Brad Keselowski dominates at Martinsville for win No. 29

One month ago, Brad Keselowski drove to victory in Atlanta despite being caught in the nauseating grip of the flu. On Sunday it was the rest of the drivers in the field who were left feeling queasy as Keselowski was absolutely dominating in winning the STP 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

How dominating was the Michigan native on Sunday? He led 446 of 500 laps, including the final 127, and collected victories in all three stages.

“Just one of those days you dream of as a race car driver,” Keselowski said.

The victory in the first short track race of the season was the second of the season for Keselowski and the third for Team Penske.

“The car was really good,” Keselowski said, stating the obvious. “Ford worked really hard in the offseason to build these (Mustangs) and make them really strong. And so far, so good.”

It was the 29th victory of Keselowski’s Cup career and his second at NASCAR’s shortest and oldest track. He beat Kyle Busch over the closing laps for the win in 2017.

Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports, who had not led a single lap in 2019, led 49 on Sunday and finished second. The margin of victory was .59 seconds.

“I don’t know if we were as good as the 9 car (Elliott),” Keselowski said. “He was really strong. He passed me with about 200 to go, and I watched him and studied him and kind of broke it down and knew what I had to do to hold him off with that fast of a car.”

Elliott left no doubt about what he would have done had he caught the leader in the final laps.

“I thought we’re about as even with him as we could be,” Elliott said. “I thought when they got the lead there was a little advantage to being out front, being able to work traffic your way.

“I tried to get to him there at the end and was pretty well content to move him out of the way but, maybe next time.”

Finishing third was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Busch, who was attempting to win his third straight Cup race.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney finished fourth while Denny Hamlin of JGR rounded out the top five.

Joey Logano, whose victory at Martinsville last October set up his Cup championship run, started from the pole and led five laps before he was bumped out of the lead by Team Penske teammate Keselowski. Once out front, Keselowski stayed out front as he led the next 319 laps.

Elliott became just the third driver to lead the race when he squeezed past Keselowski on the low side with 176 laps to go.

Keselowski re-captured the lead during yellow flag pit stops and never trailed again.

While Busch’s two-race Cup winning streak came to an end, he was able to leave Martinsville with his 201st win across NASCAR’s top three series as he won Saturday’s Truck Series race.

The winner of last year’s race, Clint Bowyer of Stewart-Haas Racing, twice was penalized for speeding on pit road but still wound up finishing seventh.

–Field Level Media