A brilliant late restart enabled Brad Keselowski to roar to his seventh NASCAR Nationwide Series victory of the season in the Ford Ecoboost 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Following an extended caution period for a multi-car crash with 17 laps remaining, Keselowski took the restart with five laps to go in 10th position. But within two laps, the 2012 Sprint Cup champion had flown all the way to the front and then pulled away to a 1.1-second win over NNS rookie of the year Kyle Larson (whose car later flunked post-race inspection for being too low).
“I don’t even remember what happened,” Keselowski said of his race-winning restart. “I just knew if we were going to win the race, I was going to bring back the steering wheel. With five laps to go, that’s the only attitude that can win the race – [was] hoping to get the restart with 20 laps to go, then I wouldn’t have had to have that mentality.
“Sometimes you make it through, sometimes you don’t. Today we did. A lot of aggressive moves. It almost felt like a video game passing 10 or 12 cars in two or three laps. That’s part of it. That’s what you’ve got to be able to do to win at this level.”
Keselowski’s victory was part of a mixed night for Penske Racing. While Sam Hornish Jr. was unable to win the NNS driver’s title, Penske’s No. 22 car (driven by Joey Logano) managed to secure the NNS owner’s championship with a sixth-place finish. Additionally, Ford secured the NNS manufacturer’s championship as a result of Keselowski’s efforts.
It can be said that Keselowski had a mixed year altogether as well. He was unable to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup this season after winning it all in 2012, but took six NNS races in that No. 22 car and then got lucky No. 7 tonight in a third Penske machine, the No. 48.
“You look at where we’ve been – last year was incredible to win a Sprint Cup championship in your third season,” Keselowski said. “That’s very, very difficult to do. We’ve gone through a lot of different changes, a lot of different transitions. That’s not making any excuses, but we’re going to grow and become stronger.
“This [Nationwide] program is a reflection of how bright our future is, [and] at the Cup level as well.”
As for Larson, he recorded his fourth runner-up finish of the year en route to locking up top rookie honors. The 21-year-old will drive the No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet in Sprint Cup next year.
“It means a lot to me to win the Rookie of the Year in the Nationwide Series,” said Larson. “A lot of the veterans in the past and in the current Cup Series have won the Rookie of the Year. To add my name to that list hopefully means I’m doing something good.”
Kyle Busch finished third, with his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team finishing one point behind the Penske No. 22 in the NNS owner’s standings as a result.
“It’s frustrating,” ‘Rowdy’ said. “I hate it for everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, for [sponsor] Monster Energy. They deserved a championship this year.”
For the fifth time in 10 rounds of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season, the three riders at the top of the championship standings shared a podium and while those points tell one story, the NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit tell a slightly different tale.Cooper Webb is peaking at the right time. – Feld Motor Sports
Chase Sexton has been all but perfect during the past 45 days with podium finishes in each of his heats and Triple Crown features. His only stumble during this period was a 10th-place finish in the Indianapolis Main. Last week, Sexton was perfect with wins in both his heat and the feature, although he needed a little help from an Aaron Plessinger mistake to take the top spot on the podium at the end of the night.
Cooper Webb finished fifth at Houston and was beginning to worry ever so slightly about his position in the points. Prior to the race in Tampa, he told NBC Sports that it was time to win and like Babe Ruth pointing to the outfield fence, Webb went out and captured it. Following that race, Webb has swept the podium and earned the red plate two weeks ago in Indianapolis. At Detroit, he added two more points on Eli Tomac as the season begins to wind down.
Tomac struggled with a stiff neck at Indianapolis and after a modest third-place showing in Detroit, he revealed he was still suffering a little. Webb and Sexton have been able to close the gap on Tomac in the past 45 days, but one of the main reasons he is so close in the points was a pair of wins that started the year. Seattle is going to be important for the defending champion because Tomac cannot afford to lose any more momentum with seven rounds remaining.
It appeared Jason Anderson was turning things around. He earned his fifth heat win at Detroit, which was also his sixth consecutive race (including features) in which he scored a top-five. A fall in the Detroit Main dropped him a lap off the pace and sent him home with a season-worst finish of ninth, causing a ripple effect in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings.
Justin Barcia was a huge part of the show last week in Detroit. He swapped positions with both Webb and Tomac in the middle stage of the race, which allowed Sexton to close the gap. Barcia finished fourth in that race to earn his third consecutive top-five. He’s been outside the top 10 only once in the first 10 rounds.
Adam Cianciarulo had a great start to the Main. He led a couple of laps before losing a lap and slipping back to eighth in the final rundown. That run was strong enough to elevate him three positions in the SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit.
The NBC SuperMotocross Power Rankings look at the past 90 days in the 250 class in order to have a balanced comparison between the East and West divisions and Hunter Lawrence has been all but perfect this year. At Detroit, he earned his fifth win of the season and kept alive a streak of podium finishes in six rounds. He tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 250 wins one week before the West riders take to the track for back-to-back races at Seattle, Washington and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher is settling into a comfortable role as ‘best in class’. – Feld Motor Sports
The Lawrence brothers are dominating the points in each of their respective divisions, which means the remainder of the field is battling to be best in class.
In the East, that rider is Nate Thrasher, who beat Hunter in a head-to-head matchup in their heat only to finish second in the main when the majority of points were awarded. Thrasher seems to have accepted his position in the championship standings, but that doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying for wins.
Haiden Deegan showed a lot of aggression in his heat last week. He threw a couple of block passes at his teammate Jordon Smith and set up a series of events that kept Smith from making the big show while Deegan settled into second in the preliminary. Deegan was unconcerned about how he raced his teammate and would not let a little controversy keep him from celebrating his second career podium in Detroit.
Jeremy Martin just keeps clicking off solid results. He won his heat last week by making a pass on Deegan and Smith while they were in the heat of their battle. Martin finished fourth in the Main, which means he continues to have only one finish worse than sixth in any of the features or mains.
Smith fell one position in the points standings, but the damage was even worse in SuperMotocross Power Rankings after Detroit. Crash damage in his heat contributed to a last-place finish in that race, for which he earned minimal points. He was not able to advance from the Last Chance Qualifier after stalling his bike in heavy traffic.
250 Rankings
This
Week
Rider
Power
Avg.
Last
Week
Diff.
1.
Hunter Lawrence – E
[5 Main, 5 Heat wins]
90.43
1
0
2.
Jett Lawrence – W
[3 Main, 3 Heat wins]
90.30
2
0
3.
Nate Thrasher – E
[1 Main, 3 Heat wins]
84.00
5
2
4.
Cameron McAdoo – W
[1 Heat win]
79.80
9
5
5.
Haiden Deegan – E
[1 Heat win]
78.21
7
2
6.
Jeremy Martin – E
[2 Heat wins]
78.00
8
2
7.
Jordon Smith – E
[3 Heat Wins]
76.77
4
-3
8.
Levi Kitchen – W
[1 Main]
75.30
3
-5
9.
Mitchell Oldenburg – W
75.20
11
2
10.
RJ Hampshire – W
[4 Heat wins]
74.50
17
7
11.
Max Anstie – E
74.43
6
-5
12.
Tom Vialle – E
72.07
12
0
13.
Max Vohland – W
71.56
10
-3
14.
Stilez Robertson – W
[1 Heat win]
69.22
14
0
15.
Chris Blose – E
67.43
18
3
16.
Chance Hymas – E
67.10
15
-1
17.
Enzo Lopes – W
66.00
20
3
18.
Michael Mosiman – E
65.80
16
-2
19.
Pierce Brown – W
65.78
13
-6
20.
Phil Nicoletti – W
59.25
21
1
* The NBC Power Rankings assign 100 points to a Main event winner and 90 points for each Heat and Triple Crown win, (Triple Crown wins are included with heat wins below the rider’s name). The points decrement by a percentage equal to the number of riders in the field until the last place rider in each event receives five points. The Power Ranking is the average of these percentage points over the past 45 days for the 450 class and last 90 days for 250s (because of the split nature of their season).
