Brad Keselowski did what he needed to do to win Sunday’s race at Pocono. He led for 27 laps and appeared headed to his first win of the season. Unfortunately, he made a costly mistake on lap 57 that cost him that elusive win.
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As he was headed toward pit road, Keselowski somehow missed seeing the scoring light at the entrance to pit road had changed from green to a yellow caution when last week’s winner at Mexico City, Shane van Gisbergen, spun out.
“I don’t know what that last yellow was for, but I wanted to strangle whoever it was,” Keselowski said on the Amazon Prime post-race show.
When told it was due to SVG’s spin, Bad Brad quickly backtracked, jokingly saying, “He’s a little bigger than me. It was just one of those days.”
Keselowski’s team put new tires and fuel onto his No. 6 Ford Mustang, but he was sent to the back of the field on the ensuing restart. Still, the 2012 NASCAR Cup champion managed to come back from a 30th-place restart, and then really kicked it into gear, going from 24th to 9th in the closing laps, where he ultimately finished.
When van Gisbergen’s spin brought out the yellow, every other driver stayed out on-track except Keselowski, who took the total blame. “This is my fault, to be clear with this,” Keselowski said. “When we were going down the short chute, the team said to pit this time and I had no reason to challenge them.
“Ultimately, I hold the steering wheel and I’m the one that’s got to check (the pit lane entry lights) and I didn’t check with the crew chief and the spotter and it’s my fault.”
Had it not been for the costly penalty, Keselowski likely could have left Pocono with a top-five finish, and potentially even a win instead of Chase Briscoe.
“If I would have pitted (a lap earlier and) the yellow came out while we were on pit road, we probably would have cycled inside the top 10 with new tires and might have had a shot to win the race,” Keselowski said. “So I feel bad about not taking advantage of that.”
Keselowski: A win is only inches away
For a guy who has earned 36 wins in his Cup career, Keselowski has struggled significantly in recent seasons. In fact, since winning the 10th race of the 2021 season, he has managed just one win in the subsequent 151 Cup starts (last year at Darlington).
Looking at the nine remaining races in the regular season, Keselowski said he has a good feeling at places like Atlanta (he’s won there twice), Iowa (no wins) and Indianapolis (one win).
He and his team will have a two-day test at Gateway this Tuesday and Wednesday, earning data he hopes will help him in the Iowa race.
“We just need that much to win,” Keselowski said, showing his fingers just a couple inches apart. “If we can find just that little bit more, I think it will take us to victory lane.”
