DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After an impressive victory in Thursday night’s first Bluegreen Vacation Duel race, Brad Keselowski established himself as one of the favorites to win Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500.
He certainly lived up to that billing by leading 67 laps in the 201-lap Great American Race.
He also drew his fair share of criticism for triggering several crashes that took out contending drivers that could have won the Daytona 500.
One of those was JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was in the lead in the final 10 laps of the Daytona 500 after a red flag for a major crash halted the race. When the race was restarted on lap 195, Stenhouse was in the lead, but he never made it back to the flag stand before Keselowski sent Stenhouse into the wall.
“I felt like we were pushing people at the right times and there were spots on the race track you didn’t want to push or get pushed and the driver of the 6 (Keselowski) found that out a couple times today,” Stenhouse said. “He tried to wreck everybody in the field until he won.
“For me, I was so happy with the way our race was playing out. At the end, with so many Fords behind us, I was just trying to hang on. I felt like it was a little too early to need to get back to the lead off Turn 4. We had five more laps to get back to the lead if we needed to.
“I thought we all pushed really good; you just can’t push off the edge of a corner. Brad did it to the 21 in Turn 2 early in the race and did it to me off Turn 4 at the end.”
Keselowski was also involved in another big crash early in the race on lap 64 when he rammed into the back of Harrison Burton’s No. 21 Ford, triggering an eight-car crash that sent Burton airborne.
“I just think it might have been in the wrong spot,” Burton said. “It’s hard. These bumpers don’t line up as good as the old ones did. Through the testing I always found that dead center was the best, so when I was pushing Joey Logano or whatever you want to push in the center of the bumper. I couldn’t tell. I haven’t watched a good video of it yet, so don’t take what I say to the bank.
“Obviously, I’m not questioning Brad’s ability, but I think he just got a little wide on my right side and kind of shot me on the inside there. We were working good together up to that point. There were a couple moments where I was having to save it kind of sideways and obviously just one too many and we ended up upside-down.
“I’ve never had another one upside-down, so I don’t have any reference. Obviously, it got real light and blew over right. I don’t know if it was the diffuser that did it or what, but once I got backwards, I just blew right over. As far as the cockpit and everything is safe. I didn’t get hit hard at all. Luckily, all good there and we’ll move on.”
Keselowski finished the race ninth in his first points paying racing as an owner/driver at RFK Racing.
“I thought down the backstretch we were going to win the race and just the 12 (Blaney) and the 2 (Cindric) got a really good push from the 23 and basically cleared our lane and then our lane kind of broke up there at the end. It was really close, just green-white-checkers.”
Afterwards, Keselowski was asked his perspective on the incident with Burton and the later incident with Stenhouse.
“I was just pushing, and it just turned sideways and spun immediately out,” Keselowski said of Burton. “I don’t know what happened there. It was a shame to see it. I hate it for him. I was trying to help him win the stage and certainly didn’t want to see him spin out.”
What about Stenhouse?
“The same thing,” Keselowski said. “I was just pushing. We weren’t even all the way up to speed, so I feel like it was a crazy time to be pushing, but obviously the results say different.”
Keselowski believed he was racing to win, and it wasn’t overly aggressive, but he has been in racing long enough that he doesn’t let it bother him.
“Whenever somebody spins out obviously there’s somebody over aggressive, but in the moment I didn’t,” Keselowski said. “I was trying to give Stenhouse a push there and I thought we could settle it amongst us three and clear with the top lane, but it didn’t come together.”
Ironically, the winning car was the No. 2 Ford at Team Penske – the same team and car number that Keselowski was part of for 12 years and won 34 races.
“I’m happy for them,” Keselowski said. “There’s a great group of people over there and they deserve all their success.”