NASCAR: Keselowski wins as the champ and three other stars are eliminated from the Chase

Brad Keselowski kept his 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship hopes alive with victory at Talladega, as champion Jimmie Johnson was among four more drivers ruled out of title contention. The other three are also huge names in the sport – Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch.

Keselowski, who was controversially involved in post-race fighting last weekend at Charlotte, realistically needed to win to make the cut, and did so after timing his move to the front to perfection in a thrilling green-white-checkered finish. The Penske Ford driver led home Toyota duo Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer by a tenth of a second to secure a sixth victory of the season, as Ryan Newman slipped to fifth place behind fellow Chevrolet driver Landon Cassill having led the pack at the final restart.

"The adversity last week makes this win even more special," said Keselowski. "I'm not proud of last week, but I'm very proud of today. We had one job to do, and we did it."

Along with Kenseth and Newman, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon were also able to make the Eliminator Round of the Chase by playing it safe at Talladega, with Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick having already secured their spots by virtue of their wins at Kansas and Charlotte respectively.

Also playing the percentages was Busch, but he saw his title hopes evaporate when he got caught up in a multi-car pile-up that caused the second caution period just after half-distance.He was able to coax his badly damaged Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota back to the pits and rejoin the action 49 laps down after lengthy repairs, but it wasn't enough to prevent his elimination from the Chase.

Johnson was a constant factor at the front virtually throughout the race, leading for 84 of the 194 laps, but was shuffled back through the order at the penultimate restart. His already faint hopes of taking a seventh Cup title were extinguished with a 24th place finish.

Earnhardt was also one of the strongest runners in the early part of the race, leading 31 laps, but had already been swallowed up by the pack when he was caught up in a multi-car shunt during the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish.

Like his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Kahne also led a handful of laps early on, but after slumping to 12th at the finish, found himself bumped out of the Chase by virtue of Keselowski's win.

Another driver to enjoy a spell at the front of the pack was Danica Patrick, who led seven laps toward the end of the race before plummeting down the field during a restart en route to a 19th-place finish.