TALLADEGA, Ala — Like Ross Chastain earlier in the race, Brad Keselowski also put himself in a perilous position regarding the NASCAR Cup Series elimination cutline due to a multicar crash on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Keselowski had been a contender all race and even won the second stage. He had just got shuffled to the middle of the pack and triggered the crash with a push of Carson Hocevar in the trioval gone wrong. The incident also collected Austin Dillon and Ty Gibbs.
Keselowski wasn’t entirely sure why that particular push sent Hocevar around.
“One of them kind of Talladega deals,” Keselowski described it as. “We had a really good Ford Mustang. We were up front for a while, led the second stage and won the second stage, which was good.
“Got shuffled there a few laps before the incident. We were trying to scratch and claw our way back in the third lane. Carson pulled up in front of me and I gave him a push and it spun out on him. Unfortunate but just part of the deal.”
Dillon, who has been involved in 10 DNFs this season, felt like Hocevar was unstable all race and pinned a lot of the blame on the Legacy M.C. No. 42.
“The 42 couldn’t drive in a straight line without being pushed,” Dillon said. “I got out of the middle lane because of the 42. I don’t know if he had a new spotter or what because he was all over the place. Brad pushed him too hard and wrecked him.”
Both Hocevar and Keselowski pushed back against that.
“I don’t know about that,” Hocevar said. “I feel like I was a bit loose leading but I don’t know about that. It was a racing incident. I just feel like I was in the wrong spot. I was in the Truck Series race and I pushed the same way and pushed the same way and I just got spun out, but when you’re in the top lane, you have to do that.”
Keselowski literally echoed that sentiment down to the word.
“I don’t know about that,” Keselowski said. “I guess anytime you spin somebody out you pushed him too hard, but you just don’t know until you push somebody how good their car is going to be but compared to everyone else I was pushing, I would say no.”
Unlike Chastain earlier in the day, Keselowski did score 10 stage points due to his stage win at the second stage break and those 10 points were the difference between being two above the cutline or 12 below it by the end of the race.
So he will go to the ROVAL with some work to do but it’s not an impossible task. He controls his own destiny.
“We’ll see how this thing cycles out through the finish and what our situation is then, but it’s certainly not ideal,” Keselowski said. “I’m glad we were able to win the stage. That certainly helps our points at least a little, but not as much as if we were able to finish the race out.”
Is he devastated?
“It’s not ideal, but I’m not devastated,” Keselowski said. “I’d be devastated if we ran terrible and wrecked, but we ran good and I’m proud of our team for putting the effort we need to run up front and lead laps and win the second stage. It just didn’t come together at the end.”
Updated playoff grid
William Byron Advanced
Ryan Blaney Advanced
Denny Hamlin +50
Christopher Bell +22
Chris Buescher +19
Martin Truex Jr. +17
Kyle Larson +15
Brad Keselowski +2
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Tyler Reddick -2
Ross Chastain -9
Bubba Wallace -9
Kyle Busch -26
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.