Brad Keselowski reacts to pit road mishaps, losing the lead at Pocono

Not once, but twice, a pit road decision, or indecision, came back to bite Brad Keselowski in the rear. It may have cost him the win. There was no doubt that Keselowski was in contention today. But his luck this NASCAR season is less than stellar.

During the second stage, Brad Keselowski went to pit road while it was closed. Carson Hocevar took credit for faking him out. But that doesn’t appear to be the true cause. Then, with 36 laps to go, a caution came out with Keselowski in the lead. Had he gone to pit road one lap earlier, he may have been able to race for the lead.

On the Prime Video post-race show, after Chase Briscoe’s big win, Keselowski explained the mishaps. It’s those little things in a race, some you can control and others that you can’t, that determine many of these races.

“We got the lead there in the first stage and felt like we were in control, and lost control of the race early with the pit road penalty,” Keselowski said. “I thought we recovered really, really well from that. Got up to third or fourth there. We had kind of this strategy to run longer than the lead pack there, and the yellow came out in the middle of the cycle, and cycled us back to the end there with I guess, 30 to go. Came from 24th on that last run to 9th. I thought that was strong, but not enough.”

Brad Keselowski had one heck of a run in the last stint of the race. He moved up 15 spots. It felt like the 6 car was passing cars all day long, because it was. Keselowski explained how that first mistake, the one that led to the pit road penalty, happened.

“I just thought we made a really bad call. And I was right, but not for the reason I thought I was,” Brad Keselowski continued. “And what was really confusing is the next lap when everybody else pitted, I was like, ‘Why would they do that?’ A couple of really interesting things from today. For whatever reason, and this is my fault, just to be clear of this, we held pit road every pit cycle for three laps.

“Now, normally, they hold pit road for one lap. So, when you get to lap two, it’s just automatic pit. So, when we were going down the short shoot, the team said, pit this time, and I had no reason to challenge that. And ultimately, I hold the steering wheel and I’m the one that’s gotta check, and I gotta be the check for that. I didn’t check the crew chief or the spotter, and that’s my fault.”

Keselowski explained that late in the race, he was told to pit. Instead, the driver insisted on staying out in clean air. Bad call. The late spin from Shane van Gisbergen solidified his fate in this race. With that caution, Keselowski was out of sequence on the pit cycle and from P24, he was too far back to contend for the win.