Busch, a Sin City native, was in line to win with five laps to go, but he said after the race that a mechanical issue docked his speed and he fell down the leaderboard to fourth place.

MORE: In the long run, it’s Keselowski | Images from Vegas | More bad luck for Kenseth

Keselowski took advantage, despite fuel concerns and weird weather that brought high winds, stronger gusts and a sandstorm through the track for several laps. He pulled away for his first win of the season and second at the 1.5-mile Nevada track in the past three years.

Keselowski hadn’t won a race in nearly a year, since his Auto Club 400 victory in March 2015.

Joey Logano (second), Jimmie Johnson (third) and Austin Dillon (fifth) rounded out the top five.

There were a handful of historic implications riding on Sunday’s race.

Johnson would have surpassed Dale Earnhardt in career wins. He came close, but lost his 76-lap lead to Busch following a restart.

Though he didn’t win, Busch became the 15th Cup driver in history to lead 11,000 laps in his career.

Full results from Kobalt 400

  1. Brad Keselowski 2. Joey Logano 3. Jimmie Johnson 4. Kyle Busch 5. Austin Dillon 6. Ryan Blaney 7. Kevin Harvick 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9. Kurt Busch 10. Kasey Kahne 11. Martin Truex Jr. 12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 13. Ryan Newman 14. AJ Allmendinger 15. Paul Menard 16. Jamie McMurray 17. Trevor Bayne 18. Carl Edwards 19. Denny Hamlin 20. Greg Biffle 21. Danica Patrick 22. Clint Bowyer 23. Casey Mears 24. Aric Almirola 25. Regan Smith 26. Chris Buescher 27. Brian Scott 28. Landon Cassill 29. Michael McDowell 30. Michael Annett 31. Matt DiBenedetto 32. David Ragan 33. Jeffrey Earnhardt 34. Kyle Larson 35. Josh Wise 36. Brian Vickers 37. Matt Kenseth 38. Chase Elliott 39. Cole Whitt