Keselowski soothes Daytona's sting, ties Dale Jr., Gordon with sixth Talladega tally
In the last superspeedway race before Sunday’s, Brad Keselowski was seen slamming his helmet into the side of his smoldering No. 2 Ford, which skidded to rest about a mile short of the Daytona 500 finish. Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, he gained some measure of consolation from that ache with a triumph that placed him in the stock-car racing ether.
RELATED: Keselowski emerges in overtime | Official results
Instead of repeating the Team Penske tangle that upended both his and teammate Joey Logano’s victory hopes at Daytona, Keselowski stayed steady in a busy overtime scrap to continue his climb up Talladega’s all-time win list. His first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the year also helped take some of the edge off his season-opening defeat, one that still resonates.
“I mean, Daytona, that’s a big one. Man, it stings still,” Keselowski said. “This is a good one. We’ll take it. Beggars can’t be choosers. Certainly, I learned some lessons from that race, tried to apply them. It came together at the end. Michael McDowell gave me a great push, kind of like he did at Daytona. I was a little bit smarter how I handled it, so it all came together.”
Capably handling the two-lap rumble has re-established Keselowski as an all-timer on the 2.66-mile Alabama high banks, which is now the site of his first and most recent Cup Series victories — both races where he led only the final lap. That total of six Talladega wins pulls him even with Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon on the track’s list, four behind the great Dale Earnhardt’s peerless 10 wins there.
His breakthrough Talladega win in 2009 came after a dramatic last-lap tangle with rival Carl Edwards. Keselowski had already distinguished himself in the Xfinity Series as a driver for Dale Jr.’s JR Motorsports organization, but his big-league arrival also elevated his name as a must-have prospect among team owners. Roger Penske snapped him up for full-time Cup duty the following year, completing his rise from humble beginnings to NASCAR’s majors.
“I never thought I’d even have that chance,” Keselowski said. “It’s tremendous to me. I grew up loving the sport, still love the sport. We fight sometimes, like husband and wife, but I still love the sport. I love the challenge every day of getting up, trying to find excellence, reinventing yourself as the rules change, people change around you.
“It’s hard. It’s a hard sport. Any success you have means the world. So I think to have my name on any list that has Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Talladega, that’s a pretty big deal. I’m super happy and super proud to be there with them.”
Sunday’s outcome prompted more defining numbers from Keselowski’s perspective. He now has 35 Cup Series wins, two ahead of Fireball Roberts and two behind Bobby Isaac — both NASCAR Hall of Famers. His success also has longevity; Keselowski’s first victory of the season marks 11 consecutive years with at least one win.
WATCH: Final laps at Talladega
Though he’s yet to win on a road course in his Cup Series career, there’s balance to be found in Keselowski’s overall record on ovals, where he’s won on short tracks, mile-long circuits, intermediates and the sport’s biggest speedways. Still, that Talladega tally of six stands out in front — both for its sheer magnitude and for its association with the high bars set by Gordon and Earnhardt Jr.
“Again, the word ‘surreal’ comes to mind,” Keselowski says. noting the full-circle nature of tying Earnhardt Jr., his former boss, on Talladega’s all-time list. “I never thought that would have been the case.”
