Brad Keselowski went two-for-two at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, taking the Nationwide Series race Saturday and making a last lap pass to take the Cup Series race Sunday.
The 2012 Cup champion made it three different winners in three events for both series. Keselowski passed a slowing Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on the final lap of the Cup race to take the victory. Earnhardt, Jr. ran out of fuel on the back straightaway but was able to coast home in second place. Paul Menard finished third after two finishes outside the top twenty to begin the season. Joey Logano finished fourth for the second consecutive week, this time after starting on pole position. Carl Edwards rounded out the top five.
Jimmie Johnson finished sixth for the second consecutive week with Ryan Newman finishing seventh for the second consecutive week. Kasey Kahne finished eighth, his first top ten of the season. Jeff Gordon finished ninth with Matt Kenseth rounding out the top ten. Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin made it three consecutive Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas by finishing eleventh and twelfth. Brian Vickers came home in thirteenth. Martin Truex, Jr. had his best finish of the season in fourteenth with Jamie McMurray rounding out the top fifteen.
Austin Dillon finished sixteenth and was the top rookie. Jeff Burton finished seventeenth in his first start of the season driving for a Michael Waltip Racing/Identity Ventures Racing partnership. AJ Allmendinger was the final car on the lead lap in eighteenth. Kevin Harvick was upfront most of the day before having a front hub issue force him to the garage and finish forty-first.
Earnhardt, Jr., Harvick and Keselowski each have one victory this year. In the points standings, Earnhardt, Jr. leads Keselowski by one. Jimmie Johnson is sixteen back in third with Joey Logano seventeen points back in fourth and Jeff Gordon eighteen points back in fifth.
Carl Edwards is twenty-eight points back in sixth. Matt Kenseth is seventh, twenty-eight points back but loses the tiebreaker to Edwards. Denny Hamlin is thirty-two points back in eighth with Ryan Newman in ninth, thirty-six points back. Kyle Busch rounds out the top ten, thirty-eight points back.
Jamie McMurray is eleventh, forty points back of Earnhardt, Jr. Greg Biffle is twelfth, forty-seven points back. Austin Dillon is the top rookie in thirteenth, thirty-nine points back. Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne are fifty points back in fourteenth and fifteenth. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. is fifty-three points back in sixteenth. Stenhouse is tied with Casey Mears on eighty points but owns the tiebreaker.
On Saturday, Keselowski led 144 of 200 laps and won his twenty-eighth career Nationwide Series race. He held off Kyle Busch who won at Phoenix the week before. Kyle Larson finished third with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in fourth. Rookie Chase Elliott was the top championship-eligible driver in fifth position, one behind his team owner. Matt Kenseth finished sixth with Brian Scott in seventh. Trevor Bayne finished eighth ahead of his Roush Fenway teammate Chris Buescher in ninth and Daytona winner Regan Smith rounded out the top ten.
Smith leads the championship standings by three points over Bayne. Elliott Sadler is nine points back in third. Ty Dillon is twelve points back in fourth with Elliott in fifth, fourteen points back of his JR Motorsports teammate. Brian Scott, Brendan Gaughan, Dylan Kwasniewski, James Buescher and Mike Bliss round out the top ten in the championship.
Both the Nationwide and Cup series head to Bristol Motor Speedway next weekend.
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