MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Travis Kvapil repeatedly apologized for
spinning Brad Keselowski on the way to taking the lead for good in
the Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly 200.
Not that Kvapil expected his contrite words to make Keselowski
feel better.
Kvapil passed Keselowski after bumping him, taking the lead with
eight laps to go and pulling away on the restart to win his second
race in three weeks Saturday night.
"That's definitely not how I race," Kvapil said. "I
definitely didn't intentionally spin him around. His truck was not
getting into the middle of the corner very good at all. He was
really slowing down, almost coming to a stop.
"I had to go and make something happen."
Kvapil, who was the O'Reilly champion in 2002, had stalked
Keselowski for more than a half dozen laps before taking the lead
on 192 when he got into the bumper of Keselowski, who was replacing
suspended driver Ted Musgrave. The contact coming out of Turn 4
sent Keselowski spinning toward the infield, and Kvapil swept by to
take the lead.
Jack Sprague finished second with Ron Hornaday Jr., Mike Skinner
and Aaron Fike closing out the top five. Kvapil's 91.806 mph
average breaks his own record at the Memphis Motorsports Park from
2002. It also marks the first time in 10 races that someone has won
the Memphis race starting outside the top five.
Even Sprague noted Kvapil's passing move when he saw the replay
in the media.
"Wow, Travis took him out," Sprague said. "That's not cool."
Keselowski, who replaced Musgrave in the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota
midweek, ended up 16th after the spin.
Earlier in the day, Keselowski continued his whirlwind week by
capturing the pole in qualifying. It was the 23-year-old's first
pole as he toured the ½-mile tri-oval with a speed of 119.771
earlier Saturday.
Musgrave was suspended one race after an incident with rookie
Kelly Bires last week in Milwaukee. Musgrave, who is now seventh in
the series points race, chased down Bires and forced the rookie
into the wall.
Keselowski's top lap was a good sign as the two previous winners
in Memphis -- Sprague and Brandon Whitt -- won from the pole.
Early on, the sub was doing well, holding the lead through the
first 20 laps, but the veteran Hornaday got underneath him on the
restart following a caution and took the lead when Keselowski got
sideways.
By the midway point of the 200-lap race, Kvapil held the lead by
more than a second, passing Hornaday seven circuits earlier. Kvapil
was distancing himself from the field at that point, 2 seconds
ahead of Hornaday and more the 6 seconds in front of Skinner.
But Keselowski moved in close to Kvapil during a long green-flag
run and drove past Kvapil when they came upon lap traffic on Lap
148. Kvapil wouldn't let Keselowski get away, staying right on his
bumper in lapped traffic, particularly in turns 3 and 4, until the
spin in the final laps.
"I used up everything I had to get to Travis and pass him,"
Keselowski said. "If I saved my stuff, I wasn't catching him."
But slower cars led to traffic, and Keselowski had to drive the
truck even harder, using up his tires.
"Eventually, it got me where I had to slow the truck quite a
bit, and unfortunately, that probably led to me getting run over,"
he said.
Kvapil won two weeks ago at Michigan International Speedway when
he passed Kyle Busch with one lap to go.
Before the start, racers and dignitaries recognized the
late-Bobby Hamilton, the 2004 O'Reilly 200 winner, who died earlier
this year of complications from cancer.