Keselowski and Ford end long wait

Brad Keselowski and Ford finally snapped painful winless streaks after a dramatic finish to the NASCAR Cup Series Throwback round at Darlington.

Keselowski ended a career-long 110-race, three-year winless streak, which was his first as co-owner of RFK Racing, while it was Ford’s first appearance in victory lane in 2024 at the 13th attempt.

Following the final caution with 33 to go, Keselowski was in the middle of an enthralling fight for the lead with teammate Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick.

After the restart, nothing could split the #6 and Reddick as they ran side by side for the lead across four thrilling laps.

But before their door-to-door tussle could be resolved, third-placed Buescher stormed in and left everyone shellshocked.

As Keselowski and Reddick made contact coming out of Turn 4, the Buescher enjoyed a powerful exit and went as low as he could go on the apron.

Once the #17 emerged back on the race track at Turn 1, it appeared to be one of the great race-defining moves.

However, eight laps from the chequered, Reddick was on the attack and made a big dive on the inside of Turn 3.

The Toyota got up alongside the Ford but could not quite pull off the slide job as the #17 got squeezed into the wall.

The heavy contact between the pair saw both contenders drop out with flat tyres.

Whilst there was heartbreak for one RFK Racing driver, there was elation for the other as the seas parted for Keselowski and he took the win he had been chasing since Talladega 2021.

“What a heck of a day,” said Keselowski.

“It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win or your last win, this is a really special track.

“The history of NASCAR, it’s as tough as it gets, and that battle at the end with my teammate (and) Tyler Reddick.

“We just laid it all out on the line, it was freaking awesome.”

After the race, a fired up and devastated Buescher confronted Reddick, who admitted he “made an aggressive move and was not the goal to take him out.”

The opening stage was all green and led by Kyle Larson in the most popular throwback scheme that saluted Terry Labonte.

The action stepped up in Stage 2 where Ryan Blaney was the first retiree on Lap 129.

Blaney was sitting in the top five but was tapped on the outside of a three wide battle that also contained Martin Truex Jr and William Byron.

The Jeff Gordon tribute #24 of Byron slid high into Teux Jr, which saw Blaney fire into the outside wall.

The #12 Penske driver was out of action but before he retired, he swerved at the Hendrick Motorsports machine.

Following the caution-filled second stage, Reddick emerged on top after clearing Keselowski.

An all green finish appeared likely until Lap 254 when Larson spun from sixth with a flat left rear tyre.

Everyone boxed to get serviced one last time and Reddick just got his nose clear in the race off pit road.

This setup the thrilling finale to the Goodyear 400 where Keselowski was rewarded for his patience and Buescher was left pondering what could have been for the second race in a row.

The NASCAR Cup Series has a week off for this weekend’s All Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway this weekend, while points are back on the line at the famous Coca-Cola 600.

Photo by Lesley Ann Miller/Motorsport Images

Goodyear 400 Darlington results

FIN	ST	NO.	DRIVER	TEAM	LAPS	DIFF	STATUS	POINTS
1	2	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing Castrol Edge Ford	293		Running	57
2	4	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing He Gets Us Toyota	293	1.214	Running	52
3	33	4	Josh Berry	Stewart-Haas Racing Harrison’s Ford	293	1.477	Running	34
4	7	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing Yahoo! Toyota	293	3.059	Running	39
5	13	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing Mahindra Tractors Ford	293	4.245	Running	32
6	5	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports Axalta Chevrolet	293	6.137	Running	38
7	8	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing McDonald’s Toyota	293	8.554	Running	33
8	18	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports Ally Financial Chevrolet	293	9.479	Running	29
9	28	51	Justin Haley	Rick Ware Racing NC Fraternal Order of Police Ford	293	10.682	Running	28
10	16	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports Long John Silver’s Ford	293	11.702	Running	27
11	9	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Busch Light Chevrolet	293	15.004	Running	27
12	31	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports UniFirst Chevrolet	293	15.322	Running	25
13	12	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing DEWALT 100 Years Toyota	293	15.859	Running	24
14	36	10	Noah Gragson	Stewart-Haas Racing Overstock.com Ford	293	16.242	Running	23
15	15	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports Gener8tor Ford	293	16.728	Running	27
16	24	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports Razzle Dazzle Chevrolet	293	17.248	Running	21
17	26	41	Ryan Preece	Stewart-Haas Racing United Rentals Ford	293	17.668	Running	20
18	34	15	Kaz Grala	Rick Ware Racing N29 Capital Partners Ford	293	17.946	Running	19
19	30	43	Erik Jones	LEGACY MOTOR CLUB AdventHealth Toyota	293	20.084	Running	18
20	25	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske Freightliner Ford	293	20.419	Running	17
21	14	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske Shell-Pennzoil Ford	293	20.906	Running	23
22	35	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing DEX Imaging Ford	293	21.19	Running	15
23	20	47	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing Oscar Mayer / Artesano Bread Chevrolet	293	21.351	Running	14
24	19	99	Daniel Suarez	Trackhouse Racing Quaker State Chevrolet	293	22.463	Running	13
25	10	19	Martin Truex, Jr.	Joe GIbbs Racing Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota	293	22.675	Running	18
26	21	77	Carson Hocevar	Spire Motorsports Premier Security / NLEOMF.org Chevrolet	293	24.434	Running	11
27	11	8	Kyle Busch	Richard Childress Racing Zone Chevrolet	293	24.552	Running	10
28	23	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet	293	28.445	Running	9
29	32	16	Derek Kraus	Kaulig Racing ProjectWyoming.com Chevrolet	292	1 lap	Running	8
30	3	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing Fifth Third Bank Ford	291	2 laps	Running	15
31	22	42	John Hunter Nemechek	LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Family Dollar Toyota	291	2 laps	Running	6
32	1	45	Tyler Reddick	23XI Racing MoneyLion Toyota	291	2 laps	Running	22
33	29	31	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing Black’s Tire Chevrolet	290	3 laps	Running	4
34	6	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports HendrickCars.com Chevrolet	252	47 laps	Accident	19
35	27	71	Zane Smith	Spire Motorsports Focused Health Chevrolet	161	132 laps	Accident	1
36	17	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske Menards / Maytag Ford	129	164 laps	Accident	4

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McLaren launched the attack, first with Oscar Piastri and then by Lando Norris who had a bit more luck with the Safety Cars. He pulled away for a maiden win