In one move, the strongest car was eliminated, a historic victory was forgotten, the Chase picture was unraveled and a calm race turned chaotic.
Those were the end results of Brad Keselowski’s bold move in the final laps of the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.
But how did we get here?
Here is a quick recap: On the first of two green-white-checkered restarts, Brad Keselowski tried to squeeze in between the race’s two best cars of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. The only problem was that there wasn’t a large enough hole to fit his car in-between Johnson’s and Gordon’s. The bold move caused Keselowski’s car to make contact with Gordon’s left rear. The contact cut Gordon’s left rear tire and caused a subsequent spin in turn 3, which then led the Chase point leader to lose a lap. In the following restart, Johnson drove to victory ahead of Kevin Harvick and Keselowski. Meanwhile, Gordon went from leading on the previous restart to 29th in the final running and that may ultimately cost him a spot in the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida.
Desperation in the Chase Means There Are No Rules
Immediately following the race, Gordon stopped his car alongside Keselowski’s on pit road to confront the controversial driver. After a few exchanged words, Keselowski attempted to walk away from Gordon only to be pushed back in by Harvick. Gordon seized the opportunity and grabbed Keselowski by the collar and chaos ensued.
After a vicious scuffle which lasted several minutes, both Keselowski and Gordon emerged with bloodied lips, with Keselowski getting the worst end of the deal.
“We were sitting there on a little bit older tires. I spun the tires a little, but I got a pretty decent restart. We went down into turn 1 and I just wanted to get to the outside of (Jimmie Johnson). Out of nowhere I just got slammed by (Brad Keselowski),” Gordon said barely moments after the fight. “It cut my left rear tire.
“He’s just a (expletive),” an infuriated Gordon said. “The way he races, I don’t know how he’s ever won a championship. I’m just sick and tired. That’s why everyone is fighting him and running him down. Your emotions are high. That was a huge race for us. We had the car, we had the position. I’m so proud of my team. And I’m proud of Jimmie Johnson for winning that race and not letting that… you know what… win that race.”
As expected, Keselowski had a different take.
“That (move) almost won me the race,” Keselowski said. “It hurt somebody else’s day. That’s a shame. But the reality is there was a gap. You know, I’m not Dale Earnhardt or Senna. I read how they raced, how great they were for this sport. They would sit here and tell you they would go for that same gap. I’m not them, but I’m inspired by that, and I’m going to race that way.”
In the hours after the race, a tug of war engulfed all social channels. From ESPN to Facebook to Twitter, drivers, teams, media members and fans all took sides on the issue.
Was Keselowski in the right? Did he cross a line?
From Keselowski’s standpoint, it’s easy to see why he made that move – he was desperate. After suffering heavy misfortune last weekend at Martinsville in Virginia, Keselowski knew that he had to win, if at all possible, in the two races prior to Homestead to advance. And while Keselowski didn’t have the car to compete with Gordon or Johnson in a heads up match, he had fresher tires and gap that he thought could work. As a result, he did what he thought gave him the best shot at winning, which was to create his own lane.
Now, the problem with his attempt was that it was reckless. Not only did Keselowski force a hole that was not wide enough for three cars, he took out the best car in the race, the leader from the restart and the point leader in a miscalculated act. The move was so risky that he could have very easily taken out himself, Harvick and several others had Gordon not kept his car straight after the contact.
How risky was Keselowski’s move? Kevin Harvick, who restarted in 4th place and, like Keselowski, needed a victory to rebound after last week’s 33rd place finish said he would have taken a different approach to get by the leaders.
“I couldn’t run over the No.24 or No.48 like that,” Harvick said post race.
While Harvick did have a front-row seat as Keselowski “bulldozed” his way by Gordon, he did not believe that Miller Lite driver was out of control.
“I think he’s just racing as hard as he can for his team and he’s trying to get all you can,” Harvick said.
While Harvick had no problem with Keselowski’s aggressive driving, he did hint some advice for the brash driver.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, as long as you’re ready to roll,” Harvick said.
Harvick practically spoke for most, if not all, of the racing community.
On one side, one can’t fault Keselowski for going for the win. He knew the restart was his best shot and he had to take a gamble and go for it. Unfortunately, that gamble did not translate into a win for himself.
From the other side, one can’t be fizzled at Keselowski. He did ruin Gordon’s night after the veteran raced him clean throughout the entire evening. And to make matters worse for Keselowski, he tried to walk away from the driver he wronged and then proclaimed afterwards, “I came here to race, not to fight.” The bottom line is if you’re going to destroy someone’s night — and possibly a shot at their fifth championship — stand there and defend yourself instead of walking away. If you can’t take the backlash, then don’t dish out to begin with.
Regardless of where one stands on the issue, there are some things that cannot be missed in the incident.
First, camera angles from above the speedway showed that Keselowski did not have enough room to squeeze in between Johnson and Gordon without the need for contact. Second, there was no need for four different pit crews to be involved in that brawl; the issue should be handled by the drivers and their respective teams under worst-case scenarios. Third, Keselowski’s bold move on an unsuspecting Gordon, a driver who he had no run-ins previously, clearly shows that driver respect on the racetrack has dwindled to an all-out tussle; driver courtesy is all but out the window. And fourth, NASCAR saw this coming back in January when they announced this format and they simply love it, whether they admit it or not.
Lost in this shuffle was the fact that Jimmie Johnson scored a historic 70th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win and third-in-a-row in the Texas fall race. When asked about the fight after the race, Johnson took a shot at Brian France and told the media that this is what NASCAR always wanted.
“When your only opportunity to advance is to win, he (Keselowski) had a bad race in Martinsville, he’s got to do all he can to win. So the system is breeding this,” Johnson said in the press box. “It was by design. I think (NASCAR Chairman and CEO) Brian France sat back and looked long and hard at this and was hopeful that these moments would happen.
Johnson continued by saying that the Sprint Cup Series has been turned into a cutthroat sport, where no one can be trusted, all in thanks to NASCAR’s sanctioning body.
“It’s changing the way things take place on the track,” Johnson said. “When I think back to when I started, we’d point people by, let them go. There was this gentleman agreement on the racetrack. Everybody told you to study Mark Martin, watch how he lets people go. That hasn’t happened in years. We’ll cut each other’s throat any chance we get. It’s just trending that way.”
Hard to say that one can disagree with Johnson after what the sport has shown this year and especially in the Chase.
And with the final eight drivers now separated by less than 20 points, there is no reason to believe this intensity and aggression won’t amplify once the green flag flies at Phoenix International Raceway.
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