Hornish finished fourth in the Nationwide Series standings, with 10 top 5 s and 22 top 10s.

Erwin also led Greg Biffle to five wins at Roush Fenway Racing, and three consecutive Chase berths before being replaced at RFR.

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Dillon, who started the race from the pole, regained the lead on Lap 151, slingshotting around Elliott Sadler to eventually build a three-second advantage before finishing with a 1.059-second margin of victory over runner-up Sam Hornish Jr.

Dillon dominated en route to his first career Nationwide Series win at Kentucky in late June, leading 192 of the event’s 200 laps. He wasn’t as dominating Saturday, leading just 65 laps (Sadler led the most with 93), but the most important thing is he took the checkered flag nonetheless.

“We weren’t the best car, but we were able to fight, fight, fight and get out in front there at the end,” Dillon said. “When we got the chance to take the lead, I just took it.”

Perhaps the biggest key to Dillon’s win came on Lap 162 when Eric McClure spun, bringing out the caution flag. Sadler was instructed by crew chief Lucas Lambert to follow Dillon and do what he did in terms of coming onto pit road or staying on the race track.

Sadler did as he was told, but Dillon snookered him, turning back onto the race track at virtually the last second before reaching the pit lane commitment cone. Sadler didn’t have enough time to react and was forced to pit for two tires and fuel, while essentially also watching his chances of a series-tying fifth win this season slowly fade away. Sadler entered pit road in second place in the race; he exited in seventh.

From that point on, Dillon remained in command. While he did get some late challenges from Sam Hornish Jr., Brendan Gaughan and Justin Allgaier, Dillon’s car remained the class of the field for the remainder of the race.

He even had to endure an uncharacteristic gushing bloody nose during the second half of the race, but by the time he reached the checkered flag, his bloody nose stopped and he presented a memorable birthday gift of sorts to team owner and grandfather Richard Childress, who turned 67 on Friday.

Much like James Buescher, who on Friday night won his second race of the season at Kentucky Speedway in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Dillon made it 2-for-2 in 2012 at the 1.5-mile Bluegrass State track.

Dillon was followed by second-place Hornish, who may have reignited what had been fading championship hopes, Gaughan in third, Drew Herring in fourth and Sadler wound up fifth.

As it stands with six races remaining on the schedule, Sadler leads Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the NNS standings by four points, has a 19-point advantage over third-ranked Dillon, leads Hornish by 46 points and Allgaier trails by a distant 103 points.

“I think this thing is going to go back and forth from now all the way to (the season finale at) Homestead,” Sadler said. “We felt like we could really make a big gain today if we were able to win the race.

“But we are four points ahead, so we’re right in the middle of this thing and we’ll go on to Dover. It’s going to be a good battle all the way to the end. I don’t see anyone stretching out a comfortable lead before we get to November.”

Dillon admits he sees some definite similarities developing between the way he won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship last season and how his rookie bid to win the title in the Nationwide Series is shaping up.

“We never really led until the end of the year in the truck series last year, and when we did, we kind of opened it up,” Dillon said. “This year, we’re coming from a little bit further than we’d like to be, but we’re still right there.

“We’ve said from the beginning, as a rookie team we’d just hope for a shot going into Homestead. If you have a good enough year as a rookie to have a chance to win the championship, I think that’s really good. Now, where we’re sitting, we just have to keep knocking them down.”

Sadler, who had led the Nationwide Series points standings for 21 of the first 26 weeks, came into Saturday’s race looking to regain the No. 1 top spot from Stenhouse, who entered Saturday with a nine-point advantage over Sadler.

“It’s frustrating not to be able to close out the day, as fast as we were,” Sadler said, adding that his car developed power steering issues late in the race that affected his ability to climb back even further in the field.

“We gave up some points today, six or seven points. We had a tire (issue) last week (while) leading the race, and then leading the race this week and the power steering went out,” Sadler said. “We just can’t buy any luck. So we feel very fortunate to be the points leader with what we’re overcoming.”

Stenhouse can relate about bad luck, as he finished 17th Saturday, three laps behind the leaders.

Dillon and Stenhouse earned the top two spots in qualifying, but when the race started, it was all Stenhouse, the defending series champion who was also making his 100th career start in Nationwide competition.

But when NASCAR invoked a mandatory competition caution on Lap 32 due to heavy rains late Friday night, Stenhouse crashed into McClure’s car on pit road, causing damage to Stenhouse’s Ford Mustang. Stenhouse brought the car back onto pit road two more times to have the damage repaired, and when racing went back to green-flag competition, Stenhouse had fallen from first to 28th.

And as if to add insult to injury, Stenhouse smacked the wall on Lap 50 when his right-rear tire blew out, prompting another pit stop and a further drop downward in the field, to the point where he exited pit road after repairs two laps off the lead.

Gone was his lead in the race, gone was his hopes for a win in his milestone Nationwide Series start and gone was his lead in the points standings.

Stenhouse, who won at Chicago last weekend, came into Saturday’s race with two wins and two runner-up finishes in his last four starts.

To his credit, Stenhouse never gave up. At one point in the race, he had fallen 23 points behind Sadler in the in-progress series standings. But even with being three laps down, Stenhouse continued to move forward, ending the race a lot better than he potentially could have wound up behind Sadler.

As for other drivers, Kurt Busch looked like he was shot out of a cannon at the start of the race. Doing double duty with Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire, Busch had Matt Crafton practice and qualify the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota (qualified 14th).

Busch was sent to the back of the 43-car field for not qualifying the car, but that proved to be more of an incentive than an obstacle, as he quickly climbed an almost unheard-of 28 spots in the first 20 laps of the 200-lap event, and was up to fifth place by Lap 38.

Unfortunately, Busch may have pushed his car too hard and too fast as his Toyota developed gear issues that ended his day prematurely on Lap 128. It was just another in a long list of misfortune that has hampered the struggling Kyle Busch Motorsports team this season.

Danica Patrick qualified 11th in the first race with new crew chief Ryan Pemberton, struggling through the first third of the race before rallying back to a 14th-place finish.

NOTES: The two youngest drivers on the Nationwide circuit, 18-year-old Ryan Blaney and 19-year-old Alex Bowman, had strong runs, finishing ninth and 25th, respectively. Of note for Bowman, it was only his second career Nationwide Series race, but his car suffered mechanical issues late, relegating him further back in the pack than what appeared to be a potential top-15 finish.

Allgaier captured his first win of the season at the NAPA Auto Parts 200 presented by Dodge on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, emerging in front after a frenzied overtime finish.

“Today was just an awesome day,” said Allgaier. “Winning in Montreal means so much because all the people in the series enjoy coming here. The atmosphere is great, the fans never disappoint here but the race played out perfectly for us.”

Allgaier was running third at the second attempt for a green-white-checkered finish when a last-lap bump put him in front of Penske Racing teammates Sam Hornish Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve, who ended up second and third.

“I knew I was closing in on Jacques but he braked really early into corner 6 and I was certain he had ran out of gas,” added Allgaier. “He went really slow and I had too much of a head of steam and was sorry I got into him.”

Hornish, who made one last charge at Allgaier on the final lap, seemed far from happy with his second-place finish.

“I should feel pretty content with finishing second but I feel that Penske Racing deserved more from this day, considering the two cars
that they provided us,” said Hornish after the race. “I was running confident, second to Jacques, and felt that we would be battling the
win out between the two of us but the 30 (Alex Tagliani) stuck his nose in there on a restart with about 10 laps to go and I was sent
back to 23rd place or so. I should be happy to finish second after restarting from 23rd but we deserved better. ”

The seven extra laps ran because of the two green-white-checkered finish attempts, which forced Villeneuve to eke out the last drops of Sunoco gasoline from his fuel cell. However, though his Dodge Challenger ran out of fuel before getting back to the garage on the cool-down lap, the Quebec-born driver says that he saved enough to get him easily to the checkered flag.

“I did not run out of fuel and my engine did not sputter,” said Villeneuve. “I was simply taken out by Allgaier, who used me to slow
down in Turn 6 on the last lap. It’s frustrating because Penske and Dodge gave me such a good car. We ran head and shoulders above
everyone else even if we were not attacking in order to save fuel and brakes for the end of the race. It’s hard to take.”

Allgaier was apologetic . . . but not too much.

“I am really sorry that I took him out but from what I’ve heard, because I couldn’t see it, earlier in the day, that same car spun out
the 30 car (driven by Tagliani) that just happened to be our teammate,” Allgaier said. “So I guess that what goes around comes around.”

NASCAR Nationwide Series points leader Elliott Sadler finished fourth, one position in front of 2008 Montreal winner Ron Fellows.
Michael McDowell, Mike Wallace, Billy Johnson, Austin Dillon and NASCAR Sprint Cup series regular Kyle Busch completed the top 10.

With 824 points, Sadler extended his lead at the top of the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship race to 22 points over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who wrecked late but still finished 12th. With his second-place finish, Hornish is now tied with Stenhouse with 802 points while Austin Dillon (789) and Allaier (756) close out the top 5 in points.

Danica Patrick had a good day, leading 20 laps but mechanical issues on her GoDaddy Chevrolet relegated her to the 27th position,
six laps behind the leaders.

“How disappointing is it. We’re bound to catch some good luck some time. I just can’t believe the amount of bad luck we’ve had, ” said
Patrick, who even hit a shoe thrown on the track by a fan at one point.

Derek White, a regular in the NASCAR Canadian Tire series, was the best finishing Quebec driver apart from Villeneuve with an 18th-place effort.

Montreal-born Tagliani, who started from the pole position, led seven laps and ran up front most of the day but was moved over by
Villeneuve for the lead on lap 67. Tagliani finished 22nd.

Patrick Carpentier (29th), Andrew Ranger (32nd), Dexter Stacey (35th) and Louis-Philippe Dumoulin (38th) were the other Canadian drivers entered in the event.

Earlier in the day, Tagliani finished 7th and 8th while running in two different cars in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race won by Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas.

After earning three straight poles at Iowa Speedway, Elliott Sadler finally has a finish to match.

Sadler passed Justin Allgaier with 58 laps remaining and pulled away to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series U.S. Cellular 250 on Saturday night at the 0.875-mile oval. The triumph was his fourth this season, setting a personal best for wins in a year.

Sadler gave a victory yell on the radio and jogged over to grab the checkered flag for his achievement. He talked about redemption after last week’s incident at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he was penalized for beating the leader to the start/finish line during a late restart.

“It’s been a rough week,” Sadler said. “We felt like we should have won that race last week.”

His father underwent knee surgery but provided his son with some motivational words for his race at Iowa. Sadler took the advice to heart and claimed his second win in three weeks.

“He said do not let them take this championship away from you,” Sadler said. “Go to Iowa and kick their butts.”

Sadler, who increased the one-point season points lead over Austin Dillon to 18, led 60 laps, after surrendering the lead to Darrell Wallace Jr. on the opening lap. Wallace, making his second Nationwide start after placing ninth in his series debut at Iowa Speedway in May, came in seventh, leading the first 37 laps before Dillon took over.

“I didn’t really like not leading the first lap but that’s not the one that pays the money,” Sadler said. “We learned what we had to learn and we moved on from it. I felt like my restarts the rest of the race were pretty good.”

Sadler was able to briefly gain the lead from Dillon, his Richard Childress Racing teammate, off the restart, following a competition caution on lap 50. The second caution when John Blankenship spun out 87 laps in jumbled the front-runners. Allgaier benefited from a fast pit stop to take the lead, while Dillon dropped to 10th and Sadler fell to eighth.

Sadler fell back again after a pit stop during the third caution for debris on the track, but he maneuvered through the field before overtaking Allgaier late.

“I had a hard time passing (Allgaier),” Sadler said. “He knew where my car was fast.

“He just got a little loose off of turn 4 and that particular lap I got a really good bite under him. . . . Once we got out front, I knew we were in really good shape.”

The win capped a huge day for RCR. Team owner Richard Childress was at Pocono Raceway for Joey Coulter’s win in the Pocono Mountains 125 on Saturday afternoon. He joined Sadler in Victory Lane at Iowa Speedway later that night. Adding to the impressive day, Sadler and Dillon hold the top two spots in Nationwide points.

“That was great,” Childress said of the day. “You get two wins in one day, let’s hope tomorrow we can cap it off and make it a full sweep with a third one.”

Childress had faith Sadler would come through with the win, praising his passes of Kurt Busch for second before taking the lead from Allgaier.

“I couldn’t be prouder of him,” Childress said. “Elliott got up on the wheel when he had to get up on the wheel.”

Allgaier, who has 13 top-10 finishes in 2012, recorded his best finish of the season, placing second. He set a personal best, leading 101 laps of a Nationwide race. His previous best was 88 laps led.

“To come here and lead most laps, and run as good as we did I was proud of that,” Allgaier said. “It’s tough to see Elliott out there and know you’re catching him and there’s not really much you can do.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had won three straight Nationwide races at Iowa Speedway, but couldn’t make a push for the lead. He suffered problems with tire grip after starting 11th and finished fifth. Stenhouse held his third-place spot in points, falling to 21 back of Sadler but closing to three points behind Dillon.

Sam Hornish Jr. won the final Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus as the program from series sponsor Nationwide drew to a close. He placed third, finishing one spot of Des Moines native Michael Annett.

Annett remained sixth in points, trailing Allgaier by 26, and placed a few spots ahead of fellow Iowan Brett Moffitt, who made his Nationwide Series debut Saturday.

Moffitt placed ninth, one spot ahead of where he started. He viewed the night as just another race, but was happy with the performance.

“It was a lot of fun,” Moffitt said. “I got a lot of experience racing with the cars. These things racing around other cars, they’re really aero dependent, so it’s a lot harder racing around other cars. I learned a lot, so that was good.”

Brad Sweet was the highest finishing rookie, placing 12th.

Keselowski beat Penske Racing teammate Sam Hornish Jr. to the finish line by 3.3 seconds after NASCAR penalized points leader Sadler for jumping the last restart of the race on Lap 83, after Kyle Busch’s spin in Turn 1 brought out the fifth caution on Lap 79.

Sadler, who got a push into the lead from Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon approaching the stripe, asserted that race leader Keselowski had spun his tires coming to green.

“It’s so wrong to penalize me for a mistake they made,” Sadler radioed to his crew. “NASCAR just took the championship away from me. They just took the damn championship right out of our hands.”

Reluctantly, Sadler served a pass-through penalty on Lap 89 and dropped behind the other lead-lap cars. Charging through traffic, Sadler finished 15th to minimize the damage to his points lead, which shrank to one point over Dillon, who finished fifth.

Ty Dillon, Austin’s brother, ran third, followed by Denny Hamlin. Michael Annett finished sixth and pocketed $100,000 from Nationwide’s Dash 4 Cash program. Annett, Hornish, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (ninth Saturday) earned Dash 4 Cash eligibility for next week’s race at Iowa.

Thanks to Sadler’s misfortune, Keselowski became the first Nationwide winner at the big track.

“I’ve been watching races here since I was a kid in Michigan,” Keselowski said. “Everybody knows how special Indy is, and any win you can have here, whether it’s the (Indianapolis) 500 or the Brickyard here (Sunday), the first Nationwide race — every race is special.

“This is the 100th win for (owner) Roger Penske in NASCAR, so that’s really special for him. I’m glad to be able to be the guy that delivered.”

If Hornish had to finish second, there was consolation in being beaten by a teammate — but only so much.

“There’s always next week, but there’ll never be another inaugural Nationwide race at Indy,” said Hornish, a former winner of the Indy 500 during his tenure in open-wheel racing.

Contact from Danica Patrick’s Chevrolet sent Reed Sorenson spinning on Lap 39. Sorenson slid sideways, blocking the track in front of Patrick, who T-boned the unfortunate Ford. Patrick’s car was demolished, and the driver who posted six top-10 finishes in seven IndyCar starts exited the Nationwide event in 35th place.

“It’s just unfortunate for our day — it’s a big race, a big weekend,” Patrick said. “We were just trying to pick ‘em off one by one (Patrick was running 20th at the time). . . . We just got shuffled back on that restart there (on Lap 22), picked the wrong line and got shuffled back.

“I got into the center of the corner, I got pretty close, and I might have tapped him — I’m not sure. He was slowing it down quite a bit, so I didn’t mean to take him out. . . . I was trying to go around him, and when I went around him, I think he hooked right, maybe, or something like that. Just a bummer. There was plenty racing left to work with, but what can you do?”

Race runner-up Kevin Harvick, who finished .717 seconds back, expressed his displeasure with Amber Cope by tapping her No. 24 Chevrolet on the cool-down lap, an expression of displeasure at Cope’s impeding Harvick’s progress and opening the door for Keselowski’s winning pass.

Austin Dillon ran third, winning Nationwide’s $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus and establishing his eligibility for next week’s cash bonus at Chicagoland Speedway. Sam Hornish Jr. ran fourth, followed by defending series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

“It was one of those days when things came together for us,” said Keselowski, who led 131 of 200 laps but acknowledged he got a gift in the late going. “We had a good car and caught a little bit of a break. I think we’ve sat on the pole three times here and had a fast car but never (won). It feels good to get the job done today.”

Keselowski held a 3.6-second lead when Cole Whitt got into Turn 1 too hot on Lap 121 and turned the No. 4 Chevrolet of Danny Efland into the outside wall. Keselowski, Hornish, Harvick, Dillon and Stenhouse were among those who took two tires during pit stops under the ensuing caution, and the field restarted with Keselowski in the lead on Lap 129.

From that point, Keselowski began to drive away again. By the time Danica Patrick tapped the No. 81 Toyota of Jason Bowles and spun off Turn 4 on Lap 149, Keselowski led by 2.3 seconds, but that advantage disappeared with the fourth caution of the afternoon.

Sadler came to the pits along with Patrick and Whitt for a four-tire stop on Lap 151, giving up the ninth position. Sadler restarted 14th on fresh rubber on Lap 155, with Patrick 15th. The call for new tires paid dividends, as Sadler gained six positions within eight laps.

Ultimately, he finished seventh and retained his lead in the series standings by three points over second-place Dillon. Sadler also joined Dillon, Stenhouse and Hornish as a qualifier for the Dash 4 Cash bonus next week at Chicagoland.

While Sadler was cutting a swath through the field, Harvick grabbed the lead from Keselowski on Lap 155 and held it through two laps of side-by-side racing. In clean air, Harvick pulled away to a 1.5-second lead, but while battling traffic with 22 laps left, Harvick was held up by the lapped car of Cope, which finished 33 laps down.

Keselowski made an aggressive move to the outside and passed Harvick off Turn 4 to take control of the race.

In addition to the tap on the cool-down lap, Harvick had some choice words for Cope, one of the twin nieces of former Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope.

“The 24, every time you’d come to her, she didn’t know whether she was going high or low,” Harvick said. “It looked like she went up, so I committed to the bottom, and she came down.

“It’s not one of those deals. It’s somebody who shouldn’t be on the race track and has no clue what they’re doing in a race car. She wants to be Danica Patrick, but she can’t hold her helmet.”

A dehydrated Stenhouse, who had battled illness in the days preceding Saturday’s 200-lapper, collapsed on pit road after the race. He was taken to the infield care center for treatment, but was conscious and alert.

“Ricky has been sick most of the week just fighting the flu bug,” said Mike Kelley, Stenhouse’s crew chief, “and at the end of the race I think the heat and the exhaustion caught up with him. He needed to sit himself down and get cooled off. They’ve got him in the infield care center now getting some fluids in him. He’s fine.”

Penske switched from Fords to Dodges in 2003, after Dodge returned to the sport. That year, Ryan Newman won eight races in a Penske Dodge. He went on to win three more times in Dodges, while his teammate Rusty Wallace won once in a Penske Dodge in 2004. Kurt Busch won 10 times in Penske Dodges, while Keselowski has won three times. 

If this news is confirmed, Robby Gordon Motorsports would be the only team fielding Dodges in the Sprint Cup Series. Derricke Cope was rumored to be starting a team that would field Dodges, but nothing concrete has come through.

This news comes 10 days before Dodge planned to unveil their 2013 Dodge Charger for use in Cup competition.

Update: Penske confirmed the news with an announcement.

Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas said:

This is an historic day for our racing program, and we are thrilled to see another member of the extended Ford family coming back. Working together with Penske Racing gives Ford another championship-level program, and we are excited to take our racing program to all-new levels.

Roger Penske added:

We look forward to joining the Ford Racing NASCAR program beginning in 2013. We appreciate the long-term commitment that Ford has made to Penske Racing and for their continued support of the sport.

Busch, the 2004 Sprint Cup champion, has been with Penske since 2006, and has been at the Cup level for 11 years. He has posted 24 wins in his Cup career, 1o of them with Penske.

But Busch has received extra attention this season after confrontations with media members and highly publicized in-race meltdowns directed towards his team and crew chief.

Following his transmission problems at the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch was caught on camera making an obscene gesture. He was later shown berating ESPN’s Dr. Jerry Punch in a video that went viral on YouTube. NASCAR fined Busch $50,000 for his actions. He apologized.

Both Penske and Shell Pennzoil, Busch’s sponsor, released statements condemning the behavior.

Penske issued its statement shortly after the video went viral. The organization said:

These actions do not represent Penske Racing and are inconsistent with the company’s standards for behavior, respect for others and professionalism. This matter is being reviewed internally with no further comment at this time.

Shell and Pennzoil echoed those sentiments in their statement:

Shell and Pennzoil are disappointed with recent actions by driver, Kurt Busch, at the final race of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race season. His actions are in no way consistent with the way we want our brands represented and we have expressed our disappointment and concerns directly to Penske Racing.

In addition to his actions at Homestead, Busch has received a lot of negative attention for his tirades over the radio during races. Busch had a rocky relationship with his crew chief of the last two years, Steve Addington. The pair won four races in two seasons, but Addington chose to leave the team at the end of the season. While there is nothing official to indicate that Addington left due to the way that Busch treated him, it is hard to imagine that it did not play a role.

In his time at Penske, Busch had been with four different crew chiefs.

Rumor has it that David Ragan is the leading candidate for the job. Ragan is coming off of one of his best Sprint Cup seasons, having earned his first career victory at Daytona International Speedway, and being close to winning the Daytona 500. David Reutimann and Brian Vickers, and Sam Hornish, who has driven for Penske before, may also be considered for the ride, if the report is true.

At this time, there has been no official word, so assume this a rumor.

Update: The Associated Press is reporting that Busch and Penske have agreed to part ways. This is the second time in his career, Busch has been released from a major team for his behavior. Busch was released from Roush Fenway Racing following an incident with Arizona police.

Update 2: Penske officially announced the separation. Penske owner Roger Penske said:

I appreciate the victories that Kurt has brought Penske Racing and our sponsors over the past six years. While I am disappointed that Kurt will not be racing for our team in the future, both Kurt and I felt that separating at this time was best for all parties, including our team and sponsors. I wish Kurt the best in his future racing endeavors.

Busch added:

I am grateful to Penske Racing for six very productive years. Together we won a lot of races -16 in all. Leaving a great organization and a lucrative contract is not easy, but it’s an important step for me and allows me to take a deep breath to work on things that can make me a better driver and a better person. I want to personally thank Roger Penske for the opportunity that he has given me.

Keselowski won his third Nationwide race of the season and the 15th of his career, cruising to a decisive victory over Carl Edwards, whose chances at a victory evaporated when his No. 60 Ford ran out of fuel moments before a scheduled pit stop on Lap 124 of 200.

Polesitter Brian Scott came home third, followed by Aric Almirola and Sam Hornish Jr. in a race that saw 10 cars finish on the lead lap. Series points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. held the top spot in the standings with an eighth-place finish.

Keselowski, who qualified sixth for the Cup race before taking the green later in the afternoon, held a 10-second lead over Edwards after a round of green-flag pit stops late in the race and cruised through the final 30 laps.

“It’s a great booster to get a win before going into the Chase,” Keselowski said. “It was great execution today. That’s what it takes to win right now. Our Dodges are fast, and today we just executed really well and did what it takes.”

Asked what might carry over into Sunday’s Cup race, Keselowski said, “There’s always the confidence—that’s the biggest thing.”

During the early and middle portions of the race, Keselowski and Edwards—the only Chase drivers in the field—took turns dominating.

Keselowski wrested the lead from Scott on Lap 2 and stayed out front—with the exception of one lap under caution—until Edwards passed him in traffic on Lap 90.

“I’m going to take every one of those freakin’ lapped cars and wreck ’em,” Keselowski vented, after one of the back markers failed to give him a lane to pass and facilitated Edwards’ move to the lead.

By the time Keselowski made a green-flag pit stop for tires and fuel on Lap 115, Edwards had extended his advantage to three seconds. Edwards waited until Lap 124 to pit—one lap too long, as it turned out.

Edwards ran out of fuel on the way to his pit stall, and by the time the crew completed his service and his engine refired, he was nine seconds behind Keselowski and in fifth place when the cycle of stops was complete.

“They told me to pit, and I was coming down the back straightaway, and I ran out of fuel,” Edwards said. “So it took us a little longer in the pits. The guys did a really good job of keeping it running and got us back out there, and then we had a really long green-flag run (131 laps).

“I think our car was fast enough. I would have really liked the opportunity to go up there and race Brad. We just didn’t get that caution.”

Edwards immediately began to chip away at Keselowski’s advantage, narrowing the margin to 6.188 seconds by Lap 141. Later in the run, however, Edwards’ charge stalled, and on Lap 155, he was running third behind Keselowski and Scott, 5.635 seconds behind the leader.

Hornish has been running select races in the Nationwide Series for Penske Racing. Thus far in 2011, he has one top 10 in five starts.

Hornish said:

I’m really excited to get back in a Cup car. And it’s not just an opportunity to run a Cup race, but I get to race at Pocono. That’s a track that a lot of drivers don’t like and it puts them in a bad mood trying to figure it out. And that actually can pay dividends for me because I like racing there and I go there with confidence. I’ve run well there the past two years with four top-15 finishes. … I’ve been spending some time with Jay Guy, going over the set-up of the car, so we have a good game plan going in. I knew Jay from when he was at Penske, but I didn’t work directly with him. But I’m looking forward to working with him this week.