Keselowski wins postponed Indianapolis NASCAR Cup race, Jones P2 – NASCAR

Brad Keselowski took a second NASCAR Cup win in two races with victory at Indianapolis after passing Denny Hamlin on the penultimate lap.

The Penske driver, who also won last time out at Darlington, made his final stop on lap 143 of 160, just before a caution came out due to debris lying near the start/finish line.

Keselowski had made his way up to third position before the race was suspended again following a collision between Landon Cassill and Jeffrey Earnhardt, and was able to get past Clint Bowyer at the subsequent restart after the Stewart-Haas Racing driver appeared to struggle with wheelspin.

Keselowski and leader Hamlin battled on the penultimate tour, making contact on numerous occasions before Keselowski took first place, holding on over the final lap to win the Brickyard 400.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones also passed Hamlin entering the final lap to take second place, with the latter ending up third.

Going into what was the final race of the regular season, all but two playoff places were filled.

Hendrick team-mates Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman provisionally held spots but were not certain of progressing ahead of the race, which had been postponed following a cancelled qualifying session due to persistent rain.

But Johnson all but sealed his playoff place when Bowman was caught up in a crash with AJ Allmendinger on lap 67.

However, Bowman still secured the final playoff place as no driver outside of the top 16 in the standings scored a victory that would have meant they jumped ahead of him.

Kevin Harvick finished the race in fourth after a slow final pitstop. Kyle Busch ended the race in eighth, while Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr crashed out on lap 41 due to a left front brake issue.

Bowyer had run at the front of the field for the majority of the race, winning stage one from Kurt Busch, but his mistake at the final restart bumped him down to fifth position.

Bush came home sixth, while stage two winner Matt Kenseth finished down in 12th after running into issues at his final pitstop.

Results – 160 laps