Keselowski Nabs First Sprint Cup Victory

By ESPN

Brad Keselowski's first Sprint Cup victory came in 2009 at Talladega. And it came in dramatic fashion when he rammed into Carl Edwards as Edwards tried to block him.

It was a huge upset in winning a race for car owner James Finch. But that win certainly had controversy, whether Keselowski could have or should have avoided the contact.

At the time, Keselowski ranked as a top prospect, but few could predict he would have 20 wins in 250 starts. Some of those wins have come with drama, others more with the focus on Keselowski.

Win No. 20 on Saturday night came at a track where Keselowski had never won, the most famous one on the circuit. He led 115 of the 161 laps to capture the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Keselowski had won four restrictor-plate races in his career but none at the place that even non-race fans know about.

"It's been a kick in the you-know-what," Keselowski said about not winning at Daytona. "I got down on myself here. We came down here for the 500 and quite honestly we ran like dog crap, but my team worked on it. I didn't give up on them.

"I believe in my team and my team believes in me and we went to work and we put together a better car."

Prior to Saturday night, Keselowski hadn't even been close to winning at Daytona. He had just two top-5s in 14 starts at Daytona. His average finish was 22nd, and he had only one top-15 finish in his past six starts at the track. He had led only one lap in the past four Daytona races and had led 38 laps at the track in his entire Sprint Cup career.

Logano Causes Wreck

Joey Logano isn't in the racing business to make friends. He wants to win trophies. That's what his owner pays him to do.

He says he didn't mean to turn Kurt Busch, when Busch was running third, on the final lap Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. But he did.

And in doing so, he's not going to get any benefit of the doubt.

"He made an aggressive mistake," Busch said. "You can't go from fifth to first. There's just no shot at it. It's a shame that we ended up spun around and wrecked."

Busch's crew chief Tony Gibson, typically one of the more reserved and easygoing crew chiefs in the garage, tweeted simply: "Stupid is as stupid does!!! #22"

Logano said the accident was unintentional, just a product of restrictor-plate racing.

"The last thing I want to do is hit someone like that," Logano said. "Unfortunately, it happened."