GEICO 500 winner Brad Keselowski embraces the challenge of Talladega
A lot of NASCAR's finest drivers were glad to leave Talladega Superspeedway after Sunday's GEICO 500, glad to get away from the gut-wrenching carnage and mayhem that saw 21 cars caught up in a single wreck and 35 of 40 cars damaged at one point or another.
"I hate it. I'd much rather sit at home," said GEICO 500 runner-up Kyle Busch. "I got a win. I don't need to be here."
"I can't wait to get out of this place," said Joey Logano, who had hard crashes two days in a row.
GEICO 500 winner Brad Keselowski was not among those who felt that way, which is understandable given that he's now won four times here.
The carnage and the mayhem?
For the fans, all part of the show.
For the drivers, all part of the deal.
"That's how Talladega goes," said Keselowski. "Sometimes we run here and everybody kind of lines up against the wall, and sometimes we come here and it's crazy sideâbyâside, wreck 'em up, flip 'em."
And to Keselowski, the uncertainty is a good thing.
"I think that's kind of the allure to coming here because you don't know what you're going to get," he said. "As a racer or driver, you have to be prepared either way to take advantage of the situation. We were able to do that today."
Two drivers, Chris Buescher and Matt Kenseth went upside down in the course of the race. Keselowski said that while rollovers and flips are undesirable, drama and excitement are what make this track unique.
"I hated to hear about cars flipping and doing all those things," he said. "Nobody wants that. But I think some accidents here and there, we might not like to cheer about it, but it is part of our sport and always has been part of automobile racing."
Keselowski should know.
He won his first Sprint Cup race right here seven years ago, when he drove for the low-buck Phoenix Racing team owned by James Finch. Coming to the checkered flag in that race, Keselowski and Carl Edwards made contact, with Edwards's car first going up on the hood of Ryan Newman's car and then into the catchfence.
It was scary and dramatic, but you know what? Keselowski got the victory, just like he did this time around.
"Racing has always been that balance of daredevils and chess players," he said. "Some weekends we're chess players, some weekends we're daredevils. This has always been the more daredevil style of track, which probably offsets some of the tracks that we go to where we're the chess player."
And the reason so many drivers hate Talladega is exactly why Keselowski loves it.
"You're going to make a move inches from another driver, cut them off, push them, you're going to drive sideways, hang it all out there knowing something bad can really happen," he said. "I think it's special under the circumstances and under that level of adversity. It's a challenge I've always embraced."
And, it should be noted, had considerable success with.
Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 34 Ford, gets airborne at Talladega Superspeedway.
