FORT WORTH, Texas?Brad Keselowski thought he was lucky not to crash when he rubbed doors with Jimmie Johnson as they battled for the lead late in the race Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
But while he felt lucky, he didn?t feel dirty.
Keselowski, with just two new tires while the rest of the field had four, did everything he could to keep the five-time Cup champion at bay over the final nine laps.
Though he was successful when they traded paint on the previous restart, Keselowski eventually lost the lead on a restart with two laps remaining and had to settle for second, dropping seven points behind Johnson with two races left in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
?I raced hard, and I'm sure someone would say dirty,? Keselowski said. ?Hell, anytime you run close to certain guys you're racing them dirty according to some people.
?But I raced hard, and we both came back around, so there's something to be said for that.?
Johnson agreed.
?To his credit, he did a nice job of getting it right to the edge and we brought home racecars,? Johnson said. ?We weren?t wadded up looking like a bunch of fools over there and handing the (other contenders) a big gift.?
While somewhat complimentary of Keselowski afterward, Johnson drove up beside him when the caution came out with four laps remaining following their earlier tangle. Johnson said he wanted to send a message to Keselowski.
?I just pointed at him and just wanted him to use his head,? Johnson said. ?There was no sense in taking us both out in the process. If he was taking me out, you can count on the fact that I would have been in the gas trying to take him with me.?
After the race, Keselowski congratulated Johnson in victory lane.
?He did what was right?he raced him hard,? Keselowski crew chief Paul Wolfe said. ?Jimmie didn?t give him any room when he ran him tight to the outside. That?s just how you race for a win. ? Brad drove his (butt) off.
?He wasn?t going to give it to him. They bumped doors. Big deal. I thought it was exciting.?
Tony Stewart characterized Keselowski?s racing by saying that Keselowski had ?a death wish? and Kyle Busch, a longtime Keselowski rival, said ?from my experience with Brad, it doesn't surprise me.?
Busch?s comment came with Keselowski sitting right next to him in the postrace news conference.
?I felt like we were just going to wreck,? Keselowski said. ?I wasn't looking to be the guy that wrecked him. I didn't really enjoy the last time that happened with Kyle over here, and I don't think he did either.
?He might not believe that, but that's just not the way you want to run a race, and not the way I want to win a championship. That was pretty much the only choice I had was to put ourselves in a bad position like I did before. I felt lucky to survive that one.?
Dale Earnhardt Jr., a Johnson teammate and close friend of Keselowski, said when racing for a championship, it was appropriate.
?I didn?t see anything that stood out to me as ridiculous,? he said. ?They are running for a championship. Them guys ought to be willing to do anything. Anything goes at this point.
?If it was a couple of guys racing just for a win early in the season, that would be kind of hair-brained to run like they did. That?s exactly what the sport needs.?
Keselowski needed the win to gain momentum going into the final two races at Phoenix and Homestead. Instead, the race to the finish left him feeling down.
?It don't feel good, but there is a part of you that just feels like you're first in class,? Keselowski said. ?When you catch the breaks that he caught today with the yellows and then you execute like they can, you're unbeatable.?
So how does Keselowski beat the unbeatable? He needs some breaks, he said.
?Over the last three weeks, we haven't caught good breaks or bad breaks, and he's caught several really good ones,? Keselowski said.
?I'm confident that that will come back around, and when it does, we'll change these seconds and fifths or whatever they are over the last few weeks into wins. I feel like that's bound to happen over the next two weeks, and we have the team to pull it off.?
rob the firm new york philharmonic marines urinating on taliban critics choice awards super pac dre kirkpatrick
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.