Keselowski rues lane choice on final restart

Sunday, 23 July 2017


By Kelly Crandall / Images by Nigel Kinrade/LAT

Brad Keselowski could taste the yard of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before a final restart wiped it away.
The leader of the race coming to a second overtime attempt, Keselowski had his choice of lane for the restart. He took the outside, leaving Kasey Kahne on the bottom. It proved to be the wrong choice as Kahne powered by and cleared the overtime line when the final caution flew down the backstretch.
"I felt like I hit it pretty well. Just Kasey, it stuck," Keselowski said of the restart. "He drove through the oil dry. He didn't just drive through it, he drove it in there, and it stuck. You know, lots of credit to him for getting it to stick. It was impressive.
"I didn't feel like I could do that if I was on the bottom lane. Maybe I could have, I don't know. You never know 'til you're in that spot."
With Keselowski coming up short, the driver is now 0-8 at Indianapolis and team owner Roger Penske, the most accomplished IndyCar team owner at the track, has still not won a NASCAR Cup Series race there.



The No. 2 having a shot at the win was a testament to how hard the team fought. Even as he battled late in the race, Keselowski wasn't happy with how his Ford was handling, saying it wasn't dialed in but crew chief Paul Wolfe and company made it better with every pit stop.
"We just have to take our result and move on," Keselowski said. "We weren't the fastest car today, but our team did a hell of a job executing. I wish I could have executed a little bit better to bring home the win. I'm not sure what that would have took.
"But all in all, good to have a top finish at this track. I think our best finish coming to this race here was ninth. Kind of checked this one off as at least getting a top finish."
There was also a little bit of humor to it.
"I was thinking as I was walking over here (to the media center) about watching a race here with Kasey a few years ago where he was probably going to win it, and a restart at the end he got passed in the same way we did here today," Keselowski said. "I was thinking about that, and thinking, 'You know, I guess if we run up front and do what we did today, then we'll (one day) get a victory like Kasey did.'"