“We finally caught a break”: Brad Keselowski relieved to win in NASCAR after 3 years

There was a lot for Brad Keselowski to celebrate after he won the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. The driver of the number 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse was relieved to win his first race in three years and also the first since he left Team Penske and became a part-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

Keselowski called it a ‘golden race’ and felt utterly sorry for the fans who had missed it. In a sport where everything needs to turn out well, Keselowski lauded his team for setting up a blazing-fast car, executing perfect pit stops, and conjuring the best-suited strategy to stay up front and win the race.

In an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR radio, Keselowski explained how important the victory was for him and his team.

He said,

“I felt like we've finally caught a break. We've been catching enough bad breaks that kept us from wins; it's nice to catch a good one.”

With just 10 laps to go till the checkered flag, Keselowski's teammate Chris Buescher and 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick got into each other while battling for the lead. Right then, the Ford driver saw his window of opportunity and capitalized on it. Emerging victorious out of the rumble, the 2012 Cup Series champion said with a big smile on his face,

“I felt all along that this has been a good team; we just weren't getting the results. Some of it was in our control, some of it was not in our control. This one we took the bull by the horns and made it happen.”

Brad Keselowski's car proved better despite Reddick's dominant ride

Keselowski's car was incredibly fast in the long run. But Reddick dominated the short runs. With 41 laps to go, Kyle Larson got a flat left-rear tire and crashed into the safety barrier. That incident brought a caution out, which was the cue for Keselowski's team to perform a pit stop. But it wasn't just Keselowski who did that.

Reddick too committed to the pit road and by virtue of the number 1 pit stall that he had earned as the pole sitter, he grabbed the lead. But the drama had just begun. With 30 laps till the start-to-finish line, Keselowski tried to stay to the inside of Reddick and in an attempt to do so, nudged him into the wall coming off of turn 4. Right then, a fast-charging Chris Buescher made a risky three-wide pass and grabbed the lead, pushing the other two behind him.

Unfortunately for Buescher, Reddick veered into him and took down both of them while trying to make a decisive pass in the final moments of the race. Keselowski was closely tailing them and it didn't take him long to realize his silver lining.

Nevertheless, Keselowski did realize how frustrating it could have been for Buescher, who missed out on the chance to win twice in a row. However, he still encouraged him to come back stronger next week. The only advice that Keselowski had for his teammate was,

“Just keep being Chris. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”