* Brad Keselowski won the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. * Keselowski, who started ninth, led only the final lap — the first lap he has led in his Cup career. It is the first time in series history that a race winner’s first lap led was to win the race. * It was Keselowski’s fifth career Cup start. He is the 27th driver to win within five starts, and fourth in the modern era, joining Mark Donahue, Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray. * Keselowski became the 38th different race winner in 80 Cup races at Talladega. He became the 10th driver to score his first Cup win at Talladega. The last first-time Cup winner was Clint Bowyer at New Hampshire in September 2007. * Keselowski’s victory is the first Cup win by Phoenix Racing in 117 races. This was Keselowski’s first start in the #09 of Phoenix Racing. He did not qualify at Daytona earlier this year. This was the fifth race for the #09 this season. The team DNQ’d in the other four. * Chevrolet has dominated at Talladega with 34 victories, followed by Ford with 17, Dodge with three and Toyota with two. * A Chevrolet has won 18 of the past 21 races at Talladega. * The 57 lead changes were the 10th most at Talladega. The all-time record of 75 came here in May 1984. * Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second, posting his third top-10 finish in 2009. It marked his best finish of the season. * This is the fourth victory for Chevrolet in 2009, all in the past four races. * Kurt Busch (sixth) took over as the leader of the Cup standings by five points over second-place Jeff Gordon. This is the first time Busch has led the points since he led after Las Vegas in March 2005, 149 races ago. * Ryan Newman (third) posted his first top-5 finish in 2009. * Marcos Ambrose (fourth) scored his second career top-5 in 20 career races. It is his best finish in 2009. * Scott Speed (fifth) was the highest-finishing rookie. This was the first time a rookie of the year contender has finished in the top 10 since David Ragan finished 10th at Homestead in November 2007. Joey Logano finished 10th. The last time there were two rookies to finish in the top 10 was when there were three at Homestead in November 2006. * Jeff Burton (10th) has scored seven straight top-15 finishes. * Elliott Sadler (19th) posted his best finish since finishing fifth at Daytona. Sadler has finished 20th or worse in the seven non-restrictor-plate races. * Denny Hamlin (22nd) ended a streak of five straight top-15 finishes. * Tony Stewart (23rd) ended a streak of three straight top-5 finishes. * Jeff Gordon (37th) posted his worst finish of the season. He has finished 13th or better in seven of the nine races this season. * Mark Martin (43rd) ended a streak of four straight top-10 finishes that dated to Bristol. * The top 10 consisted of four Chevrolets, four Toyotas, one Dodge and one Ford.(ESPN)(4-28-2009)
