is one of those champions tracks. The guys who run good everywhere run good here, and it’s really an honor to win here and get to compete here. With the history of this track, it’s 70 years old and a lot of legends have won here, and it feels great to be able to join them.”
Sunday’s race featured more cautions (14) than in the 2016 spring and fall Martinsville races combined. Keslowski and Busch were able to avoid all of the bumping and wage a spirited battle for the lead during the race’s final 75 laps.
Once Keselowski was able to finally get by Busch, though, the only hope of catching him would have been one final caution, and it never came. The No. 2 Miller Lite Ford had some marks around the left-front wheel well from the opening laps but never got tangled up in anything when it mattered.
Among the numerous drivers who hit either other cars, the wall or both was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior was having by far his best run of 2017 when he was involved in a multi-car incident on lap 418 and went straight to the garage, ending his day in 34th place.
‘I’m happy with the speed of the car and having a pretty good time, but not happy about the way we’ve been finishing,” Earnhardt said, mentioning to the Fox Sports crew that the accident knocked the radiator of his Axalta Chevy. “We’ve got to be better than this.”
Keselowski’s first 2017 win came at Atlanta, another track where he had never won before this year. He heads to Texas looking for his first win there as well, and the way the No. 2 Team Penske Ford is running right now, it would be silly to think he won’t be a factor there.
Full 2017 STP 500 results from Martinsville Speedway:
- Brad Keselowski
- Kyle Busch
- Chase Elliott (Stage 2 winner)
- Joey Logano
- Austin Dillon
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Clint Bowyer
- Ryan Newman
- Matt Kenseth
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Chris Buescher
- Erik Jones
- Trevor Bayne
- Kasey Kahne
- Jimmie Johnson
- Martin Truex Jr. (Stage 1 winner)
- Kyle Larson
- Aric Almirola
- Paul Menard
- Kevin Harvick
- Cole Whitt
- Ty Dillon
- Danica Patrick
- David Ragan
- Ryan Blaney
- Michael McDowell
- Landon Cassill
- Corey LaJoie
- Gray Gaulding
- Denny Hamlin
- Reed Sorensen
- Daniel Suarez
- Timmy Hill
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Kurt Busch
- Jamie McMurray