NASCAR Texas Notebook: Keselowski 'Mad as Hell for Not Making the Cars Faster'

Throughout the first 80 laps in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, eventual runner-up Brad Keselowski dealt with a dismal, frustrating day.

However, by Lap 165 in the double overtime race won by Chase Elliott, Keselowski and his RFK Racing team had made adjustments on his Ford Dark Horse Mustang that allowed him to move into the top 10.

With 15 laps remaining in the scheduled 267-lap race, Keselowski was third, 0.790-second behind leader Denny Hamlin. However, two laps latter chaos began when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun in turn two. When the race restarted with seven laps remaining, Keselowski selected the inside lane for the restart behind leader Hamlin while Elliott chose the outside beside Hamlin.

On the restart on Lap 260, Zane Smith collided with Kyle Larson and sent Larson’s Chevrolet spinning. That brought out the 13th of 16 caution flags. NASCAR ruled that Elliott had passed Hamlin before the yellow flag waved. This time Keselowski elected the outside line behind Hamlin for the restart.

The field didn’t make it back to the white flag before Hamlin spun his Toyota in turn four, and that sent the event into overtime.

“Just got loose in turn three,” Hamlin said. “It’s something that I had been fighting all day. When you have to push it most—on a green-white-checker—I knew that was the likely scenario. That I wasn’t going to make it out of the corner with how much speed that I was carrying.”

Elliott remined the leader, but Ross Chastain was now second, Keselowski third, William Byron fourth and Daniel Suarez fifth.

For this restart, Keselowski elected the inside lane behind Elliott, while Chastain took the outside line with Byron behind him. Suarez lined up behind Keselowski. However, once again they were unable to make it back to the white flag before Harrison Burton and Kaz Grala wrecked in the first turn.

Now the race was in double overtime. Once again, Keselowski chose to restart behind Elliott on the inside. This time, the field made it back to the white flag, but it ended under the yellow flag due to Byron hitting the rear of Chastain’s Chevrolet on the backstretch and turning him into the wall on the final lap.

“I didn’t want to wreck him there, but he blocked me late,” Byron said. “I was already there and, unfortunately, we made enough contact to where it got him squirrelly and it happened, but it’s the last lap and I had the run, so I am going to just take the run. I didn’t expect it.”

Elliott was the victor in the 276-lap race for the first time since Talladega 2022, snapping a 42-race winless streak, and Keselowski pulled out a second-place finish. It was Keselowski’s best finish of the season and his second top-five this year.

“The driver in me is frustrated because I feel like these are races I am good enough to win, but don’t have the speed enough to do it,” Keselowski said. “The owner in me is mad as hell because it is my fault for not making the cars faster. I am still proud of the team that we have with the pit stops and strategy and execution to put ourselves in position to get a finish we probably didn’t deserve but earned with some never-give-up spirit.