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NASCAR Cup Darlington: Keselowski snaps 110-race winless streak

Chris Buescher, Keselowski's team-mate at RFK Racing, was working feverishly to hold off Reddick in the final laps when Reddick got into him as he attempted a slide job off Turn 4 and the two collided.

That collision – which sent both drivers to the pits with flat tyres – opened the door for Keselowski to inherit the lead with eight of 293 laps remaining, and he held off Ty Gibbs by 1.214 seconds to clinch the victory.

The win is the first for Keselowski since he became co-owner of RFK Racing in 2022 and 36th of his career. Until Sunday, no Ford driver had won in any of NASCAR’s three national series this season – Cup, Xfinity and Trucks.

“What a heck of a day. It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win, your last win, this is a really special track,” Keselowski said. “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.

“I thought it couldn’t get much better than Kansas. It did today. That was awesome. I’m so glad you guys got to see that. That was incredible.”

Asked if he thought his chance at the win was over when he lost the lead to Buescher late in the race, Keselowski said: “It wasn’t good, but I knew that I’d have another shot at it. My car was really good on the long runs. When Tyler got underneath Chris, I knew I had another shot at it when they made contact.

“Then they must have got a flat tyre and we caught a break. We’ve caught enough bad breaks over the last year or two, it’s nice to catch a good one.”

Chris Buescher, RFK Racing, Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang (Photo by: Danny Hansen / NKP / Motorsport Images)

After the race, an angry Buescher confronted Reddick at his car to complain about the way Reddick raced him. Reddick took responsibility for the incident.

Buescher, who lost last week to Kyle Larson in the closest finish in NASCAR history, ended up 30th and Reddick 32nd.

The late changes at the front saw Josh Berry pushed up to third for his best result of the season, as Denny Hamlin maintained his strong form in fourth.

Chase Briscoe was another to pick up his best result of 2024 with fifth place, ahead of William Byron and Bubba Wallace.

Alex Bowman made it four consecutive top 10 finishes in eighth, while Justin Hailey cracked the top 10 for the first time this season in ninth. Michael McDowell completed the top 10.

NASCAR Cup championship leader Kyle Larson crashed out while running in sixth in the closing stages. The Kansas winner got loose in the middle of Turns 3 and 4 from a tyre going down and slammed into the wall to bring out a caution, but the damage was extensive enough to knock him out of the race.

NASCAR Cup Darlington - Race results

CLA DRIVER # MANUFACTURER LAPS TIME INTERVAL PITS POINTS
1 B. KeselowskiRFK RACING 6 Ford 293

3:12'29.287

  9 57
2 54 Toyota 293

+1.214

3:12'30.501

1.214 14 52
3 J. BerrySTEWART-HAAS RACING 4 Ford 293

+1.477

3:12'30.764

0.263 10 34
4 D. HamlinJOE GIBBS RACING 11 Toyota 293

+3.059

3:12'32.346

1.582 10 36
5 C. BriscoeSTEWART-HAAS RACING 14 Ford 293

+4.245

3:12'33.532

1.186 10 32
6 W. ByronHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 24 Chevrolet 293

+6.137

3:12'35.424

1.892 10 38
7 B. Wallace23XI RACING 23 Toyota 293

+8.554

3:12'37.841

2.417 10 33
8 A. BowmanHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 48 Chevrolet 293

+9.479

3:12'38.766

0.925 10 29
9 J. HaleyRICK WARE RACING 51 Ford 293

+10.682

3:12'39.969

1.203 12 28
10 M. McDowellFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS 34 Ford 293

+11.702

3:12'40.989

1.020 10 27
11 R. ChastainTRACKHOUSE RACING 1 Chevrolet 293

+15.004

3:12'44.291

3.302 10 27
12 C. ElliottHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 9 Chevrolet 293

+15.322

3:12'44.609

0.318 10 25
13 C. BellJOE GIBBS RACING 20 Toyota 293

+15.859

3:12'45.146

0.537 10 24
14 N. GragsonSTEWART-HAAS RACING 10 Ford 293

+16.242

3:12'45.529

0.383 10  
15 T. GillilandFRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS 38 Ford 293

+16.728

3:12'46.015

0.486 10 27
16 C. LajoieSPIRE MOTORSPORTS 7 Chevrolet 293

+17.248

3:12'46.535

0.520 11 21
17 R. PreeceSTEWART-HAAS RACING 41 Ford 293

+17.668

3:12'46.955

0.420 11 20
18 K. GralaRICK WARE RACING 15 Ford 293

+17.946

3:12'47.233

0.278 9 19
19 E. JonesLEGACY MOTOR CLUB 43 Toyota 293

+20.084

3:12'49.371

2.138 10 18
20 A. CindricTEAM PENSKE 2 Ford 293

+20.419

3:12'49.706

0.335 10 17
21 J. LoganoTEAM PENSKE 22 Ford 293

+20.906

3:12'50.193

0.487 10 23
22 H. BurtonWOOD BROTHERS RACING 21 Ford 293

+21.190

3:12'50.477

0.284 10 15
23 R. Stenhouse JrJTG DAUGHERTY RACING 47 Chevrolet 293

+21.351

3:12'50.638

0.161 9 14
24 D. SuarezTRACKHOUSE RACING 99 Chevrolet 293

+22.463

3:12'51.750

1.112 8 13
25 M. Truex JrJOE GIBBS RACING 19 Toyota 293

+22.675

3:12'51.962

0.212 12 18
26
C. HocevarSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
77 Chevrolet 293

+24.434

3:12'53.721

1.759 9 11
27 K. BuschRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 8 Chevrolet 293

+24.552

3:12'53.839

0.118 10 10
28 A. DillonRICHARD CHILDRESS RACING 3 Chevrolet 293

+28.445

3:12'57.732

3.893 9 9
29 D. KrausKAULIG RACING 16 Chevrolet 292

+1 Lap

3:12'53.544

1 Lap 10 8
30 C. BuescherRFK RACING 17 Ford 291

+2 Laps

3:12'31.219

1 Lap 11 15
31 J. NemechekLEGACY MOTOR CLUB 42 Toyota 291

+2 Laps

3:12'35.286

4.067 10 6
32 T. Reddick23XI RACING 45 Toyota 291

+2 Laps

3:12'37.916

2.630 12 22
33 D. HemricKAULIG RACING 31 Chevrolet 290

+3 Laps

3:11'51.598

1 Lap 11 4
34 K. LarsonHENDRICK MOTORSPORTS 5 Chevrolet 252

+41 Laps

2:44'58.839

38 Laps 9 19
35
Z. SmithSPIRE MOTORSPORTS
71 Chevrolet 161

+132 Laps

1:45'23.353

91 Laps 7 2
36 R. BlaneyTEAM PENSKE 12 Ford 129

+164 Laps

1:29'01.602

32 Laps 7 4

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