Sorry about getting this article out late. I’ve had some other obligations this week. Some exhausting obligations. But I’m glad to be back. I love blogging, mainly because it’s the only time I can let myself out of my head without driving non-family crazy. I don’t live in a Nascar popular area.

Kevin Harvick started on the pole due to rain washing out qualifying. But ironically Harvick had the fastest car all night, leading 128 of 267 laps.

Kentucky has recently undergone some major modifications, which have been vastly untested. It turned out to be an unfriendly track to tires. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. discovered this on lap 11, when he blew a tire and slammed the wall, bringing out the caution.

After this, nothing happened until the competition caution on lap 25. On the restart after this, Jimmie Johnson spun on his own, and pounded the front-stretch wall. This was the end of Jimmie’s bid for his first Kentucky win.

The next incident of the night was Joey Logano’s wreck on lap 54. He blew a right front tire and slammed the outside wall, ending his night. The tire seemed to blow due to damage earlier in the race.

On lap 82 Matt DiBenedetto blew atire and hit the wall, just as Logano and Stenhouse had before him. But the real wreck was on the restart after his blown tire. Rookies Chase Elliot and Ryan Blaney were racing hard for a top-five spot, when Blaney got loose, slid up the track, and clipped Elliot. The two spun up the track into the wall, ending both rookie’s chance to win.

On the following restart, the night’s biggest wreck occurred. Brian Scott lost his momentum, and Kyle Larson got into his bumper on the back-stretch. Scott spun off Larson’s bumper, slid down the track, and rolled right into the path of hard charging Chris Buescher. Cars piled up behind them, AJ Allemendinger and Michael McDowell among them.

After this the race finally got back under way without trouble. Harvick was the fastest driver, but Martin Truex Jr. was at least his equal. The two dueled lap after lap, until a caution on lap 196 put all the leaders in a strange situation. It would take a major stretch, but it was possible that drivers could make it to the finish on fuel. Whether tires would last was iffy. Everyone came down pit road, and Truex beat Harvick off pit road. But Truex had passed Harvick on the inside while accelerating into his pit stall, which Nascar mandates is illegal. Truex was sent to the back of the field, and despite an amazing charge through the field, he only made it to a 10th place finish.

Kevin Harvick was now the leader, but he lost the lead to Brad Keslowski on a wild restart. Keslowski is known as the best fuel conserver in Nascar, so with him leading in a fuel milage race, things were looking like Brad would win for the second race in a row.

As the lap wound down, several drivers, including Harvick and Truex, opted to come to pit road for fuel, just to be sure they made it to the finish. But Brad remained on track, along with Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, and Jamie McMurray, all of whom were way behind Brad.

But with two laps to go, Brad slowed. He was out of fuel. Or so we thought. Coming to the white flag Brad managed to get his engine to re-fire, and he kept his car going. But Edwards was now on his back bumper, literally. But as they raced through the final lap, Brad blocked desperately, and coming off turn 4, Keslowski still lead.

Brad won his 4th race of the year, his 3rd at Kentucky, and yet another crazy fuel milage race. The funny thing is, the second that Brad crossed the finish line, his fuel tank ran dry. Behind Brad and Carl, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, and Tony Stewart all managed to use good fuel strategy to take their 11th to 15th place car to top-fives.