Near the conclusion of Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, some late-race confusion within the No. 2 Team Penske camp on the final restart order resulted in NASCAR black-flagging an upset Brad Keselowski, who went to the NASCAR hauler after the race for a discussion.
Keselowski pitted during one of the final cautions and upon exit was ahead of cars on track that had not pitted. NASCAR attempted to correct the restart order through communication with spotter Coleman Pressley via the race channel.
With Keselowski’s team taking issue with the running order, NASCAR race control waved off one restart attempt, then went back to green-flag conditions with Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford still outside the double-file lineup. NASCAR officials issued the team a pass-through penalty for “disobeying a NASCAR request” on Lap 486; the team served the penalty four laps later.
MORE: Full Bristol results
Keselowski was visibly upset on pit road after an 18th-place finish in which he led 40 laps, but after a discussion with NASCAR officials he understood where the mix-up happened and said NASCAR “made the right call.”
Will go live tonight when we get back home.
Teaser- I met with Nascar and understand what happened on the last restart now. Bummer to throw away a great race we had a shot at winning but, in the end after hearing all the information; they made the right call.
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) April 7, 2019
NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller joined SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday morning for a weekly call and further clarified the confusion.
“The thing is, it’s really actually pretty simple,” Miller said. “We were trying to get him in the right spot in the lineup and we were communicating with his spotter via the race channel, which is their responsibility to listen to per the rule book and numerous times we told him the 6 car (of Ryan Newman) belonged in front of him, give him space to get in there and he didn’t. As we talked to Brad after the race, there was a breakdown in communication on their side because he never really received that communication from his spotter.
“That’s where the problems started and obviously, unfortunately, it didn’t end the way Brad wanted it to end. But it’s their responsibility to monitor what we’re saying and what we’re trying to get things to do, and it didn’t appear that happened as it should have.
“We expected Brad to be there when we got (back to the NASCAR hauler) and he certainly was.”
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series next heads to Richmond Raceway, where the two-time 2019 winner has seven straight finishes inside the top 11.