Brad Keselowski has lengthy been lauded as among the finest superspeedway racers in NASCAR, however a penalty in crunch time Saturday night time at Daytona took him out of rivalry for the win.
Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford Mustang Darkish Horse was quick at Daytona, because the 2012 Cup Sequence champion led eight laps and earned 12 stage factors all through the night.
With 16 laps to go, Keselowski was lined up on the entrance row for a vital restart. With race chief Austin Cindric deemed the management automobile for the restart, the one factor Keselowski could not afford to do was speed up first when the sphere reached the restart zone.
Sadly, within the eyes of NASCAR, Keselowski did speed up first. Whereas Keselowski claimed that Cindric spun his tires on the restart, his vehement denial of wrongdoing was of no use, and Keselowski was pressured to serve a go by way of penalty on lap 147.
Keselowski battled again to an eighth-place end, however a possible win — and the 5 playoff factors that include it — have been proper there for the taking.
In an ironic coincidence, the flip of occasions that made up the ultimate laps of Saturday’s race mirrored the tip of the 2011 Daytona 500, through which David Ragan, driver of the No. 6 Ford on the time, modified lanes earlier than the restart to incur a penalty.
Who gained on that February day? None aside from 20-year-old Trevor Bayne, who collected his first Cup Sequence win for the Wooden Brothers within the iconic No. 21 automobile.
On Saturday, it was 23-year-old Harrison Burton who shocked the world, scoring not solely his first Cup Sequence win, but in addition the one hundredth Cup Sequence victory for the Wooden Brothers.
The excellent news for Keselowski? He has a superb opportunity to achieve victory lane subsequent weekend at Darlington, the place he broke a 110-race winless streak in Could.