Kevin Harvick recalls how he helped spark Brad Keselowski-Jeff Gordon brawl in 2014
Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon took part in one of the more noteworthy fights in recent memory in the NASCAR Cup Series, coming at the 2014 running of the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
In the final moments of the aforementioned race, Keselowski made contact with Gordon, which presumably resulted in the latter skidding and causing a caution to come out. Keselowski finished third, while Gordon finished 29th.
After the race, Gordon tried to get to Keselowski — and ultimately did, assisted by Kevin Harvick, who gave Keselowski a slight push towards Gordon.
On the latest edition of "Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour," Harvick vividly recalled the brawl that ensued.
"There's more to it than just driving the car, and sometimes you have to try to do different things to re-direct the conversation or put somebody in the fire that's not in the fire that you're competing against, and this was a very calculated moment. I thought that we could capitalize on this to really turn the story on somebody else, but it just didn't look good, but that's the way it worked out," Harvick said. "It was awesome to watch, just not awesome to start, right? I was leaning on the decklid at the back of the car watching everything go down. I was like, 'move man [Keselowski], get in there!' And next thing you know, there's a massive fight on pit road. They weren't talking about me anymore.
"That was one of those calculations that I would recalculate today, not advise you to be the one that does that, but it wound up changing the direction of the conversation. We went all the way to the championship four that year and put ourselves in position to win a championship."
Ironically, Harvick went on to win the Cup Series championship that year, while Keselowski finished fifth and Gordon finished sixth. Jimmie Johnson, who won that 2014 race, has the record with seven wins at the track, which was implemented into the Cup Series rotation in 1997.
Kevin Harvick on Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski post-race brawl
William Byron took home the checkered flag at Texas Motor Speedway in 2023, while Harvick won three races at the track in three consecutive years (2017-19).
Keselowski enters this week's running of the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. on FS1 and the FOX Sports app) 18th in points (176). He has 35 career wins.
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