There were calls for Brad Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher to have been disqualified after the race last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway due to the right-side roof rails falling off both RFK Racing team cars.
This was the newly added component to the cars, added to the rule book just days before the race, designed to prevent cars from catching air following a series of flips this summer. Fellow driver Denny Hamlin and Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice both suggested rules were broken.
Keselowski believes he would have a strong case if NASCAR had tried to penalize their cars.
“I didn’t know until I found out on the airplane as we were flying back, somebody texted me… I think we’d have a hell of appeal. You know, no practice, no testing and, and all that. Uh, and it was clearly on the car and tight. Certainly, wasn’t anything we intended to do. There’s not enough of performance advantage there to play any games there.”
The fins flew off both of their cars but not the bolts securing them.
“So, kind of a study in metallurgy, with different load requirements without having any practice or testing,” Keselowski said. “It wasn’t something we were expecting. So we have to come back with a heavier duty grade of aluminum.”