Just past halfway through the final NASCAR Nationwide Series race of the year in Homestead, Florida, Brad Keselowski is having performance issues with his No. 22 Penske car, making the battle for the Owner’s championship between him and Kyle Busch in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs car. Coming into this race, Keselowski was 29 points ahead of Busch, making it a relatively defensible lead. Despite claiming no specific mechanical issues or failures, the No. 22 car continued to lose ground through the beginning of the race, falling as far as 17th in the running. He has begun to make up some of the ground, but with the issues behind the earlier drop in position have the crowd wondering if the Joe Gibbs team can pull the longshot upset after all. Busch has been running in or near the front for much of the race, and a win would clinch it. It would take a significant drop in position for Keselowski to lose the NASCAR owner’s title on points, but these early performance issues have the Joe Gibbs camp ready to push for the steal.
By Jim Malone
Sources:
Live viewing of Nationwide Eco-Boost 300 Race, Homestead, FL
FOX
Image courtesy of dgmlaml – Flickr License
