“Weaker of That Group”: Denny Hamlin Not Surprised by Brad Keselowski’s Exit at the Hands of Tyler Reddick

The RFK team has been doing phenomenally well, especially during the final stages of the regular season. Both drivers Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski made it into the playoffs all the way to the round of 12. However, during the elimination race at Charlotte Roval last weekend, Keselowski’s run for the next round ended right there.

The driver who knocked him out was 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick. While discussing Keselowski’s exit from the playoffs after two rounds, fellow playoff driver Denny Hamlin exclaimed how he was not surprised by the results.

Denny Hamlin isn’t surprised by his driver knocking out Brad Keselowski

While speaking on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin mentioned, “He (Keselowski) hasn’t been all that strong on road courses this year, you would say he would just use kind of the weaker of the kind of bubble guys or the guys plus or minus, that whole group. He had been kind of the weaker of that group.”

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver added, “He was the most vulnerable, I guess you could say and obviously, that vulnerability, caught up to him. You know, when he got the guy (Reddick) right behind and start qualified on the pole and you know, he’s gonna win a stage is going to put tremendous pressure on you to go out there…”

“I mean, I don’t and then you look at the Talladega wreck, right? I mean, now he caused it. So you know that certainly, ended his day and put them in that vulnerable spot.” Before the race, Keselowski held the final spot in the round of eight standings, but since Reddick managed to finish in a better spot with more points on the board, the RFK driver/owner ended up being eliminated.

The RFK camp is a mixture of feelings after the Roval elimination

On one end of the spectrum you have the team boss being knocked out from the next round, and on the other end, you have one of your drivers in the round of eight. Such is the tale of RFK Racing at the moment. While Keselowski would obviously be disappointed regarding his exit from the remainder of the playoffs, he is elated that Buescher made it through.

Keselowski’s woes had begun early into the race when on lap 18, he managed to cut the corner on the frontstretch chicane. Instead of slowing down, he decided to carry on. This resulted in a pass-through being handed to him.

Thereafter, everything went downhill. First, he had to head back to the pits early after fearing about the tires being worn out. Later on with just 17 laps remaining the 2012 Cup Series champion managed to spin out. But in the end, he did manage a somewhat respectable top-20 finish. Meanwhile, his teammate Buescher ended the race in a solid top-10 finish.