Team Penske driver manages runner-up finish
RELATED: See frame-by-frame images of crew member incident
LONG POND, Pa. -- In a race that had a little bit everything, perhaps no one illustrated the up-and-down nature of the Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway better than Brad Keselowski.
The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford finished second to Matt Kenseth, but not without overcoming an obstacle or two of his own, including a scary incident in which his car hit two of his crewmen on pit road.
Pitting on Lap 57, Keselowski slid into his pit box, knocking jackman Braxton Brannon and front tire carrier Jeremy Ogles to the ground. Brannon went airborne and appeared to hit the ground hard, while Ogles hit and slid across the front of the car. Both crew members were OK after the incident, according to Team Penske and much to the relief of Keselowski.
"Yeah, it's an 'Oh (expletive) moment,' but I'm glad from what I can tell, the guys are doing OK," Keselowski told NASCAR.com of the incident.
However, because of the contact with the tire carrier, the tire that Ogles was carrying left the pit box and Keselowski had to serve a pass-through penalty for a pit box tire violation, which put Keselowski in 37th place.
"It is another race where I kind of feel like it didn't all come together for us and we had the problems on pit road and sliding through the box and that dug a hole, and we got a lap down with the penalty," Keselowski said.
However, the 2012 Sprint Cup Series champion's luck changed quickly as he was the beneficiary of the free pass for the race's sixth caution, putting him back on the lead lap. From there, Keselowski methodically worked his way up into the top 10 by Lap 110 and continued to pick up spots during the lengthy 63-lap green-flag run to end the race.
His 44 quality passes (the number of times passing a car running in the top 15 during a green flag period) were the second-most on the day. In a finish that played out as survival of the ones with fuel, Keselowski had just enough gas to get across the start/finish line with a runner-up result.
Yet, he felt for his teammate, Joey Logano, who led a race-high 97 laps but ran out of fuel with three laps to go on Lap 158.
"The fuel came into play at the end and we were able to take care of it to bring home second, which is a very respectable day," Keselowski said. "Certainly not where we were going to finish without the fuel, but that is sometimes how it works. I think my teammate and his team did a phenomenal job. I am heartbroken for them to not win the race."
Despite scoring his fifth top five of the season and second runner-up finish in three races (he finished second to another Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Kyle Busch, at Loudon), Keselowski was left to wonder what if that early pit road miscue hadn't happened.
"There is always going to be adversity and that is part of what makes success worthwhile," he said. "It is overcoming that adversity. If we could have, quite honestly, not had that issue earlier in the race, I feel like we probably would have won today. That one is on me. I feel guilty for my team on that. I am glad we were able to rally to second."