Brad Keselowski breaks 110 race winless streak in Goodyear 400 at Darlington

For the first time in 110 races, Brad Keselowski is a NASCAR Cup Series race winner. A huge accomplishment for this No. 6 team. Everyone thought it would come, but no one knew if it would for sure.

Brad Keselowski just picked up his first win at RFK Racing, his first as a driver-owner, and he will be heading to the playoffs this season. It was a nailbiter and looked like it wasn’t going to happen until about 10 laps to go in the race.

With patience and experience, Keselowski gets the win at Darlington.

REPOST TO CONGRATULATE BRAD KESELOWSKI ON HIS WIN AT DARLINGTON! The winless streak is over. pic.twitter.com/oeg2zQvKhf

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 12, 2024

This is the first win for Ford all season, as well as the first win for RFK Racing. The thing is, Chris Buescher had this race locked up until Tyler Reddick sent it in deep and slowed them both up. It opened the door for Keselowski to come through and take the lead.

110 races. Three years of trying. The struggle is now over and Brad Keselowski is back in Victory Lane.

Kyle Larson wins Stage 1

A very standard first stage in this Goodyear 400. Nothing wild and crazy went down. Just a lot of green flag racing and pit stops. Tyler Reddick led early in this one as the pole-sitter. However, he was soon being hassled by others.

Kyle Larson came on strong in the first stage and would eventually take the lead. Green flag pit stops allowed Ty Gibbs and Larson to jump ahead of Reddick on the pit cycle. From there, it was easy going for the 5 team.

The Terry Labonte throwback scheme looked great and it looked even better in the front of the field. Larson gets out in clean air and just goes to work whenever and wherever he is racing.

Drivers got into lap traffic and it allowed for others to make moves. Larson was just too good to pass in that opening stage. He went on to take the stage win, his seventh of the season.

Tyler Reddick gets help from his pit crew

What has been the story of the last three seasons for 23XI Racing? Pit stops. Bad pit stops, too. There have been many instances where Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace have had great performances ruined by a bad stop on pit road.

Today, Reddick’s crew actually got him positions. He was able to maintain or improve his position with fast stops and being disciplined in entering and exiting pit road. In Stage 2, it helped. Especially with the caution flags that came out.

With 62 laps to go in the second stage, John Hunter Nemechek went around. That drew a caution for cause and set up a restart. That is when things got a little squirrely. William Byron took Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney three-wide on the restart. It didn’t end well.

Blaney got put into the wall and it killed his car. Future brother-in-law Byron cost him a potential top-10 run. Stage 2 would see another caution flag come out with Zane Smith spinning out. None of that would prevent Tyler Reddick from getting the Stage 2 win, though.

Brad Keselowski takes advantage of late-race contact

All day the No. 6 pit crew was trying their best to beat Tyler Reddick on pit road. It never happened. But Keselowski had a car capable of beating Buescher and Reddick in the long-run. He just needed the run to do it. Even with a run at the end, he needed some late race contact to get it done.

Reddick and Buescher were in a brawl for the lead. Both drivers knew that the race was coming down to the end. If Reddick was going to get the lead from the 17, he had to make an aggressive move. He did just that, and it didn’t work out.

Instead of clearing Buescher, Reddick ended up in his door and put him into the wall. Both drivers took damage and had to pit. Buescher would finished P30 and Reddick P32. But it was that contact that gave Keselowski the room to take the lead and ultimately, win the race.

Brad Keselowski can forget about the streak now. It’s over. His next goal is to pick up more wins this season and get back to his old ways.