Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski were involved in one of NASCAR’s most iconic post-race brawls at the Texas Motor Speedway in 2014. Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were racing for the lead in the closing laps when Keselowski attempted to drive through between them. The gap closed before he could, and he crashed into Gordon’s Chevrolet.
Advertisement
He went on to finish in third place, but Gordon succumbed to 29th. After the checkered flag flew, Gordon attempted to get Keselowski, and he ultimately did with a little bit of help from Kevin Harvick. The fight that ensued left many with bruised lips. A decade later, social media algorithms thought now would be a good time to resurface clips of this sequence.
NASCAR writer Austin Konenski shared a video of the brawl on X and captioned his post, “I miss the energy of the 2014 NASCAR season. It wasn’t solely this fight either. What happened”. Fans responded to him with nostalgic comments of a time when they all loved the non-stop adrenaline rush that drivers delivered to them.
One said, “Passion, good racing, personality. More fans back then as well.” Another added, “They got old and replaced with personalities like Chase Elliotts.” Elliott is the most popular driver in the sport currently. However, he does receive a fair share of criticism for being too textbookish. Motorsports announcer Blake Walker had a take to share as well.
I miss the energy of the 2014 NASCAR season. It wasn’t solely this fight either. What happened https://t.co/jIjZOSxFak
— Austin Konenski (@AustinKonenski) April 20, 2025
He wrote, “I’m with the group that believes 2014 was truly one of the better NASCAR seasons we’ve seen”. As mentioned earlier, Gordon had help from Harvick in getting some punches landed on Keselowski. What makes this entire drama a lot more interesting is the reason that Harvick had for helping the four-time Cup Series champion.
Harvick’s shocking admission about the brawl in 2024
When the argument was going down on the pit road, Harvick had been the one to push Keselowski towards Gordon. He said at the time that Keselowski was in “bulldoze mode” and needed to hold himself accountable if he raced that way. However, he admitted in 2024 that he had instigated the fight to take the spotlight off himself.
He said, “It was awesome to watch, just not awesome to start, right? I was leaning on the deck lid at the back of the car, watching everything go down. I was like, ‘move man [Keselowski], get in there!’ And next thing you know, there’s a massive fight on pit road. They weren’t talking about me anymore.”
So, why did he need the spotlight to be off him? He had nudged Keselowski out of the way to finish the race in second place. He’d just been concerned that his move would come under question. Notably, Harvick went on to win the championship that year.
