Injured Penske Racing Dodge driver Brad Keselowski wins Good Sam RV Insurance 500 – NASCAR news
Penske Racing driver Brad Keselowski won the Sprint Cup Series race Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono Raceway despite having a broken ankle.
The car no. 2 Miller Lite Dodge driver snatched the lead from Kyle Busch to win the race in final moments. Win at the Pocono Raceway marks his second Sprint Cup victory in the 2011 NASCAR season. It is his third win from 74 starts in Sprint Cup Series career.
Keselowski was helped with rain-delayed restart that forced the race leader for an early pit stop. Following the restart, Keselowski and Busch took the lead and duelled to the finish line.
Keselowski said, “It all worked out today and I'm thankful I have good people that help me though it. We had a great strategy today. Strategy didn't win us the race but it gave us the opportunity to win it and we were able to win on our own merits.”
The car no. 2 driver was suffering through pain of his recently broken ankle. He sustained the injury during a test run recently at Road Atlanta. Though he was immediately hospitalised but the pain was still there which affected his performance.
The recent win has made him a strong contender to earn a wild card entry in the Cup chase this season. Now Keselowski ranks at 18th position after stepping up three positions with his latest win.
Brad Keselowski’s crew chief, Paul Wolfe said, “Everybody's getting more aggressive with their calls. My engineers seemed pretty confident that we were going to go back green. We know it's going to take calls like that to get us in the Chase. I knew it was
going to take a call like today to get another win to get us closer to that opportunity.”
Teammate of Keselowski at Penske Racing Kurt Busch also praised his courageous performance. He added that winning a race with such a severe injury will definitely make him a better racer than before.
Kyle Busch ended as runner up at the Pocono Raceway and was followed by Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman completing the top five slots.
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