Keselowski sends Kyle Busch to another runner-up finish

NEWTON, Iowa — The inaugural Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway came down to a battle between points leader Kyle Busch and top series regular Brad Keselowski.

In a twist that’s becoming all too common for Busch, he was forced to settle for yet another second-place finish. This time, Keselowski pulled off the victory with a gutsy move down the stretch.

Keselowski passed Busch with eight laps left and held on to win Saturday for his fourth career Nationwide win. Keselowski stayed on the track during a caution flag late in the race, a risk that paid off with his second victory of the year.

Keselowski also won at Dover, Del., on May 30, in addition to a Sprint Cup Series victory at Talladega in April.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better finish,” Keselowski said. “It’s lot more fun to say I beat Kyle heads-up. That means a lot to me.”

Busch, who started at the back after spending the morning in Pennsylvania practicing for the Sprint Cup race today at Pocono, led 84 laps. He has nine consecutive top-two finishes, tying the series record set by Jack Ingram in 1983.

Busch wasn’t thrilled about such a distinction. It was the fourth time in five Nationwide races that he finished second, though he still has a 207-point edge over Carl Edwards in the season points race.

“Apparently, I don’t know what I need in my race cars in order to win these races at the end of them,” Busch said.

Jason Leffler was third, followed by Edwards and Kelly Bires.

Keselowski and Busch broke free from the rest of the field with about 60 laps to go. Busch then slipped past Keselowski with 25 laps left and looked to be in the clear.

But the 12th caution flag came with 10 laps left. Keselowski made his move shortly after the restart, slipping past Busch — who wasn’t comfortable with his car for most of the race — for the win.

“I wouldn’t say we caught a good break, but we played the odds, and I would say that 75 percent of the time, that what we did would win the race,” Keselowski said of his critical decision not to pit and instead stick with his tires. “It would take things to line up just perfectly against us for us not to win the race, which at one point it appeared that’s how it was going to happen. But it’s the right call.”

Keselowski won an extra $75,000 by taking the Dash 4 Cash bonus offered to Nationwide regulars at stand-alone races.

• TRUCKS — At Gladeville, Tenn., Ron Hornaday Jr. raced to his record fifth straight series victory, easily holding off Brian Scott in a green-white-checker finish.

The Kevin Harvick Inc. driver has six wins this year to push his series-record total to 44. He also has a record three season titles.

Rick Ren also set a series record for victories by a crew chief with 27. He broke the record he shared with Dennis Connor.

Hornaday passed pole-sitter Timothy Peters on the 34th lap of the 150-lap event on the 1.333-mile oval at Nashville Superspeedway, then dodged the rain the rest of the night.

• IRL — At Sparta, Ky., Ryan Briscoe slipped past Ed Carpenter in the final yards to win the Kentucky 300.

Briscoe’s Penske Racing Honda had just enough momentum coming off the final turn at Kentucky Speedway to hold off Carpenter, who was searching for his first win in 94 career starts.

Instead, Briscoe picked up his second victory of the year and moved into the series points lead ahead of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.