Aimee
NEWTON, Ia. – A late-race caution and strategy game on pit road brought instant suspense Saturday night to an otherwise uneventful U.S. Cellular 250.
A third trip to victory lane at Iowa Speedway and another giant gas pump trophy made it well worth the time and travel for Brad Keselowski.
If this indeed is the last Nationwide Series appearance at Iowa Speedway for the 2012 NASCAR champion, he put on quite a final act for the crowd in Newton.
Keselowski ran at the point for most of the night but had to go around Michael McDowell with two laps remaining to seize his record-tying third – and perhaps last – Nationwide victory at Iowa. The Sprint Cup star spent Friday and Saturday making the 1,000-mile one-way trek back and forth between Long Pond, Pa., and Newton to fill the seat in the No. 22 for Penske Racing.
“We’ve got strong drivers coming up in the development crop and I hope that all pans out,” said Keselowski before jetting back Saturday night to Pennsylvania for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Pocono. “This isn’t a race that Penske circles and says we want to send a Cup driver to. The way it works right now with our development drivers running in the truck series, the race is a conflict and it schedules out the way it does for me to be here.
