Brad Keselowski scored his fourth victory of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season in dominating fashion Saturday night at Richmond Raceway. Keselowski took the lead on lap 353 when he passed Austin Dillon and never looked back, crossing the finish line over two seconds ahead of second-place Martin Truex Jr. The driver of the Western Star/Alliance Parts Ford claimed his second victory at Richmond Raceway and the 34th Cup victory of his career. Keselowski moves up to third in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings, 31 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.
Stage 1 was quiet and productive for Keselowski. He started ninth and steadily worked his way through the field to score a fourth-place finish when the stage ended on lap 80. At the end of the stage, Keselowski said he needed to be tighter all the way around. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins made the call for a track bar adjustment during a four-tire stop under the stage caution on lap 84 and Keselowski restarted third on lap 89.
Keselowski and teammate Joey Logano battled for the lead early in Stage 2 before Keselowski wrestled the top spot away on lap 121. By lap 138 teams that chose the strategy of pitting twice during this 155-lap segment (including Kevin Harvick) began to pit. Bullins chose to pit once, under green on lap 162, for four tires and no adjustments. From there, Keselowski walked the tightrope of marching his way through traffic while not abusing his tires. His efforts were rewarded when he passed Dillon for the lead on lap 218 and held firm to the top spot over the next 17 laps to grab his seventh stage victory of the season. He pitted under caution on lap 239 for four tires and fuel and restarted as the race leader on lap 243.
The Western Star/Alliance Parts team adjusted their strategy for the third and final stage with Bullins opting for two stops during the final segment. Keselowski led until he pitted under green on lap 294 for four tires. He returned to the track in fourth position and passed Joey Logano for the lead on lap 317. Keselowski made his final stop under green on lap 342 and 11 laps later made the race winning pass around Dillon.
“It was a great race for us,” said Keselowski. “I’m really pumped about this performance and the way we’ve run on the short tracks. I felt like we would run well here at Richmond with our Western Star/Alliance Parts Ford Mustang. Jeremy Bullins and the entire 2 team performed excellent. We were expecting long green flag runs and we knew this was going to be a really big pit strategy race. We had the speed and we had the strategy. This team did it all.”
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