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NASCAR At Bristol Update: Pre-Race Favorite Brad Keselowski Crashes

There will be no third-straight win at Bristol for Brad Keselowski, nor will he celebrate the induction of Rusty Wallace into the Hall of Fame by taking one of Wallace's famous paint schemes to victory lane in the Irwin Tools Night Race.

Keselowski and Brian Vickers got tangled up off turn two, with Kurt Busch nudging Keselowski into the wall. Moments later, on lap 271, Keselowski bumped into a spin by Bobby Labonte or had already begun to spin and was bumped by Labonte to send him around. Either way, the nose of the No. 2 Dodge hit the inside wall on the backstretch, and now sits under repair in the garage area.

Keselowski had won the previous two Bristol races and was considered a pre-race favorite. The paint scheme on his Miller Lite entry was a dead-ringer for the livery Wallace used in recording his 50th-career Sprint Cup win in August 2000 at Bristol. It was also Wallace's ninth and final triumph at the half-mile track where he got his first-career win in 1986.

Under the caution, Jimmie Johnson stayed on track while leader Matt Kenseth pitted to assume the lead.

Photographs by coka_koehler used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.