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Brad Keselowski on lengthy caution: 'It probably cost us the race'
Brad Keselowski said a lengthy caution period during which NASCAR had trouble sorting out the correct running order of the field for a restart in Sunday's Goody's Fast Relief 500 "probably cost us the race."
Fans weren't the only ones confused by a mid-race caution period that lasted a seemingly interminable 29 laps during the Chase for the Sprint Cup payoff race at Martinsville Speedway. The caution period lasted more than 25 minutes.
Drivers in the race were just as befuddled as NASCAR officials who seemed to take forever to figure out the correct running order before finally restarting the race.
Keselowski, who finished second in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford, was asked afterward if he thought he could have caught race winner Jimmie Johnson had there been more green-flag laps.
“Yes. I know what you’re thinking, I’m thinking it too. You can say it, I can’t," Keselowski said in reply to the question. "We don’t need to run 100 laps under yellow with the field not trying to figure out where they’re at, and it probably cost us the race.”
Denny Hamlin, who finished third in the race, could not have agreed more. He believed he was incorrectly passed by other cars -- including that of fellow Chase contender Kevin Harvick -- when NASCAR attempted to sort out the mess.
"I was just confused on the scoring and why they couldn’t get the scoring right," Hamlin said. There were a couple cars that stole a lap back from us and the other leaders.
"You’ve got to get it right in these situations. Every point matters. There’s got to be a better way because there’s 20 cameras all over my race car and it shows the cars going by me. That’s disappointing that we can’t get that right."
Chad Knaus, the race-winning crew chief on the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team of Jimmie Johnson, admitted he had no idea what was going on, either. But he did say he was willing to acknowledge that NASCAR officials frequently face a difficult job getting everyone lined up in the right spots for double-file restarts.
"So, yeah, that was weird. ... I don't know what happened yet," Knaus said after the race. "I'm looking forward to this week to have an opportunity to talk to the guys at NASCAR, to understand what went on there. It's a challenge, man. When you have 40 cars going around a half‑mile racetrack, people start to pit, one guy is 12 seconds back, the other guy is three seconds back.
"It's still very, very confusing to me right now. I really don't want to talk a whole heck of a lot about it because in my little world, I have one perspective. They're up in the deejay booth up top so they can know what's going on. They have a better perspective than I, so I'm sure we'll get some clarification."
