Keselowski on Byron: ‘I should have wrecked him’

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The night ended for Brad Keselowski and William Byron in separate wrecks, but their fortunes were intertwined, prompting Keselowski to direct critical words at the 20-year-old rookie for his blocking tactics. Keselowski exited early at the front of a massive wreck that tangled 25 cars on Lap 53 of a scheduled 160 in the Coke Zero Sugar 400. His Team Penske No. 2 Ford was nudged from behind by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 Ford, triggering the mishap at the end of the Daytona International Speedway backstretch. WATCH: "The Big One" strikes at Daytona| See the wreck from Elliott's perspective But Keselowski assigned blame to Byron, whose blocking maneuver while leading forced him to lift slightly off the throttle, leaving Stenhouse with limited options on where to go. The wreck was on from there, engulfing a host of favorites and making a clean sweep of eliminating Team Penske's three-car fleet. "Ricky was doing the best he could to give me a good push and had a great run to take the lead and the car in front of me just threw a late, bad block," Keselowski said of Byron. "I made the mistake of lifting instead of just driving through him and that’s my fault. I know better than that. I’ve got to wreck more people and then they’ll stop blocking me late and behind like that. That’s my fault. I’ll take the credit for my team and we’ll go to Talladega and we’ll wreck everybody that throws a bad block like that." For good measure, Keselowski -- a six-time winner in restrictor-plate competition -- took a dig at Byron's experience level on superspeedways. "You got a list of drivers that are making moves that are unqualified to make and it causes big wrecks," Keselowski said. "That was one of those. It was my fault because I lifted. I should have wrecked him and sent a message to the whole field." Byron was sidelined just 11 laps later, swept out in another multicar mess instigated by Stenhouse's Turn 4 contact with Kyle Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. WATCH: Busch, Byron wreck After being checked out of the infield care center, Byron answered Keselowski's complaint, claiming that the wreck was more Stenhouse's doing than his. "He got hit from behind, so I didn't get hit anywhere," Byron said. "If he would've hit me, I would've tried to move or save it, but I never got hit. He just hit from behind me. … "Everybody blocks as much as that, so I don't see any difference in it. He got hit from behind."