NASCAR Fontana 2015 results: Brad Keselowski wins Auto Club 400

The Stewart-Haas Racing duo of Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick dominated Sunday, but when everything concluded neither Busch nor Harvick were celebrating victory at Auto Club Speedway. Instead, it was Brad Keselowski standing tall, having passed Busch on the deciding lap.

Fast all afternoon, Busch led a race-high 65 laps. He was comfortably out front when a controversial caution waved for a piece of debris necessitating a green-white-checkered finish. On the subsequent and deciding restart, Busch took the lead again

when a second yellow flag flew for a deck lid on the backstretch.

That caution set up the deciding restart where Keselowski -- with the aid of four fresh tires -- powered underneath Busch off Turn 2 on the final lap. A lead he wouldn’t relinquish.

Harvick finished second, followed by Busch, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman.

“I knew (Harvick) and (Busch) had been the class of the weekend and deserved to win on speed,” Keselowski said. “We kinda of stole one today.”

Busch had been superior all weekend, posting the quickest time in every practice and capturing the pole position in qualifying. But because he had taken just two tires on the previous pit stop, Busch could do little to fend off Keselowski despite having a better car.

“This was a solid day,” Busch said. “I don’t know what we could have done different. We just got pinned in by the yellows.

“We didn’t need that extra yellow at the end and I just got outmuscled by Keselowski.”

By finishing runner-up, Harvick extended his streak of consecutive top-two finishes to eight races dating back to last season. Richard Petty holds the NASCAR record with 11 straight in 1975.

Harvick’s No. 4 car was quicker than Busch’s at times, but Harvick needed several laps to get up to speed. However, the succession of late cautions proved disadvantageous for the defending Sprint Cup champion, who has a pair of wins and three second-place finishes in five 2015 starts.

“You just never know how the strategy is going to work out,” Harvick said. “You are kind of on both sides of the fence there as to what you should or shouldn’t do.”

The win is Keselowski’s first of the season and the first at what he describes as his “worst track.” Prior to Sunday, Keselowski had never finished better than 18th in six starts.

“Feel like today is the day we break our (ACS) curse,” Keselowski tweeted Sunday morning.

Completing the top 10 were Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth each looked like they would break the stranglehold of the SHR cars. But Hamlin -- who led 56 laps -- and Kenseth -- who led 43 laps -- each experienced problems late.

Hamlin finished 28th after incurring a penalty for an uncontrolled tire on pit road. Kenseth suffered a mechanical failure when leaving his pit stall.