Brad Keselowski Turns In Performance For The Ages At Talladega

By ryanpritt on October 20, 2014

There’s just no understating what Brad Keselowski was able to do on Sunday. Call it clutch, impressive, timely, unbelievable and season-saving — it was all of the above and then some.

Even more than the aforementioned adjectives, Keselowski’s drive on Sunday at Talladega was something we’ve never seen in NASCAR, except for maybe Tony Stewart‘s win at Homestead in 2011 that gave him the Sprint Cup Championship via tiebreaker over Carl Edwards, who finished second in that race. But even Stewart, who’d had 35 prior races to put himself into that position in 2011, didn’t face the pressure or circumstances that was weighing on Keselowski on Sunday.

It was pretty much a win-and-you’re-in/don’t-and-you’re-out situation for Keselowski, who was on the verge of letting five-win season slip through his hands after subpar performances at Kansas at Charlotte left him well below the cutline with one race left in the Contender round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Making that ground up would have been difficult anywhere, but at Talladega, a place where chaos traditionally rules, favorites leave on wreckers and underdogs end up in Victory Lane, a needed sixth win seemed even less likely.

At times during the race, it seemed even more dire, especially after Keselowski acquired damage from a small, early crash that was triggered by a Jamie McMurray spinout. Things finally seemed to be set up for Keselowski at the start of a second green/white checkered attempt as he lined up in the lead with teammate Joey Logano behind him, free to push him to the win as Logano had already qualified for the next round with a win at Kansas.

Logano did his part with a key block on a hard-charging Kevin Harvick, but he lost Keselowski’s back bumper in the process, leaving Keselowski to fend off a pack of hungry drivers for a lap by himself. By himself was nowhere Keselowski wanted to be, especially after the ending of last week’s run at Charlotte in which several drivers were angry over his after-race antics, in particular Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth, who physically went after Keselowski in a post-race scrum.

Yet somehow, with no one eager to give Keselowski a needed push, he was able to wheel his No. 2 past a winless Ryan Newman and keep it ahead of the likes of Kenseth and Landon Cassill to score the win and save the season. The monumental moment even left Keselowski, who is usually very well-spoken and concise in interviews, grasping for the right words.

“The right way probably wasn’t last week and I went through a lot of adversity that makes this week a little more special … There are probably some people out there not real happy that I won. I can understand that, but I’m a man like anyone else who does things they aren’t always real proud of. I’m not real proud of last week, but I’m very proud of today and everybody at Team Penske.”

With the points resetting, leaving Keselowski and the seven other Eliminator qualifiers (Newman, Kenseth, Logano, Harvick, Hamlin, Edwards and Jeff Gordon) all square with three races to go until the final four is set, Keselowski will get a fresh start and should resume his status as one of, if not the championship favorite.

If not for one of the most clutch performances in NASCAR history on Sunday, Keselowski could’ve found himself in quite a different situation. Just ask freshly-eliminated Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Ryan Pritt is a NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @RPritt, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.