NASCAR Barometer: Keselowksi Wins After Late Restart

Brad Keselowski used a late restart to overcome Alex Bowman to win his third race of 2019, drawing level with Kyle Busch who also has tree victories. Kevin Harvick appeared to have the race in hand, winning the first stage and pulling away from the field, until an issue drew him to pit road for an unscheduled stop that left him a lap down to the leaders. He didn't recover until it was too late, and Joe Gibbs Racing's troubles left the door open for a Penske Racing and Hendrick Motorsports to take three of the top five finishing positions.

Saturday night's race under the lights was the last points event before the traditional build up to Memorial Day weekend's 600-mile marathon. Two exhibition races will kick off the homestand this coming weekend before teams turn their focus to the longest race of the season. Kyle Busch is the defending winner of the 600 while Harvick took home the big paycheck in the All-Star Race. The biggest racing weekend of the year is almost here.

UPGRADE

Brad Keselowski – Keselowski hung in contention inside the top 10 all 400 scheduled miles Saturday night, which put him in position to use fresher tires to overcome Alex Bowman on a late restart to grab his third win of the season. The win comes in the midst of what looked like a rough patch for Penske Racing and Ford, as Toyota and Chevrolet were making great gains in recent weeks. Keselowski led just 12 laps in the race after starting from fourth position. The team now regains some of that early-season momentum they seemed to have lost as they set up for two weeks at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Keselowski's only points victory at Charlotte was from 2013, but he did finish fourth in last year's 600-mile race.

Alex Bowman – After earning his third consecutive runner-up finish Saturday night in Kansas, Alex Bowman is looking like a future race winner. Like his teammates, Bowman has been enjoying the increased competitiveness Hendrick Motorsports has found since Talladega. His recent finishes have been pushing him up the championship standings, and he now holds 12th position in the rankings with more than a 30-point gap to the cutoff line. Underlining his recent finishes is the fact that he has also led laps in each of these last three races. Wins look likely to come his way in the near future. He will be brimming with confidence ahead of two weekends in Charlotte where he grabbed his first top-10 finish on the oval in last year's Memorial Day classic.

Chase Elliott – Elliott's run of great form continued in Kansas last weekend as he worked his way to the lead in the second segment and drove away from a struggling Harvick to capture his second stage win of the season. He fought hard the rest of the running and walked away with his third consecutive top-five finish, including his win at Talladega. He also collected two poles in the last five races. Elliott finished second in the fall Charlotte oval race in 2017 and 11th in the 600-mile race last May, and with Hendrick Motorsports firing on all cylinders, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect this run of good form to continue for Elliott for weeks to come.

Jimmie Johnson – While Johnson hasn't made the splashes his teammates have with Hendrick's upturn in performance, he has been quietly gaining momentum. He was a top-10 contender throughout Saturday night's race and finished sixth to pick up his fifth top-10 of the season. Two of those five top-10s have come in the last five races, and he's now occupying the last of the playoff positions. It has been a long dry spell for Johnson, and he still lacks some of the consistency and pace of his younger teammates. That tide is turning his direction, though. He has two weeks at Charlotte to find the extra gains he needs to get on par with his teammates and then start battling for an elusive win.

Kevin Harvick – Harvick had the best car all weekend at Kansas. He qualified on pole and couldn't be held from the lead. While running ahead of the competition in the final stage, he was forced to pit road with a potential problem. That bad luck ruined the great night he was piecing together, and left the rest of the field to fight for the win as he worked to climb back as high in the order as possible. In the end, he didn't have enough time and finished outside of the top 10 after finally getting back onto the lead lap. He has won three times in Charlotte points races and started from pole twice in the last four races at the track.

DOWNGRADE

Denny Hamlin – Hamlin brought out the first unscheduled caution Saturday night when a rear tire failed and left him sliding through the turn with fender damage. The good news for Hamlin was the fact that the incident happened early in the race and he didn't suffer greater damage to his car. He was left with plenty of time to recover if recovery was possible, but the damage was done, and Hamlin only worked his way back to finish in 16th position. Hamlin has never won a points race at Charlotte but has led laps in each of his last four races at the track. With five top-fives in the last six along with those laps led he's a driver fantasy players must keep an eye on this week.

Kyle Busch – Saturday was a frustrating night for Busch. First, he fought an ill-handling machine after saying the team did not get the setup right from the very start of the race weekend. Early adjustments put him inside the top-10, but late contact that resulted in a cut tire forced him to the pits and a finish three laps down to the leaders. With that, his hopes for a record 12 consecutive top-10 finishes to start the season came to an end. No one has been as on fire as Busch has been this season, but he now sits level on three wins with Penske's Keselowski. He'll bounce back and has two weeks at Charlotte to do just that. He won last year's 600-mile race from pole.

Ryan Blaney – Blaney's frustrating season continued to give him headaches last week in Kansas. Having speed to race among the top 10 wasn't enough, as various handling issues plagued his night. He battled an extremely loose machine in the second stage and fell outside of the top 20 as he struggled to just hang on without crashing. He will have a lot of work to do at Charlotte over the next two weeks. In seven tries he has just one top-10 finish in a points race at the track. Four of those seven races gave him finishes outside of the top 20, too. The team has work to do to deliver results on track, and time is beginning to add even more pressure on the team to solve those issues.

Martin Truex Jr. – Truex' changes of getting back-to-back wins was looking good last week in Kansas until he received a penalty for failing inspection. He was originally qualified inside of the top 10 but was forced to start from the rear due to the infraction. Still, he worked his way forward but had some bumps along the way, including contact with Daniel Suarez as Suarez was slowing to enter pit road. It was a step backward for the driver who recently seemed to be finding his stride with Joe Gibbs Racing. This could be the stretch where Truex settles in, though. He dominated in Charlotte three year ago, leading 392 of 400 laps, and he also won on the oval in 2017. The team's response to Kansas will be key to watch this week.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Stenhouse will walk away from Kansas with his head held high after a confidence-boosting performance. The team gave him a very quick short-run car that he used to push his way inside the top five multiple times in Saturday night's race. He was a regular face inside the top 10 throughout the night and came home 11th, which was his best finish since Las Vegas in March. Stenhouse is now 25 points out of the playoffs and no doubt hopes that a win is in his future in order to make another appearance in the elimination rounds. One cannot deny that Roush Fenway Racing has righted the ship and is making improvements after a number of seasons in the doldrums. That is good news for Stenhouse and the rest of the storied organization.