Brad Keselowski completed a spectacular comeback to take Fontana NASCAR Sprint Cup victory on the second green-white-chequered restart.
Keselowski dived down the inside of Stewart-Haas’ polesitter and long-time race leader Kurt Busch at Turn 1 and completed the move at the exit of Turn 2 on the final lap of the race.
The late-race restarts suited Keselowski as his Penske Ford was stronger on short runs, and the 2012 champion was also one of the few frontrunners to grab four fresh tyres at the last stops.
Kevin Harvick earned second after winning the previous two races at Las Vegas and Phoenix respectively. His streak of top two finishes extended to eight, as he beat team-mate Busch on the run to the chequered flag after Busch hit the wall trying to repass Keselowski.
Paul Menard was in and out of the top 10 all race and guided his Richard Childress Chevrolet home to fourth in the late-race madness ahead of in-form team-mate Ryan Newman and Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Keselowski’s team-mate Joey Logano completed a comeback drive to secure seventh, after a pitlane penalty had forced him to drop down the order from the top-10 spot he had occupied for most of the race.
Martin Truex Jr joined Logano and Harvick as the only drivers to finish in the top 10 at every race this year as he took eighth.
Joe Gibbs Racing had a nightmare day at the Fontana circuit, with two of its cars dropping out of the top five at the caution period on lap 184 of the planned 200.
Denny Hamlin – who led 56 laps in the first half of the race – suffered from a tyre penalty in the pitlane, with NASCAR officials ruling that a wheel was uncontrolled when taken off the car.
Hamlin ended up 28th, continuing his unlucky run at a venue where he missed the race last year through an eye injury and sustained a back fracture in a last-lap clash with Logano when fighting for the lead in 2013.
On the same pitstop, Matt Kenseth broke an axle when his #20 car was dropped off the jack after changing four tyres. He had been leading the race at the time and consistently had the quickest pitstops all day, which had kept him at the front of the pack.
Another Gibbs car had suffered earlier when second-row qualifier David Ragan spun out on lap 22 while racing side by side with Jeff Gordon. Ragan, who had been strong throughout practice, then picked up a penalty after a tyre rolled away in the pitlane – the same issue that later caught out Hamlin – and finished 18th.
For the first time since Indianapolis in 2013, all 43 starters finished the race still running.
