“We had a fast car, and it sounds like we were identical to [Bliss],” Keselowski said. “We were good on the long run, and just average on the short run. We had some problems on pit road and came back out 15th, and then had some more problems and had to go to the tail end. We just have to keep working on pit road and try to fix that.”
One of the incidents injured two members of Keselowski’s crew. The car fell off the jack during a right-side tire change, and the tire changers appeared to catch a hand inside the car’s fender.
“I guess one of our crew members is at the hospital,” Keselowski said. “I think he’s my next-door neighbor too, so I’ll have to go check on that tonight. They said something about a tire coming off and bumping the [jack] handle, but I’d have to look at the video on that.”
Mishaps befell several of the fastest qualifiers. At lap 34, Denny Hamlin, who qualified third, had to make an unscheduled green flag stop because of a loose wheel. He was able to recover to finish sixth.
At lap 137, Kevin Harvick, who had qualified sixth, was running in the top five when his brakes ceased to function. He managed to coast the car to a stop in the Nationwide garage, where his crew made repairs and got him back out on the track. But he finished 28th, 37 laps down.
Another incident involved points leader Clint Bowyer and his closest competitor Carl Edwards. Bowyer was coming down pit road and was to the right of Edwards when David Reutimann came out of his pit quickly, forcing Edwards to the right and into Bowyer, who in turn crashed into the pit road wall. Bowyer had to return to the pits to fix significant sheet-metal damage.
“This pit road’s just tight,” said Bowyer, who recovered to finish 10th while Edwards finished sixth. “I was on the outside of [Edwards], and [Reutimann] came out and just turned straight right, and went into him and he went into me. But that’s what this team’s about – they never give up and never quit digging. That’s what’s gonna win us a championship.”
Bowyer’s recovery – he started 22nd and was as far back as 20th with 80 laps to go – minimized the damage done to his points lead. He ended up surrendering just 19 points to Edwards, leaving him with a still-comfortable advantage of 186 points. However, Keselowski’s third-place finish brought him much closer to Edwards, leaving him just 62 points back.
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