Brad Keselowski dominated en route to victory in Saturday’s 25th Sta-Green 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Keselowski led 153 of the 200 laps, holding off Kyle Busch, who led 34 laps but was forced to conserve fuel in the final 15 laps and just didn’t have enough to catch the race winner.
“It was actually hard-fought at the end there,” Keselowski told ESPN. “(Kyle) was really good. I didn’t think I was going to be able to hold him off. … It’s another win for Team Penske and I’m real proud to be part of it.”
Keselowski earned the 29th win and 100th top-five finish of his NNS career in 211 starts in NASCAR’s junior league.
Matt Kenseth finished third, followed by Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher.
Sixth through 10th were Elliott Sadler, Brian Scott, Chase Elliott, Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith.
Smith was the highest finishing driver in the Nationwide Series Dash-4-Cash contest, earning $100,000.
A wreck involving several drivers occurred on Lap 107 of the 200-lap event. Elliott Sadler was tapped from behind by Brian Scott, causing Sadler to spin out.
“I hate that I got into (Sadler) and caused that mix-up,” Scott said. “It was just my fault. I had a good roll going on the inside. … They checked up and I just got into them. I apologize, I think (Sadler) knows I don’t really race like that and we’ll be good.”
Added Sadler, “We got spun and lost a couple positions. … It was a tough weekend, I’m not going to lie. We battled all weekend, but to make the Dash-4-Cash (for next week’s race at Chicagoland Speedway) and to finish sixth, we’ll take that and move on to Chicago.”
Also being collected in the Scott-Sadler imbroglio were Paul Menard (his second wreck of the day; was involved in a minor wreck with Chase Elliott on Lap 102), James Buescher, Dakoda Armstrong, Carlos Contreras and Austin Theriault.
Here’s the final finishing order of Saturday’s Sta-Green 200 Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway:
1 Brad Keselowski
2 Kyle Busch
3 Matt Kenseth
4 Kyle Larson
5 Chris Buescher
6 Elliott Sadler
7 Brian Scott
8 Chase Elliott
9 Trevor Bayne
10 Regan Smith
11 Ryan Reed
12 Ty Dillon
13 Dylan Kwasniewski
14 Ryan Preece
15 Landon Cassill
16 Brendan Gaughan
17 JJ Yeley
18 Ryan Sieg
19 Paul Menard
20 Jeremy Clements
21 Austin Theriault
22 James Buescher
23 Jeffrey Earnhardt
24 Brennan Newberry
25 Matt Frahm
26 Eric McClure
27 Tanner Berryhill
28 Derrike Cope
29 Joey Gase
30 Dakoda Armstrong
31 Jake Crum
32 Mike Bliss
33 Kevin Lepage
34 Josh Reaume
35 Carlos Contreras
36 Ryan Ellis
37 Harrison Rhodes
38 Josh Wise
39 Blake Koch
40 Matt DiBenedetto
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