SRT Motorsports - Nationwide Race Recap - Kentucky

 
SPARTA, Ky. (Saturday, June 30, 2012) – Sam Hornish Jr. continued his string of rock-solid finishes in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.  He finished sixth in Friday night’s Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway.

The driver of the No. 12 Wurth Dodge Challenger posted his eighth top-10 finish and third consecutive.  He remains fourth in the series championship standings, 33 points behind leader Austin Dillon.

“That’s the thing that you’ve got to do; you’ve got to be consistent,” Hornish said.  “We need to keep being smart and doing the things that we’re doing.  We’re chipping away at it.  We’d love to do it all in about two races and be leading the points but it’s not going to happen that way.  We just need to be smart about what we do.”

Brad Keselowski overcame the loss of track position early in the race to finish seventh, his eighth top-10 finish in 11 starts this season.  Keselowski was running third when he pitted during the first caution of the race on lap 26.  The crew had an issue with the right-front during the stop plus receiving a penalty for pitting outside the pit box and a tire violation.

Keselowski restarted 29th but was able to work his way back onto the top five by lap 130.  Nine laps later the No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge made a scheduled green flag stop for tires and fuel.  Before the pit cycle was complete, the second caution appeared on lap 143.  That pinned the No. 22 a lap down.  Keselowski stayed on the track and took the wave around to return to the lead lap.  He restarted eighth but was at the end of the field when the race went green on lap 149.  He picked up one position over the final 51 laps to finish seventh.   

“We had an okay night,” Keselowski said.  “I did pass a lot of cars.  We just didn’t quite find the perfect handling on our Discount Tire Dodge.  I’m not sure what we were missing but just didn’t have enough.  We’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”
 
Dillon won the race for his first victory in the Nationwide Series.  Kurt Busch was second and Kevin Harvick third.  

 
Point Standings
NASCAR Nationwide Series
(After 15 of 33 races)
  1. Austin Dillon                                   554
  2. Elliott Sadler                                     -2
  3. Ricky Stenhouse                             -23
  4. SAM HORNISH JR.                        -33
  5. Justin Allgaier                                 -73
  6. Cole Whitt                                       -82
  7. Michael Annett                                -99
  8. Mike Bliss                                      -163
  9. Danica Patrick                               -185
10. Brian Scott                                     -201

Final Race Results
NASCAR Nationwide Series
Feed the Children 300
Kentucky Speedway
  1. Austin Dillon
  2. Kurt Busch
  3. Kevin Harvick
  4. Michael Annett
  5. Justin Allgaier
  6. SAM HORNISH JR.
  7. BRAD KESELOWSKI
  8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  9. Elliott Sadler
10. James Buescher

 
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