Brad Keselowski Outruns Kyle Busch In Richmond For Virginia529 College Savings 250 Win

RICHMOND, Va. – Brad Keselowski won Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series Virginia529 College Savings 250 at Richmond Raceway after a tight battle with Kyle Busch throughout the entire event.

The driver of the Team Penske No. 22 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Ford stole the lead with 15 laps to go and was able to win with a lead of three seconds over Busch to capture his fourth NASCAR XFINITY Series victory at Richmond Raceway. He has now finished within the top-10 in all nine series starts this season.

Busch led the most laps in the event after starting on the pole. He finished second in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota after leading 182 laps over the course of the event. This was Busch’s 19^th top-10 finish in 22 races at the Virginia track.

“He just had a better long run car every time. Every run we had, he was able to get by us there after about 50 – 45, 50 laps or whatever it was – so I was just trying to get out there a little bit and we were working each other pretty hard there early in the run,” Busch said. “I thought I beat his tires up and he was just able to come back through, so oh well, you know? NOS Energy Drink Camry was good – just not good enough and need a little bit more.”

Ty Dillon took home the third finishing position in his Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Rheem Chevrolet. Daniel Hemric finished in the fourth position, while Elliott Sadler claimed the fifth spot in the finishing order. Sadler clinched the 2017 NASCAR XFINITY Series regular-season championship on Friday night.

Christopher Bell, William Byron, Justin Allgaier, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brennan Poole completed the top-10.

The 250-lap race was broken into three stages. Stage 1 and Stage 2 were 75 laps each. Stage 3 was 100 laps.

Dillon was able to use new tires to his advantage to come through late in Stage 1 and win. Keselowski was then able to snag the Stage 2 victory in a tight battle with Kyle Busch. Keselowski went on to win the final stage, earning the race victory.

There were just three cautions in the race for a total of 26 laps. Only two of the cautions were for accidents. On lap 54, the caution came out after Bobby Earnhardt blew a tire, and on lap 76, the second caution of the race came out when Brandon Jones spun in Turn 4 after contact with Ross Chastain. The third and final caution was for the conclusion of Stage 2.

 The NASCAR XFINITY Series sets its Playoff field next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Tune in for the Chicagoland 300 on Saturday, September 16 at 3:30 p.m. ET. on the NBC SPorts Network (NBCSN) and the Motor Racing Network (MRN).

Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

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