RICHMOND, Va. — In a race defined by long green-flag runs, Brad Keselowski proved he was fastest when it mattered in the closing stages at Richmond Raceway, blowing past Kyle Busch in traffic with 17 laps to go and going on to win Friday night’s Virginia 529 College Savings 250.

The final 89 laps of the race ran uninterrupted, with Busch leading the field to green by virtue of winning the race off pit road on the preceding round of pit stops, but the name of the game was who would be fast on the short run versus the long run.

For Busch, it was the former, and it ultimately bit him. While the all-time XFINITY wins leader led 182 of the 250 laps run during the night, Keselowski stayed with Busch as well as possible.

In fact, Keselowski passed Busch for the lead briefly on lap 173, but Busch got him back the next time around and got away from there.

But Keselowski didn’t give in. Finally, with 40 to go, the Michigan native began chewing into Busch’s advantage.

As Busch began to work slower traffic, Keselowski chopped the gap down to a second, then a half-second with 25 to go. Five laps later, he was on Busch’s rear decklid with a hornet’s nest of lap cars ahead.

When Busch went to work over Cole Custer entering Turn 3, Keselowski shot the gap through the middle of both Busch on the top and Custer on the bottom, squeezing through to make the pass and driving off from there.

Keselowski took the checkered flag by a full three seconds over Busch in the end, leading only 34 of the 250 laps but proving that the race’s dominant car (in this case, Busch) doesn’t always take home the spoils of victory.

“Man, our Fitzgerald Glider Parts Ford Mustang had a lot of speed on the long runs,” Keselowski said after a powerhouse burnout on the frontstretch. “We weren’t quite where we wanted to be on the short runs, but we were good enough to be right there. We just hung with him and got the long runs we needed and we were able to pounce. That’s a testament to the team. (Jeff) Burton was asking me if it was the set up or the driver; I think it was both.”

The win was the 36th of Keselowski’s XFINITY career, his fourth at Richmond and marked the seventh time he’s passed Busch for a victory in the series.

“Kyle (Busch) is a great racer,” Keselowski added. When you can race with him you know you are having a good day, especially in this series. I’m happy to get another win in this series; it is a lot of fun and the first one in these new (composite) bodies. … Just a great night at Richmond. I am proud of my whole team.”

Besides the two stage breaks, only one other caution flew during the entire 250 laps, coming on lap 53 when Bobby Dale Earnhardt blew a right front tire down the backstretch and pounded the outside wall in Turn 3.

The long stretches under full race conditions left Busch at a disadvantage, as his No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota simply “didn’t have the speed” over the extended haul to hold Keselowski off.

“Center turn, right rear grip … I lacked all of it,” lamented Busch. “He had a better long run car. Every time, every long run we had, he was able to get by us after about 25 or 50 laps … whatever it was. I was trying to get out there a little bit and we were working each other pretty hard earlier in the run. I thought I beat his tires up, but he was just able to come back through. Our car was good, but not good enough. We just needed a little bit more.”

Ty Dillon finished third ahead of Daniel Hemric and Elliott Sadler, who locked up the XFINITY Series regular season championship with a fifth-place finish.

Christopher Bell, William Byron, Justin Allgaier and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were the remaining cars that came home on the lead lap, crossing the line sixth through ninth, respectively. Brennan Poole completed the top 10.

The NASCAR XFINITY Series concludes its regular season on Sept. 16 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Full race results can be viewed on the next page…