Brad Keselowski’s gamble fails to pay off at Atlanta
HAMPTON, Ga. – If there was the question of “what were they thinking” following the Great Clips 300 on Saturday night, that question would go to Brad Keselowski and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Keselowski was running in sixth when he stayed out during a caution with 27 laps remaining. The series points leader inherited the front spot when everyone else pitted. The idea was that if another caution came out over the final 23 laps, Keselowski would pit for fresh tires and be set for a final sprint to win.
“Once somebody hit the wall and they didn’t throw the yellow, it was obvious no yellow was going to be thrown,” Keselowski said. “Tires are a big deal here. We didn’t want to finish fourth or fifth, we wanted to win the race.
“You gamble to win sometimes. You try to put yourself in position to win by going off the odds and the odds are that there is usually another yellow. The odds lied.”
Winding up 12th, Keselowski saw his points lead drop by 33 points to 332 ahead of Carl Edwards with nine races left in the Nationwide Series season. At the time, Edwards thought Keselowski had made the right move.
“When I saw Brad stay out, I thought, ‘Man we should have stayed out,’” Edwards said. “I thought we had about a 25 percent chance of winning if we pitted with the fast guys and I thought we had a 75 or 80 percent chance of winning if we stayed out like Brad did and we got a caution.
“If there had been a caution [with a few laps to go], Brad would have won the race. Fresh tires would have been king right there. … I’m glad we pitted and made the right call.”
As for Stenhouse, the Roush Fenway Racing rookie got into the back of Reed Sorenson in what looked like excessive contact.
Stenhouse, who got a much-needed 10th-place finish, explained what happened.
“I got to the outside of [Sorenson] and he was moving off the bottom really hard and I didn’t think he was going to give us enough room to get to the outside of him,” Stenhouse said. “So I turned left to cross him over, and as soon as I did that, he checked up to give us more room on the outside and I didn’t quite clear him. The right headlight got him.”
