Say It Loud

Have you ever been to the point where, even though you know it might be a bad idea down the road, you just have to open your mouth?

That’s where Brad Keselowski was Saturday night at Texas, and he did not disappoint.

"I have one good thing to say," Keselowski said after finishing ninth in the NRA 500. "That's my team and effort they put in today in fighting back with the absolute bull that's been the last seven days in this garage area. The things I've seen over the last seven days have me questioning everything that I believe in, and I'm not happy about it. I don't have anything positive to say and I probably should just leave it at that."

He was talking about NASCAR’s seizing of the rear-end housings on both Penske Racing cars…on race day. That meant that the teams had to change out the entire rear-end assembly on both the 2 and 22 cars before the race, and that is a non-trivial undertaking. The rear-end housings are where the various linkages are for the track bar, sway bars, etc. are located, and they have a lot to do with the setup of the race car.

Keselowski’s crew, under Paul Wolff’s leadership, completed the change in time to make the grid. Joey Logano’s team was late to the party, doing the final inspection items on pit road, and had to forfeit its starting position and go to the tail of the field.

OK, fair enough. Other teams have been subject to this in the past—most notably the Hendrick cars at Sonoma when alterations were discovered around the headlights. You’ll remember that Chad Knaus took a six-week vacation after that, too.

The week prior, at Martinsville, Keselowski was hit with a penalty for pitting outside his pit box. Viewing the video of the stop, it didn’t seem as if there was a violation, but NASCAR called it the way it saw it and the champ lost a lap. 

The cumulative events were not, to be sure, happy-making for Keselowski.

"There's so much stuff going on ... you have no [expletive deleted] idea what's going on,'' Keselowski blasted. "And that's not your fault and that's not a slam on you. I could tell you there's nobody, no team in this garage with the integrity of the 2 team. And the way we've been treated over the last seven days is absolutely shameful. I feel like we've been targeted over the last seven days more than I've ever seen a team targeted. But my guys kept their heads on straight and they showcased why they are a winning team and championship team. We're not going to take it. We're not going to be treated this way."

After we got through shaking our heads and speculating how many races Keselowski was going to miss in the penalty box, NASCAR left me thunderstruck. NASCAR CEO Brian France, during a TV interview, said that Keselowski wasn’t going to be fined for his comments following the race.

Which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong.

Keselowski said he wanted to be the best champion ever in NASCAR, and seems serious about fulfilling his obligations. Those include speaking up when he thinks something’s wrong, which is a role he was born to fill.

There was a lot of speculation that someone dropped a dime on the 2 team in the garage at TMS. Keselowski was parked next to Jimmie Johnson, and Logano next to Jeff Gordon in the garage, and as such, there was ample opportunity for such a thing.

That’s not saying it happened; just that others have posited that as a scenario to be considered. But if you’ll remember, it was BK who called attention to the rear-end setups of the Hendrick cars last year…

Tit-for-tat is an accepted practice in the NASCAR garage.

I am glad that Keselowski spoke his mind, and that he did so within the rules of conduct. I’m even more glad that NASCAR decided to let it go. That’s how dialogue works.

NASCAR never said, flat-out, that the parts taken were illegal, just that they weren’t in the “spirit of the rules.” Remember T-Rex? The car brought to the All-Star race by Ray Evernham and Jeff Gordon that NASCAR inspected, let race, and then told the team it better never bring that car back to the track or dire fates awaited? 

Chances are, the Penske boys were developing something on the rear of the car and NASCAR didn’t like where it was headed. 

Keselowski didn’t like where his season was heading either, and he gave voice to that frustration. 

Game on, folks. Game on.