(By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service)
Posted: Saturday,August 27th, 2011
BRISTOL, Tenn.—Brad Keselowski, who has been performing smartly on the racetrack, made another smart move this weekend when he decided to skip Friday night’s Food City 250 Nationwide Series race at Bristol.
Keselowski is recuperating from a broken left ankle, an injury he sustained in a wreck during an Aug. 3 test session at Road Atlanta. Since then, he has finished first, second and third at successive Sprint Cup races at Pocono, Watkins Glen and Michigan.
Since the accident, he has not raced in the Nationwide Series, as much as that decision has pained him. After ceding his seat to Penske Racing teammate Kurt Busch at Watkins Glen and to former Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve at Montreal, Keselowski was resigned to watching Parker Kligerman drive his No. 22 Dodge at Bristol.
Parker Kligerman, driver of the #22 Discount Tire Dodge, loses control of his car during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 26, 2011 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“If I had to make the decision completely coming off of my mind and my heart, I would have never got out of (the car),” Keselowski told Sporting News on Friday. “I would have run every race. Obviously, there’s a bigger picture than that. This racetrack is a place where you can take a really jarring hit, and the odds of doing so are pretty high.
“We certainly don’t want to risk that. That would be potentially a catastrophe. I would like to be back in (the Nationwide Series) next week. We’ll just have to wait and see. From a discipline perspective, it was very, very tough. I relied on people like (owner) Roger (Penske) to help me out with those decisions and he certainly did.”
Keselowski initially offered his ride at Bristol to Busch, who had won in the No. 22 car at the Glen. Busch, like Keselowski, had the big picture in mind.
“I turned it down,” Busch said. “I thought the best opportunity to get our Cup program right where it needed to be was to just focus 100 percent on it.”
After recovering from a spin mid-race, Kligerman finished ninth Friday night.
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