Brad Keselowski: Seizing opportunities crucial at Talladega
TALLADEGA, Ala.— Sunday’s Alabama 500 marked Brad Keselowski’s 300th start in NASCAR’s top series.
Few have been more adventurous — or more rewarding.
Keselowski’s last-lap pass of Ryan Newman resulted in his 24th Monster Energy Cup Series victory, earning him a spot in the third round of the playoffs. Beginning Oct. 29 at Martinsville Speedway, Keselowski will be one of only eight drivers in pursuit of the Cup championship.
Keselowski dove in front of Newman, who would have been an unlikely winner, on the last of 188 laps, making the final pass on a day that saw 11 caution flags and three red flags. Only 14 cars finished the race, 24 having been eliminated in crashes.
"I feel like what's critical to be successful here, whether it's a cutoff race or a must‑win or a 'not-must‑win,' you know when you come here that probably three out of every four races you're going to get caught up in a wreck," said Keselowski, a winner for the fifth time at Talladega. "But the races where you have the good fortune, where you don't get caught up in a wreck or you don't have something break or any of those things, you have to take those races, run up front and win them. And I think that's what we've been able to do."
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It was a tough day all around, with cars spinning and smoking and crashing in a wild series of accidents. Keselowski was one of the few playoff drivers to reach the end.
"I feel like some weeks we race, and it's probably a little bit easier than it should be, and some weeks we race and it's probably a little bit harder than it should be, and you could probably average them all out and it's probably about right," he said. "Talladega definitely brings it back to the more aggressive side, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. There's some weeks where I kind of feel a little bad about the paycheck I earn for the workload, but Talladega ain't one of them, I'll tell you that right now."
Keselowski raced part of the afternoon with a damaged radio, one that limited his ability to talk to his pit and his spotter, a critical element at Talladega. Crew chief Paul Wolfe eventually called Keselowski to the pit for repairs.
"He (Wolfe) had some big old honking radio that broke through all the antennas, I guess, and interference," Keselowski said. "I heard him say, 'Pit,' and I'm like, 'I don't want you to say pit.' But I have to respect that they can see things I can't see, and I feel like that's what happened. We pitted, and it worked out. I'm still not sure what broke, but they did a great job fixing it."
Follow Mike Hembree on Twitter @mikehembree.
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