NASCAR pit crew survives ugly crash

Brad Keselowski finished second to Matt Kenseth in Sunday’s Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway, but that didn’t stand out almost as much as him hitting two crewmen when he overran his pit stall on Lap 62 of of the 160-lap event.

It was a scary moment for all involved, especially the crew member carrying the jack.

It could have been a disaster as front tire carrier Jeremy Ogles rolled up onto Keselowski’s hood and onto the windshield and jackman Braxton Brannon was sent somersaulting next to the driver’s window. As a result, Keselowski was assessed a penalty for an uncontrollable tire.

Keselowski’s brakes locked up, so he couldn’t stop the auto from overshooting the stall, but he was penalized for causing the tire to roll across the track and requiring the caution flag.

“What it takes to get to pit road when you’re at full speed and when you’re at pit road speed are two different things”.

“Just glad we were able to rally to second”. “Everybody OK?” Keselowski radioed to the crew after the stop.

Oddly enough, Keselowski credited the work done on the problem pit stop to making his No. 2 Ford perform better in the second half of the race.

When the race restarted on Lap 66 of 160, Keselowski was 37th, one lap down to the leaders. “It was really, really fast from there”, Keselowski said.

While it appeared the race was securely in the hands of his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, fuel mileage came into play in the final laps of the race as the leaders ran out of gas one by one.

“It’s frustrating not being able to go to Victory Lane but it is good to run this well”, he said.