For Keselowski, the one destructive lasting impact from the race – which was unexpectedly dominated by tire put on and tire administration technique – was smoldering stays of tire burning on his No. 6 Ford when the race ended.
Like many, Keselowski was pushing his tires to the restrict on the ultimate roughly 50-lap run after a spherical of inexperienced flag pit stops. He managed to stay one of many 5 automobiles on the lead lap and captured a season’s greatest third place end.
“We simply sort of ran high 5 just about the entire race and stored them sincere. I bought bumped into on a kind of pit warning cycles. That did a little bit injury to the entrance finish, in any other case I believe I might have had a shot to win it as we speak, however nonetheless strong to return dwelling third,” Keselowski stated.
Corded Goodyear tires after a number of laps
Picture by: Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Photographs
“It was an attention-grabbing day. There was a whole lot of self-discipline required and it was a enjoyable race, to be sincere, since you simply needed to be so good behind the wheel.
“It might chew you in a heartbeat and also you needed to have an excellent set-up. I believe we had an excellent set-up and tried to run the neatest race I might.”
Sunday’s race turned out to be a totally completely different affair with tires than final fall. Though Goodyear introduced the identical tire mixture to this race, the tire fall-off laid no rubber on the monitor, which resulted in unusually extreme tire put on.
Halfway by means of the race, NASCAR allowed Goodyear to supply groups with one further set of tires however with many groups solely capable of go between 47-50 laps earlier than creating issues, that massive adjustments to the tempo of the race and pit technique.
Veterans rising to the highest
That recipe tended to favor the game’s most veteran drivers, who not coincidently, completed 1-2-3 with Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. forward of Keselowski.
“It’s laborious. I simply want the entire race would have been like the top the place we simply ran and we didn’t throw yellows as a result of we have been in a very great spot for that, however, both means, we had an excellent automotive.
“We ran actually strong and got here away with a fantastic end and a ton of factors. It’s the sort of weekend the place we really feel like we will come again right here within the fall and win.”
Keselowski stated it had been fairly a while since he remembered tire dialog enjoying as massive a job in a race because it did on Sunday.
Requested if he wish to see extra races like that, he stated, “I assumed it was enjoyable. It’s completely different. Selection is the spice of life.”
