Zach Horrall

Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS – In a thrilling late-race shootout, Brad Keselowski nudged his way past Denny Hamlin coming to the white flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and clinched Roger Penske’s first Brickyard 400 win and a historic one for Team Penske on a postponed Monday race in Indianapolis.

The win meant Team Penske swept the major races at the legendary track this year.

Keselowski’s win came after Will Power won the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar Grand Prix on the IMS road course in May. The victory was No. 499 overall for Team Penske, 17 of which came in the Indy 500.

Keselowski won an Xfinity Series race at IMS in 2012 for Penske, but the Brickyard 400 was one the organization has been chasing.

“It is special and means a lot to kiss the bricks today and get that first win for Team Penske and Roger,” said Keselowski’s crew chief Paul Wolfe. “Indy is always a special place for (Roger Penske) and the team as much success as they’ve had on the open-wheel side.

“There’s things on the bucket list you’re trying to check off, and this was definitely one of them. Only thing better would be if the boss was here to celebrate with us.”

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Last weekend at Darlington Raceway, Keselowski won the Southern 500, another crown jewel NASCAR race that Team Penske hadn’t won since 1975. Monday’s win helped Keselowski clinch the No. 4 spot in the playoffs, which will be led by regular-season champion Kyle Busch next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“(It) was obviously a big day, and for a number of reasons,” Keselowski said. “It’s such a historic track that means so much to all of motor sports, so for us to have our name on that win list sure does mean a lot to me.”

With 20 laps to go, it looked as though Keselowski was going to leave Indianapolis with another loss. Wolfe had him stay off pit road as long as he could, but on lap 141 he brought Keselowski in for fresh tires, handing the lead over to Hamlin.

Three laps later, a caution for debris changed the trajectory of the race. Most of the leaders stayed out, but enough drivers pitted for Keselowski to move into eighth position, leaving him with the freshest tires in the top 10.

Seven laps later, Landon Cassill and Jeffrey Earnhardt crashed in turn three, bringing another caution and resetting the field. Keselowski was lined up on the inside of row two and, with three laps to go, jumped into second and began chasing down Hamlin. The two banged doors as they motored around the backstretch on the penultimate lap before Keselowski was able to shoot past the Joe Gibbs Racing driver in turn four.

“Gosh, that was one of the best things I’ve ever heard in my life — ‘Clear off turn four at the Brickyard coming to the white flag.’ What a day.”

After the race, Hamlin was frustrated that Earnhardt's and Cassill's lapped cars collided and caused the final caution that erased his lead and allowed Keselowski to catch him. Hamlin said the “meaningless guys in the back” allowed drivers to play against his team’s strategy and cost him the race.

“I had the race pretty well in hand," Hamlin said. "Landon Cassill wrecked for no apparent reason at the end and then we just got roughed up by the No. 2 there at the end,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re doing crashing with a couple laps to go. Meaningless.”

Keselowski’s win comes after finishing second in last year’s Brickyard 400 to Kasey Kahne. In total, he has finished in the top-10 in more than half his Cup Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He said poor finishes in the other races have gotten him to where he is today.

“Victories like this are sweeter when you’ve had failures beforehand,” he said. I felt like I’ve had a car capable of winning this race two or three time in the past. Today was probably not in the top three for cars that I’ve had here. Today, we executed across the board.”