Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch are both NASCAR Cup champions. But before either of them took home their respective Cup titles, they also battled each other numerous times in the Xfinity Series.
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One race in particular stands out in their rivalry: the 2009 U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway. It was the first NASCAR race to be held at the 7/8-mile oval in America’s heartland.
Keselowski and Busch battled in a back-and-forth matchup. Just when it looked like Busch would win, Keselowski roared back to take the lead with eight laps remaining, eventually taking the checkered flag for the fourth time in his Xfinity career.
Interestingly, Keselowski had 100 more miles on his tires than Busch. Keselowski passed up an opportunity to come in during a caution for fresh rubber in the last 20 laps, believing he still had enough life left in his tires to make it to the finish line.
“I wouldn’t say we say caught a good break, but we played the odds and I would say that 75 percent of the time, that what we did would win the race,” Keselowski said of his decision not to pit.
“It would take things to line up just perfectly against us for us not to win the race, which at one point it appeared that’s how it was going to happen. But it’s the right call.”
It would be the first of three wins Keselowski has at Iowa Speedway in the Xfinity Series, with Victory Lane visits in 2013 and 2014 as well.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better finish,” Keselowski said. “It’s lot more fun to say I beat Kyle heads-up. That means a lot to me.”
NASCAR’s inaugural race at Iowa in 2009 was decided in an exciting battle between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch, which Brad K prevailed in despite being at a significant tire disadvantage.
It also made Brad the very first winner of the Dash 4 Cash.@keselowski | @iowaspeedway pic.twitter.com/r4vZOVMcDS
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) July 31, 2025
Busch, meanwhile, looked at it in a different way. “Apparently, I don’t know what I need in my race cars in order to win these races at the end of them. It’s a frustrating day,” he said.
To his credit, however, Busch bounced back the following year to win the second-ever Iowa Xfinity race, while Keselowski settled for fourth.
After years of Iowa Speedway hoping to get a Cup race there, the NASCAR Cup Series finally came to the so-called “little track that could” last year, with Ryan Blaney capturing the victory.
But that 2009 win has stuck with Keselowski. He still recalls it today. “Yeah, I remember a lot about it,” Keselowski, now 41, told the Des Moines Register last year.
“In my mind, it was a key win in my career that probably positioned me as much or equally so as my first Cup win, to land a Cup ride. So it was a big moment. A weekend I’ll never forget.”
Keselowski has made over 900 combined starts across NASCAR’s three top series: Cup, Xfinity and Trucks. But that race on August 1, 2009, will always stay on his mind.
“I was on pins and needles driving the car. It was what I would call twitchy,” Keselowski added. “I just kind of stayed cool. Our car had a lot of speed in it.
“I think Kyle’s was probably the opposite; his car drove really well and didn’t have as much speed. I was able to kind of pick him apart. He knew my car didn’t drive well, and he put me in positions to where it would have been really easy to crash.”
Keselowski finished 10th in last year’s inaugural Cup race at the fast short track. “Not bad,” he said following the race. “We just kind of ran in that eighth to 10th place spot for pretty much the whole race and sometimes a little worse.
“That’s kind of what we had and we just executed around it. Our car was really good on the long runs. I liked that long run, but the short runs we just didn’t have enough speed.”
Given Keselowski is currently fighting from 24th in the standings, he has to win one of the four remaining regular season races to make the playoffs. He’s hoping some of his old Iowa luck rubs off on him this Sunday.
