BRISTOL – Brad Keselowski lost control of his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford in Sunday’s rain-delayed Food City 500 in support of Steve Byrnes collecting Team Penske teammate Joey Logano in the process.
Both drivers received heavy damage in the first caution of the day on Lap 18.
Meanwhile, just moments after the crash, Mother Nature returned to the scene of the 0.533-mile oval, putting the field under red flag conditions at Lap 22 of the 500-lap event.
As Keselowski exited Turn 4, his car broke loose and tried to recover but with Bristol’s tight quarters, Saturday’s XFINITY Series winner Joey Logano had nowhere to go and collided with the 2013 Cup champion sending both cars down to the apron of the frontstretch.
“Don’t know what happened, it just took off on me. Sorry about that,” Keselowski told his team over the radio after the incident.
Keselowski seemed convinced that precipitation may have been a contributing factor on why he lost control.
“It’s been raining since we started the race,” said Keselowski during the rain delay. “It was just a really light sprinkle and the track was just barely dry. I don’t know. The rain was coming in and out and the car just took off on me. I would like to blame the rain, but I honestly don’t know. Usually when a car gets that far sideways and it’s kind of out of nowhere there’s a reason behind it.
“I just really hate that I tore up my teammate in the process. That’s really a bummer. I felt like I had a pretty normal line and it just flew crazy sideways on me. It’s a bummer for everybody at Team Penske to tear up both cars that way. I hate racing in the rain, but I understand the position that NASCAR is in. They want to get the race going and this is one of those days where it’s gonna just keep raining off and on and we’re trying to get as many laps in at a time as we can to give the fans the best race possible, but we’re racing in the rain to do it and that’s what happens.”
Logano, the Daytona 500 winner was able to leave the scene of the incident under his own power, as did Keselowski.
After a trip on pit road, the No. 22 Autotrader Ford Fusion went to the garage for additional repairs, while Keselowski’s car sat on pit road under damage control from crew chief Paul Wolfe.
“It happened quick, obviously,” Logano said. “You think you get early in this race and kind of want to settle in and just starting to get the top worked in a little bit there and Brad just got loose underneath that lapped car. You start checking up and it looked like he was gonna have it saved and he checked up more than I expected and the next thing you know I’m in the back of him and we’re both headed towards the fence.
“The last thing you want to see when you’ve got a rain delay here. We’re just gonna try to fix it and ride this thing out and get what we can out of the day. It’s unfortunate for Autotrader. This is the one race they do a year and unfortunately, we’re gonna be crashed, but we’ll do what we can.”
Logano said track conditions were fine at the time of the crash.
“It was fine. It wasn’t wet yet,” he said.
At the time of the red flag, Logano and Keselowski were scored 42nd and 43rd respectively.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
