Recap of Last Year’s Race: Brad Keselowski darted past race lead Erik Jones nine laps from the finish and kept the Number-22 Team Penske Ford in front the rest of the way, beating Jones to the checkered flag by a quarter-second with Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez and Elliott Sadler completing the top five. J-J Yeley, who had been awarded the pole position based on practice speeds after qualifying was rained out, failed to lead a single lap and finished eighteenth – two laps down to Keselowski. Brendan Gaughan rode home in ninth place on a day he celebrated his fortieth birthday.
Busch led a race-high eighty-eight laps, including one stretch of twenty-six midway through the second half of the race before the final caution sent drivers to pit road.
Keselowski and Jones opted for two tires while Busch took four, and the Joe Gibbs Racing driver never regained the lead … Points leader Chris Buescher finished eleventh but still managed to stretch his advantage to thirty- six points over Chase Elliott, who finished thirteenth in the race.
Track Position at Kentucky: All but three of the nineteen X-FINITY Series races run have been won from a starting position of sixth or better. The exceptions are 2001 winner Kevin Harvick, who qualified eleventh; Keselowski in 2013, nineteenth; and Harvick again in 2014, who started seventh … Winning From the Pole in Kentucky: Six of nineteen X-FINITY Series races have been won from the pole position, most recently by Austin Dillon in 2012 …
Track Qualifying Record: Carl Edwards (Ford) … 181.287 miles per hour … 29.787 seconds … June 2005 …
Track Record, Race Speed: Keselowski (Ford) … 131.162 mph … 1 hour, 56 minutes, 39 seconds … June 2013 …