Keselowski gets breakthrough win at Daytona

For Brad Keselowski, restrictor-plate racing at NASCAR’s two main tracks has been a mixed bag of success. More like polar opposites, in fact.

At Talladega Superspeedway, Keselowski earned his first career Sprint Cup win in 2009 and has added three more since. At Daytona, he had managed only three top-10 finishes in 14 prior starts.
Everything changed for the better on a night when the rain stayed away.
Keselowski was finally able to answer any and all challenges as he won the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday night on the 2.5-mile oval. It’s not the 500, but it certainly doesn’t matter, especially when it gave team owner Roger Penske his 100th win in the Sprint Cup Series.
The driver of the No. 2 Ford Fusion was so good, he led 115 of the 161 laps, almost three times as many as in his previous Daytona starts combined (38). What likely helped was his ability to stay away from trouble.
More than half the field – 22 of the 40 cars – got involved in a huge pileup at lap 90. Keselowski, who qualified fifth, was in front at the time and stayed there. Not only that, it was just the second time he started inside the top 10.
In the 2012 July race, BK qualified ninth and finished eighth. Considering his average finish in 14 prior trips was 22.1, it’s no coincidence that starting near the front makes a difference when any mistake, no matter how small, can take out a lot of cars.
Case in point was the Lap 90 mishap. Jamie McMurray got loose as Jimmie Johnson closed in, made contact with teammate Kyle Larson, and ignited the chain reaction.
Such is the fact of life at Daytona and Talladega. Restrictor plates keep the field in big packs, and any politeness the drivers may have had in the earlier stages of the race goes away when it’s go time.
The perfect symbol of what the big wreck does came when Brian Scott’s No. 44 car ended up on top of the hood of Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 for a short period of time. Better that than in the fence like Austin Dillon at last year’s rain-delayed Coke Zero 400, but we digress.
“You really think it’s going to happen from Lap 1,” said Harvick in a NASCAR Wire Service story. “It’s hard to make ground, so you have to be pretty aggressive when you start making ground.”
There are now nine races to go until the Chase field is set. Tony Stewart, who won a week ago at Sonoma Raceway to end a three-year drought, wrecked with 11 laps left and finished 26th. In spite of the bad break, Smoke is officially in the top 30 in points and eligible for his last title shot.
Stewart is only three points in front of Scott, and as we said last week, backsliding isn’t an option. The No. 14 car got as high as fifth by lap 140, but couldn’t hold on to the momentum.
As for the race broadcast, NBC Sports took over the coverage for its second season of work. Let’s just say they need to shake the rust off a little bit.
We get there is a need for commercials on a broadcast. What we don’t need is commercial breaks that don’t allow the storylines to truly develop.
According to the web site cawsnjaws.com, there was 47 minutes of commercial time out of 190 minutes that were measured during the Coke Zero 400. Race fans didn’t get to see nearly a full quarter of the race so the advertisers could make their money.
In total, there were 124 commercials, up from 96 last year. That’s way too much.
It’s another part of a big puzzle as to why NASCAR is struggling to regain the foothold it had on the fan base through the early part of the last decade. Fans aren’t buying seats at tracks with the voracity they once did, and when they can’t see the good parts of a race on TV, it only adds to the problems.
New drivers like Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney are giving fans hope for a brighter future for the sport. It’s time for the broadcast partners – TV or radio – to ensure it remains vibrant for generations to come.

Follow Tom Zulewski on Twitter @Tomzsports or email tominator19@yahoo.com.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Kentucky Speedway (1.5-mile oval), Sparta, Kentucky.

-SPRINT CUP: Quaker State 400, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN affiliate.

Race distance: 400.5 miles, 267 laps.

2015 champion: Kyle Busch

-XFINITY SERIES: Alsco 300, Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local PRN affiliate.

Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.

2015 champion: Brad Keselowski

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Buckle Up in Your Truck 225, Thursday, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 225 miles, 150 laps.

2015 champion: Matt Crafton.

Earnhardt's popularity even shinier now

Sure, it was almost 3 a.m. when the Coke Zero 400 finally finished early Monday morning at Daytona International Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his second July race at the World Center of Racing, but any form of celebration was the last thing on his mind.

As cars were wrecking behind him coming to the finish line, the No. 3 driven by Austin Dillon went airborne and turned the catch fence into tattered, twisted and mangled steel.

The in-car audio spoken by Earnhardt and spotter T.J. Majors ended up being a statement to why fans have voted him NASCAR's most popular driver for more than a decade. If you heard it live during the late-night broadcast or caught up with it on social media after a good night's sleep, there was real, legitimate emotional impact.

But don't just take it from me. Give a listen to what Junior had to say after the race when he spoke to NBC. If you weren't a fan of the No. 88 before, you should be now. There's an undeniable maturation that's happened to Dale Earnhardt Jr., and what happened at Daytona is another important step in the process.

He's engaged to Amy Reimann. He's got six wins in the last 53 races after needing more than 10 years to get his previous six. And he's second in points with nine races left until the Chase.

Yup, it's good to be Junior right about now. Not just for the racing, but for the person he's become.

Daddy Dale is certainly showing his approval from heaven.

One striking thing that came from the Daytona wreck involved the pit crew for the No. 88. Every last one of them ran out to Dillon's upside-down car to make sure he was OK.

NASCAR mandated that only the safety crews were allowed on the track after the Tony Stewart-Kevin Ward incident from last August, but other than a stern lecture (probably) from the powers that be, no penalties will be forthcoming.

And there shouldn't be, either. A racer's humanity means there will always be concern for their own whenever a life goes flashing before their eyes.

Thank goodness this one was only a flash.

Tom Zulewski believes Dale Earnhardt Jr. will find championship karma as the 2015 season unfolds. Feel free to share this post and follow him on Twitter @Tomzsports.