FEBRUARY 27, 2019

(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Too sick with stomach flu to start practice on Saturday, Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Auto Trader Ford Mustang) won Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Still suffering physically during the racce, Keselowski (shown with wife Paige and daughter Scarlett in Victory Lane, above) held off a charging — and frustrated — Martin  Truex Jr. (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry) in the closing laps of the 325-lap Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, winning by .218 seconds. It was the first victory of the season for Keselowski and the first for the new Ford Mustang in the Cup series. It was also the 60th win for Kesolowski in Roger Penske equipment (all series combined), breaking a tie with the late - and legendary - Mark Donohue. Despite his illness, Keselowski was thrilled. “I think any win means a lot, but that’s a big number,” Keselowski said. “Now I get to wear that yellow Mark Donohue helmet, so here we go — we’re going to wear it next week. But what a tremendous honor. This day is … Wow, I don’t even know how to put it in words. I’m just excited for this team, first race with the new rules or whatever they’re called now, and to be able to win it, that’s really special.” Kurt Busch (No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing COMSERV Chevrolet Camaro) finished third.

  The NTT IndyCar Series. The Series' cars will be equipped with new and improved LED displays for the 2019 season. The previous-generation system was discontinued midway through the 2018 season due to poor performance. INDYCAR, the sanctioning body for the NTT IndyCar Series, contracted with a new manufacturer, MoTeC, to modify a system used in IMSA and apply it to NTT IndyCar Series cars for 2019. The LED system is linked to INDYCAR's timing and scoring system that is continually updating via the numerous timing loops embedded in each series track. The 2019 LEDs provide more real-time display information as the cars cross each timing loop. Advanced RGB (red, green, blue) technology also permits the use of an unlimited number of colors for the displays. Among the items that the LEDs can display during any NTT IndyCar Series session are:

• A car's running position on the leaderboard, updated each time it crosses a timing loop and signified by a red number;
• When the driver has engaged the push-to-pass overtake assist button, signified by a flashing green "PP";
• A clock timing a car's pit stop, shown in red numbers counting up by tenths of a second until a pit stop reaches double-digit seconds, then in each increasing second;
• The ability to show whether a disabled car's engine is running, allowing the AMR INDYCAR Safety Team to more quickly respond to, restart and release the car back into competition. If the car's engine is running, the left-side LED will display a green "snake" moving from bottom to top and the right-side display will show what gear the engine is in (including a "0" if in neutral). If the engine is not running, the left-side LED will display horizontal red bars climbing from bottom to top and the right-side LED will display the gear the engine is in.

The 17-race NTT IndyCar Series season kicks off with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race weekend, March 8-10. All practice sessions will air live on INDYCAR Pass, the direct-to-consumer streaming product from NBC Sports Gold that will offer more than 200 hours of broadcast-quality INDYCAR programming content this season. To subscribe for the year at the discounted price of $49.99, visit the INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold site.