After Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski on Twitter in essence accused David Ragan of trying to manipulate his running position before the green-white-checkered restart.
On Tuesday, Keselowski took the high road and apologized for his comments in an open letter on his www.bradracing.com web site, indicating he had jumped the gun in blaming Ragan for the confusion before the restart. An abundance of web hits crashed the site for more than two hours.
Here’s the text of Keselowski’s apology:
“I finally had a chance to digest what happened at the end of the Cup race at Talladega on Sunday. I owe David Ragan and his fans an apology. I placed blame on David Ragan for the restart lineup confusion when it wasn’t his fault.
“I was very passionate about the finish because I thought we had a chance to win the race if I restarted the race in the 10th position instead of ninth. Passion is a very important characteristic to a champion driver. That passion is not something I will apologize for. The outside line — the 10th spot, in particular — was a huge advantage over the 9th position. David executed that positioning perfectly for the win.
“I know first-hand what it’s like to take a lower-budget team (to) Victory Lane. My comments were never to detract from their victory. They were only to express my opinion that I thought we had been wronged.
“Basically what happened is that, when the yellow came out at lap 184 the lineup was supposed to be Scott Speed, myself and David (in the eighth, ninth and 10th positions, respectively). We were actually lined up David, Scott and me because we were unsure what the lineup was. NASCAR did not change this before opening pit road so by procedure we were lined up in the proper positions. NASCAR made a last-minute lineup change that we missed as we were getting ready to go back to green. David attempted to make it right by letting me go at the start/finish line with one to go. I thought he was attempting to change the pylon (scoring tower) because the order is supposed to be set before pit road opens.
“With the multicar wreck (on Lap 183), the rain and the impending darkness it is easy to see how NASCAR could have made that mistake.
“It was a confusing time for all of us. I want to send a sincere congratulation out to David Ragan and everyone at Front Row Motorsports. It was a very cool win for our sport.” — Brad
NASCAR issued a statement after the race saying that Ragan had lined up properly for the restart.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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