CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Blog by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Tom Pennington/Getty Images North America photo —
Hello irony, thy name is Talladega.
How appropriate is it that NASCAR’s fastest and most unpredictable race track — the one place where you really can’t control your own destiny — is so often the place where the most predictable and Hollywood-esque endings seem to happen?
NASCAR had three star drivers who came into the weekend needing a win to advance — nothing else was good enough. Sure as all, one Brad Keselowski managed to punch through the mayhem and win exactly when he needed to, keeping his Chase hopes alive as he advanced to the Eliminator Round.
Yes. Believe it or not, it actually happened.
“We knew we had to win obviously coming into Talladega,” Keselowski said following his improbable and gutsy performance. “When the weekend started, I thought we had the opportunity to do that. We had very, very fast cars at Daytona and Talladega here and the past three restrictor plate races. Really didn’t get any of the results we thought we were capable of though.”
“In the back of my mind, those three races that we had so much speed at and no results to show for it made me feel like we were due. I told everybody, not everybody, but Roger, Ford, guys like Paul and my spotter, Joey, that I felt we were going to win (Sunday) because of that.”
“I felt like those mistakes, whether it was Daytona on the last restart, the bad luck that we faced, it couldn’t continue to go that way. Sure enough, it worked out.”
How appropriate was it that Matt Kenseth, who one week ago put Keselowski in a headlock, was the one pushing the Red Deuce through the tri-oval to Victory Lane on Sunday?
I’m sure NASCAR was smiling about all the headlines they could write after that one.
Matt Kenseth, on the other hand? He was more at a loss for words.
“Everything happens really, really fast,” the Joe Gibbs veteran explained Sunday night. “You know who everybody is and where they’re at, but you’re trying to do everything you can to get your best finish. It opened up there, I thought we were going to have a shot to win the race. I didn’t get around the bottom groove to get back under Brad.”
“There’s a lot that happens in two laps. I couldn’t even tell you everything that happened in those two laps. There’s so much that happened so fast. You’re trying to manage your momentum, listen to your car, watch everybody around you, try to make the best moves you can.”
“(But), I might have been hoping to spin him out. Just kidding,” Kenseth laughed.
Keselowski was also able to appreciate the humor in the irony — even if he broke his team owner’s orders and looked in the rearview mirror on the final lap.
“You can’t drive Talladega without looking in the mirror. I think I more just kind of laughed in an ironic way, appreciating the irony, that is,” Keselowski grinned. “But to me it was funny how this racing world works out. I don’t know why it is that way. I don’t know why it seems like every week where there’s either a fight in the garage or a mishap or something like that happens, those two cars and people end up together, whether it was our cars were parked together in the garage area, or on the racetrack for the win in the closing laps at Talladega. I don’t know why that happens. But I got a chuckle out of that personally.”
And the irony continued even into the post-race hours, after Ryan Newman’s Chevrolet failed post-race inspection and was subsequently cleared by NASCAR yesterday afternoon, the sanction citing “race damage” as the reason that the No. 31 was too low in the rear end.
Why is that so ironic? Because Richard Childress Racing has been bitten by “race damage” before during the Chase for the Sprint Cup, however the last time it happened, it doomed Childress’ title hopes.
Anyone remember 2010 at New Hampshire, when Clint Bowyer won and then the rear end was knocked out of tolerance by the wrecker that pushed him to victory lane? That appeal was denied, and Bowyer was left hopeless in the Chase that year.
This time, NASCAR has looked favorably on RCR — the only thing that could have made it more bizarre is if the incident had happened at New Hampshire.
NASCAR wanted this Chase to deliver unpredictability, surprises and Game 7 moments. Guess what? It’s worked.
A driver that had to win to stay alive won at the hardest track to execute a plan at, the driver that pushed him to victory lane was the same driver that put him in a headlock a week ago and a team that has once before been bitten by inspection issues is saved from them.
Oh by the way, Newman is also winless in a Chase where winning is everything — and he’s still alive heading to one of his better tracks.
If this went to the box office, NASCAR ought to be raking in dollars right now, because not even Hollywood could write this script.
And one more thing: if you thought all that was fun, get this. We’re headed to Martinsville.
Oh irony, wherefore art thou going to be next?
