Keselowski's race goes from near-disaster to near-victory
Brad Keselowski struck two of his own pit crew members and was handed a penalty for a tire violation early on, but still rebounded to finish second.
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske Ford
Action Sports Photography
Talk about an eventful day.
Brad Keselowski went from near-disaster to near-victory during the course of Sunday’s Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway.
Keselowski and Team Penske teammate Joey Logano had two of the fastest cars in the race but while making a green-flag pit stop on Lap 56 of 160, Keselowski slid through his pit stall and struck two members of his pit crew.
We actually made a lot of great adjustments (to the car) on the pit stop where everything went wrong. It was really, really fast from there
Brad Keselowski
Keselowski’s front tire carrier wound up jumping onto the hood while the team’s jackman was hit by the driver’s side of the car and the jack he was carrying appeared to strike his helmet as he fell.
The incident also sent one of Keselowski’s tires rolling down pit road and on the next lap Keselowski was penalized by NASCAR for an uncontrolled tire.
“I made a brake adjustment trying to come on to pit road and I didn’t put it back before going into the stall, so the second I got on the brakes, they locked up,” Keselowski said after the race.
“What it takes to get to pit road when you’re at full speed and when you’re at pit road speed are two different things. We were just trying something there and I got it wrong.”
Neither of Keselowski’s crew members were injured in the incident.
An impressive comeback
Oddly enough, Keselowski credited the work done on the problem pit stop to making his No. 2 Ford perform better in the second half of the race. After the incident and penalty he was running 37th and one lap down.
“We actually made a lot of great adjustments (to the car) on the pit stop where everything went wrong. It was really, really fast from there,” Keselowski said. “We got into a position where I believe we were the fastest car on the track.”
When Kyle Busch ran out of fuel entering Turn 1 on the final lap, Matt Kenseth inherited the lead and Keselowski moved into second.
Another runner-up result for Team Penske
“We were closing in the on the leaders (at the end). The last two laps I was able to manage the car and the fuel to make sure we made it to the end knowing we weren’t going to catch the leaders.”
Sunday was the fourth consecutive race wither Logano or Keselowski has finished second in the race.
“It’s frustrating not being able to go to Victory Lane but it is good to run this well,” he said.
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