By Chad Leistikow, USA TODAY
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Brad Keselowski did nothing during Saturday's Irwin Tools Night Race to damage his status as NASCAR's hottest driver.
Keselowski's pit crew gave him a stellar pit stop on the race's final caution at Bristol Motor Speedway, then he did the rest, surging ahead of Martin Truex Jr. to lead the final 80 laps and collect his third Sprint Cup win of the year.
"This is a race of champions. I can't believe it," Keselowski said. "There's races that pay more; maybe some with more prestige. … But this is the best damn one of all."
BLOG: Recap of Nate Ryan's musings at Bristol
RESULTS: Irwin Tools Night Race results
STANDINGS: Sprint Cup points leaders
In his last four races, Keselowski has gone from 21st to 11th in the points standings with two first-place finishes, a second and a third.
Those four finishes have been accomplished with a broken left ankle he suffered in a testing crash a few days before winning at Pocono Raceway.
"The last 100 laps, I certainly started to feel it," Keselowski said of the pain in his ankle, which was aggravated after the race when he jumped out of his No. 2 Dodge Charger. "But I don't think anyone wants to hear me whine."
Truex Jr., who took two tires under the final caution to gain track position, ended up second — his highest finish since 2007, spanning 145 races.
Jeff Gordon had the dominant car most of the night but settled for third.
"We just didn't get the position we needed to on that last pit stop," Gordon said. "We just didn't quite have it there at the end."
Keselowski took four tires on the last caution, yet his pit crew was still able to put his Penske Racing car ahead of Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet, which dropped from first to fifth in the pits.
"The last pit stop was good. The adjustments were good. And I was driving my butt off," Keselowski said. "The next thing you know, we find ourselves in victory lane at Bristol. Just amazing."
Of Keselowski's dominance, Gordon — a four-time champion and a five-time winner at Bristol — said, "Those guys are on a roll right now. … You put them in position at the end of the race and they're going to pull off the wins. They're, to me, as strong a team (as) there is right now."
Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR's most popular driver, had an uneventful but maybe the most beneficial night, points-wise.
A caution at lap 298, brought about when David Stremme spun David Reutimann for the race's first crash, proved to be a huge break for Earnhardt, who got the "free pass" for being the first car one lap down.
Once back on the lead lap, Earnhardt stayed there and finished 16th. He held onto his ninth position in points but widened the gap on his closest pursuers as Tony Stewart (28th) and Clint Bowyer (26th) endured a miserable Saturday night.
Earnhardt is 39 points ahead of 11th-place Keselowski, meaning it would take consecutive poor performances at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway for him to miss the Chase for the Cup playoff.
"The balance was decent on the car, but we were just slow; we didn't have enough grip," Earnhardt Jr. said. "(I'm) thankful to finish where we finished."
Stewart, despite finishing three laps down, held onto 10th place in points, the last guaranteed spot for the Chase. "Just a rough night," he said, a day after qualifying 42nd.
Bowyer fell to 12th in points and trails Stewart by 22.
As the points stand, Keselowski would be the first of two Chase wild cards — given to the winningest drivers ranked 11th through 20th — and Denny Hamlin (13th, one win) would be the other.
If Keselowski were to replace Stewart in the top 10 in points, that might open a spot for others with a win currently in or near the top 20 (Paul Menard, 20th; David Ragan, 21st; Marcos Ambrose, 22nd).
Kyle Busch, who had won four of the last five Cup races at Bristol and won Friday's Nationwide Series race, suffered a blown tire to trigger the last caution and was 14th.
With their performances, Johnson, Kenseth and Edwards clinched spots in the Chase field that will be set after the next two races. Busch became the first to clinch a spot last week at Michigan International Speedway.