Charlotte Motor Speedway Crossword

Brad Keselowski was completely, and terribly disrespected on Saturday afternoon during the Kentucky Lottery 300. Running up front all day, with a win in his sights, he was flat out wrecked. Turned into the outside wall on the last lap, Kyle Busch ruined Brad and the team’s day for no good reason at all.

It is no secret that Keselowski has had his run ins with Kyle Busch in the past. Remember the Bristol intros a few years back? But I, among many others (including Brad), thought those days were long gone. Kyle Busch, with one move, has lit a fire in the NASCAR nation, not only between himself and BK, but between the 2 and 18 fans throughout North America.

I have not seen social media blow up as much as it did Saturday afternoon in a very long time. There was more anger, rage and people down right ticked off than there were happy go lucky people, that’s for sure. From an 18 fan I know down in Alabama all the way up to me here in Ontario Canada, we were fired up. I for one definitely lost my cool, but to be honest, I don’t feel bad about it one bit. My driver was treated horribly for no reason, the driver who took him out denied the entire incident, so yes, I was mad. The media obviously loved this whole deal, but in my opinion most media members (while suppose to act non-biased) seemed to be on Brad’s side.  

Kyle shared post-race (after hearing Brad Keselowski’s comments of being wrecked by a dirty driver):

“Brad Keselowski knows what dirty drivers are because he’s done it plenty of times. I have yet to wreck a person on purpose.”

I’m sorry: What?

That was the statement that I completely lost my cool at. Clearly, someone has memory loss, and the whole Ron Hornaday incident never crossed his mind (among many many other incidents). Kyle claimed he was the “bigger man” and much classier than Brad. I don’t really understand how intentionally wrecking someone would translate into you being a “classy driver.” We all know who Kyle Busch is — he’s Rowdy, Wild Thing– but we also all thought we were seeing a “new” Kyle Busch this season. I guess we were wrong. He’s the same driver we all know and love to hate.

This whole situation is just incredible to me. Brad was wrecked for second place. Not first place — second place. Granted, the 22 and 54 are fighting against each other in NNS owner points, and the No. 18 of Matt Kenseth was bound to run out of fuel, which would possibly give the win to Brad, but it’s still a Nationwide race. We love seeing the passion and hard racing from drivers, but no one likes dirty driving. And that is exactly what we saw Saturday afternoon: dirty driving by Kyle Busch.

So what does this mean going forward? Brad gave us a look into the future after the race. He was asked if this incident would carry over into the Cup series, and replied, “(Freak) yeah it will!” Thank goodness. I knew Brad wasn’t going to just shrug this off. He may not have gotten even on Sunday during the Cup race, but like I have always said: Brad files incidents like this away. When he has been done wrong, he never forgets it.

Kyle Busch will be in every Nationwide Series race until the end of the year, while Brad will be sharing his seat with Joey Logano. But you can bet when Brad is in the seat of the No. 22 Discount Tire Mustang, there will be something to watch out for. He will wait until the perfect moment to teach Kyle Busch a lesson. I cannot wait for that moment. Brad isn’t scheduled to be in any more truck races, but you never know: there’s a little more than a month left, which may give the BKR team time to field a third entry for him to try his hand at another truck race.

Whichever series Brad is running in, everyone including me will be on their feet waiting for the moment the score is evened.