Motorsport News

Brad Keselowski Breaks 110-Race Winless Streak at Darlington, Earns 1st 2024 Win for Ford

2024 Cup Darlington I Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford (Credit: NKP)

Brad Keselowski won this race.

After Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher made contact with nine laps to go, both drivers cut a tire, which cleared the path for Keselowski to break his 110-race winless streak that spanned to the 2021 fall race at Talladega Superspeedway.

The partial-owner of RFK Racing gained his first career win as an owner-driver with his company after merging with Jack Roush and Fenway Sports Group in 2022. Keselowski led 35 of the 293 laps at Darlington Raceway’s Goodyear 400 to clinch his first win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Ty Gibbs posted his best finish of the season after crossing the line 1.214 seconds behind the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse to capture second. Gibbs led 35 laps in the race and closed to within half a second in the closing laps.

Josh Berry completed his season-best result of third after running in the top 10 for most of the day, and Denny Hamlin, part-owner of Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota Camry, finished fourth. Chase Briscoe was the second Stewart-Haas Racing driver to finish in the top five, crossing the line fifth.

William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley (season best), and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10.

Reddick won the pole and pulled to as much as a 1.7-second lead over Keselowski. Keselowski caught up to the back of Reddick as he approached lap traffic.

Instead of losing the lead to the No. 6 after green-flag pit stops, Gibbs took the lead after the cycle of pit stops and maneuvered through lap traffic to take a lead as large as 3.1 seconds over Larson.

Gibbs collected a Darlington Stripe and battled a loose car, allowing Kyle Larson to close back in for the lead. Larson took the lead on lap 79 after Gibbs got loose in turn 4.

Larson took the stage one win under five seconds ahead of Gibbs in a caution-free stage. The rest of the stage one top five consisted of Keselowski, Reddick and Martin Truex Jr.

Reddick returned back to the lead thanks to his No. 1 pit stall and a flawless stage two restart ahead of Gibbs.

Reddick maintained the lead through two cautions which included John Hunter Nemechek spinning on the frontstretch on lap 121 and another quick caution on the lap 129 restart for Ryan Blaney moderately hitting the wall out of turn 2, stacking Truex and Buescher behind him. Blaney made it clear to Byron of his displeasure by running up to the No. 24 before heading into the garage.

Reddick continued to lead ahead of Gibbs,…

Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …