Travis Kvapil hoists the Elvis winning trophy at the O'Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park. (VPS Motorimages Photo)

The storybook ending for the O'Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park was all but written: Brad Keselowski, who got the call on Wednesday to take over driving chores in substitution for the suspended Ted Musgrave, started from the pole, led early, and fought his way back to the lead with 52 laps remaining and looked to be on his way to one of the biggest upsets in the history of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Not even lapped traffic or a former series champion, Travis Kvapil, appeared to be a problem.

Kvapil made a challenge and led across the stripe on lap 171, but Keselowski pulled a page from the late Dale Earnhardt's play book and made a stirring cross-over move to retake the lead at lap 172. And for the next 19 laps, he withstood everything Kvapil could throw at him.

Both leaders appeared to be suffering from some handling woes as tire wear was exacerbated by the hard racing for the win. On more than one occasion one or both trucks was completely sideways coming off the corners as both drivers were working their hardest to get to victory lane.

Kvapil started to put more and more pressure on as the laps quickly ticked off. With ten to go, he was right on Keselowski's bumper. It looked like the storybook ending was still possible, but only after a 10-lap shootout for the win.

The Keselowski's dream of his first career series win went up in a cloud of smoke on lap 192 as contact between the front two was made, sending him spinning through turn four and sending Kvapil to the lead. From there, Kvapil's No. 6 K&N Filters Ford stormed away from a hard-fought battle for second between Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague to score his second win in the past three races and the seventh win of his career.

"Mike Beam (crew chief) told me we wouldn't qualify well but that we would race well, and he was right," Kvapil said. "We qualified tenth, which is decent, but this thing was great in the race. The guys were great on pit road and made some great adjustments. It was no fun in the beginning of the year to be racing for 15th every week. Jack Roush hired me to win races, and that's what we're starting to do."

While he was happy to pick up the win, he expressed regret for the contact that ended Keselowski's chances at the win.

Brad Keselowski spins out with 7 laps to go after contact with the No. 6 truck. (VPS Motorimages Photo)

"I hate that we got together with Brad like that, because I am a big fan of his," Kvapil said. "I even talked to him before the race and told him all he needed to do was run 200 laps here tonight and things would work out his way. We were having a lot of fun racing with him, slipping and sliding all over the place. But the last eight or ten laps he started really struggling through three and four.

"It looked like he really slowed down on that lap and I got into his left rear," Kvapil continued. "I did everything I could do to keep off him, but he went around. I can apologize all I want, I know it doesn't mean much to him. Somewhere down the line, he definitely owes me one. But he drove one heck of a race and hopefully he will get something a little more permanent out of tonight."

Keselowski was disappointed at the turn of events that saw him go from fighting for the win to finishing 16th in Musgrave's No. 9 Team ASE Toyota.

"I guess I need to look more on the positive side," Keselowski said. "I don't know how hard he hit me, but I guess it was hard enough to get me turned around. It's just one of those deals, but it's hard to look past it. Hopefully this will lead to some more opportunities. Driving this Team ASE Toyota was pretty special."

Even with the disappointing end within sight of the checkered flag, Keselowski still saw the entire weekend as a positive rather than allowing frustration to put a damper on everything.

"Getting my first pole was special, and getting to lead laps and deserving to lead laps was too," he said. "That pass for the lead - I just can't explain how happy I was to do that. I just hope we have another opportunity to do that."

The No. 6 K&N Filters Ford F-150 Team celebrates under the fireworks at Memphis Motorsports Park. (VPS Motorimages Photo)

While the race for the win was anti-climactic once Kvapil and Keselowski made contact, the real race on the track was for second between Jack Sprague and Ron Hornaday. The three-time champion out-dueled the two-time champion with Sprague crossing the line in second.

"This is just what we needed man," Sprague, driver of the No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota, said afterwards. "Man, I've been intolerable the past five weeks. I'm getting married next week and I think she was probably starting to second guess it! Seriously, this is a good start to getting that monkey off our back. I think we were a little better than Travis there at the end. I wish this was the O'Reilly 225."

For Hornaday, the frustration was that his truck was good on the short run but the evening was based on long green flag runs.

"It was just one of those days," Hornaday said. "We had a 40-lap truck. After 40 laps the tires would go away and it would be a handful. I don't know why it was like that. At the end there, I guess my truck was just a little more worn down than Jack's was and he got us."

Mike Skinner finished fourth in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota and Aaron Fike rounded out the top five in the No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota. Ryan Mathews was sixth in the No. 36 Bill Davis Racing Toyota, Johnny Benson was seventh in the No. 23 360 OTC Toyota, Todd Bodine was eighth in the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota, Erik Darnell was ninth in the No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford, and Matt Crafton rounded out the top ten in the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet.

There were just four cautions on the evening for 24 laps. Rick Crawford bounced into the turn two wall after contact with Benson on lap 8 to bring out the first caution of the night. Crawford's battery was damaged in the accident, and acid was sprayed throughout the cockpit leaving Crawford with some chemical burns that necessitated some minor medical treatment after the race. Ken Butler III crashed into the inside backstretch wall after contact with Crafton on lap 114, doing major damage to the nose of his truck. Butler also crashed in qualifying, ending the night with two crashed trucks. The other cautions were for debris on lap 74 and for Keselowski's spin in lap 192.

Skinner continues to lead the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings by 203 points over Hornaday heading into the Built Ford Tough 225 in two weeks at Kentucky Speedway. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage starting with TrackSideLive! updates of practice on Friday July 13, and then Live! Bud Pole Qualifying updates at 4 P.M. Eastern on Saturday July 14. TruckSeries.com will have complete race coverage following qualifying, including TruckShots! image galleries and exclusive TrackSideLive! driver audio following the race.