Brad Keselowski won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway after he capitalized on contact between Joey Logano and Chase Elliott as they raced for the lead with three laps to go.
Keselowski, who took two left-side tires during a caution and was 12th on a restart with 37 laps to go, beat Clint Bowyer for his second win of the year.
MORE: Joey Logano mad at Chase Elliott
MORE: Race results, point standings
The top five was completed by Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones. Keselowski is the second straight Bristol winner who started from the pole. His win follows his victory in last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600.
“Oh my goodness, I think everybody on this Discount Tire Ford Mustang team is going to go to Vegas, is it open yet?” Keselowski told FS1. “Because things have been going our way from the luck of the (randodm) draw on the qualifying to the last few laps there. We couldn’t get anything to go our way at the start of the race with cars staying out and I kept getting the bottom lane on restarts and nothing was working out and then right at the end we came in and put two tires on the left and drove up to, I guess fourth or sixth, I don’t know, something like that and put ourselves in position.
“I could see Joey and Chase were getting really racy there and I didn’t know what was gonna happen, but I knew if I kept my eye open something good might happen and, sure enough, it did. An incredible day. I’m so happy for the team.”
Keselowski’s worst finish in the last four races is seventh, which came Thursday at Charlotte.
Logano was leading with three laps to go as Elliott attempted to pass him in Turn 3. Elliott’s car got loose and slid into Logano’s car, forcing it into the wall.
Elliott finished 22nd and Logano placed 21st.
“He wrecked me,” Logano said. “He got loose underneath me. The part that’s frustrating is that afterwards a simple apology — like be a man and come up to someone and say, ‘Hey, my bad.’ But I had to force an apology, which, to me, is childish. … It’s hard racing at the end, I get that. t’s hard racing, but, golly, man, be a man and take the hit when you’re done with it.”
The race ended in a five-lap run to the checkered flag, setup by a incident with 12 laps to go involving Denny Hamlin. Logano passed Hamlin on the backstretch to take the lead and was followed by Elliott. In Turn 4, Logano got loose in the high lane and Hamlin made contact with his left-rear quarter panel, which sent Hamlin into a spin and resulted in him hitting a lapped car.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Chase Elliott
STAGE 2 WINNER: Chase Elliott
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Clint Bowyer earned his best finish since he was second at Texas in April 2019. He’s finished top 10 in the last five Bristol races … Jimmie Johnson, who placed third, matched his best finish for the fourth time since his last win at Dover in June 2017 (winless streak goes to 104 races) … Kyle Busch rebounded from a Lap 63 speeding penalty to get his third top-four finish in the last four races … Bubba Wallace placed 10th. It’s his sixth Cup top-10 finish and first on a short track.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Ryan Blaney finished 40th after he spun on Lap 200 while running in second and was then hit by Ty Dillon. Dillon placed 39th … A multi-car wreck with 20 laps left in Stage 2 eliminated Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Tyler Reddick and Cole Custer. It also involved Kurt Busch. … Ryan Newman finished 15th after he spun on his own twice during the race … Kevin Harvick finished 11th after he suffered damage in a run-in with Erik Jones with 68 laps to go. It ends Harvick’s career-best streak of 13 consecutive top-10 finishes.
WHAT’S NEXT: The Cup Series races at Atlanta Motor Speedway at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, June 7 on Fox
