It was nearly 3 a.m. ET when the Coke Zero 400 finally came to a close, and when the checkered flag waved at Daytona International Speedway, the No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion looked like a machine that had stayed up past its bedtime.
Brad Keselowski made fantastic moves to narrowly avoid two big wrecks early in the evening, but the third swallowed the black and yellow deuce, giving it major front-end damage and putting it off pace for the rest of the night. That forced Brad to settle for a P29 finish as he trailed the pack to the checkered flag. That where the fourth and most frightening crash of the night — one of the scariest in NASCAR history — occured and unfortunately, BK couldn’t avoid that incident, either.
As Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove his No. 88 machine across the star/finish line at Daytona for the race win, carnage unfolded in the pack behind him. The No. 11, which finished third took contact from behind and driver Denny Hamlin lost control of the machine. The car spun up into the path of the rest of the pack, hitting several other cars, including the No. 3 of Austin Dillon, which was sent flipping into the catch fence.
The No. 3 came crashing back down to the track upside down in a heap, but the wreckage wasn’t complete there. Though the Deuce was off the pace, the remnants of the incident covered the track and as BK tried to slow it down to navigate the wreckage, he too lost control of his car and went sliding into Dillon’s mangled machine, making hard impact before sliding to a stop. Brad climbed out of the damaged Deuce as quickly as he could to check on Dillon, who miraculously exited his horribly damaged vehicle and walked away unscathed, sustaining just a bruised forearm and tailbone.
“There was a big wreck and I was slowing down, but I must have hit some oil or something because I could not stop to avoid Austin and that looked pretty bad until I saw him get out of the car,” a relieved Brad said after the race. “I hope the fans are ok too.”
The catch fence was mangled after the violent crash, and five fans were injured as debris from Dillon’s No. 3 car flew into the stands. Four fans were treated at the infield care center, while another was transported to a local hospital and later released.
As often seems to be the case at the restrictor plate tracks, wreckage was the story of the weekend at Daytona. The Coke Zero 400, which had its Sunday night start delayed by nearly four hours due to rain, was laden with crashes throughout the event and featured nine cautions for 43 yellow-flag laps.
But the wreck-filled weekend began long before the Coke Zero 400 got underway late Sunday night and into the Monday morning hours. The scrap heap had already begun to pile up on Friday afternoon and it was littered with pieces of Black and Yellow Deuce.
During the weekend’s opening practice session on Friday, Brad had the Deuce running behind Kyle Busch when some aggressive moves from both competitors led to a practice pile-up. As the two were in a pack touring the track, the Deuce got a strong run on the 18 car. As BK dove to the bottom to try to get the No. 2 around the No. 18, Busch pulled off a block and Brad instead drove the Deuce into the back of the 18, causing a wreck that forced several teams to go to backup cars. Brad apologized for the incident afterward and talked about the give-and-take nature of group practice runs at restrictor plate tracks.
“I think we probably had some shared equity in what happened. I could have probably rolled out a little more than I did – because I did – and we probably could have raced each other with a little more room,” Brad said of the practice incident. “I flat out ran into the back of him. It’s just a bummer to see cars get torn up. Nobody has any fun with that. I know these crew guys, it’s Daytona, it’s July and it’s 100 degrees out, they’re not enjoying working on a backup car. This stinks.”
That incident had lingering effects on Brad’s weekend. Because his practice run was cut short, he posted just the 33rd-fastest time during the session. After qualifying was rained out on Saturday, the field was set based on those practice times, so P33 is where the No. 2 began the Coke Zero 400 on Sunday.
Rain continued to be an issue on Sunday evening. As a result, the green flag, which was originally slated for 8:08 p.m. ET, was pushed back to 11:42 p.m. ET.
Another issue came once the track was dried, as the Deuce’s steering wheel began malfunctioning. The issue was so bad it forced Brad to head back down pit road for a replacement. When the race finally began, BK wasted little time making up ground. In just four laps, he carved his way from 33rd to 10th—and the moves he made allowed him to avoid the evening’s first big wreck, which damaged 10 cars in total, including Team Penske’s Joey Logano.
He restarted 10th on lap nine and from there moved into the outside line and took the Alliance Truck Parts Ford to fifth place by lap 12. At that point he trailed only the four Hendrick Motorsports cars of Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon.
Brad did what he could to usurp the Hendrick foursome, as he tried to form a new outside line along with Jamie McMurray in the No. 1 among others.
As the green flag run wore on and the clock struck past midnight, BK tried to make the bottom drafting line work with help from Landon Cassill in the No. 40, but it was all to no avail, and the Deuce actually slid back to 16th before the competition caution at lap 25. During this caution period, Kes had to make a second trip down pit road to repair some slight right-front fender damage on the No. 2 Ford, possibly sustained as a result of debris from the race’s first wreck.
He restarted 34th on lap 31, but quickly weaved his way back into the Top 15 in just a few laps, using the middle and bottom lines during three-wide racing back in the pack. He lingered around the Top 15 until a spinout by the No. 19 of Carl Edwards brought out the third caution of the day at lap 53. The leaders used this yellow to make a trip down pit road and Brad entered in 12th, but the No. 2 crew opted for two tires, and the Deuce restarted in P9 at lap 58.
On the ensuing run, Brad had his first near-miss of the night. He had the Black and Yellow Deuce running around the fringe of the Top 10 at Lap 85 when Kyle Larson’s No. 42 spun out, showering the No. 2 with sparks. The No. 19 of Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse Jr’s 17 car and the No. 33 of Brian Scott were all involved in the ensuing carnage, however BK skirted through the wreck by the skin of his teeth to keep his evening alive.
Following Brad’s wonderful save, several caution laps were needed to clear up the debris from the multi-car incident.
The Deuce restarted in 13th position at lap 93 and was pushing his way into the Top 10 when yet another big crash occurred in front of him, primarily involving the No. 20 of Matt Kenseth and Kahne’s No. 5 car. This time, there was no place for BK to go and the helpless Deuce suffered a crushing blow as the incident unfolded.
The field was exiting Turn 4, when air off the front of Kahne’s No. 5 sent Kenseth’s No. 20 spinning. The two shot up into the wall and Brad was stuck, sandwiched between them. Several other cars were involved, and the No. 2 sustained some debilitating front-end damage.
“That was a tough race, we managed to make it through the first two wrecks unscathed, but the third one caught us,” Brad said. “After we had been wrecked, I was just out there doing my best to log laps, avoid any more contact and stay out of the way. We almost made it too – right until we crossed the finish line.”
During the ensuing caution period, Kes drove the Alliance Truck Parts Ford to the garage, where the 2 Crew did what they could to salvage its machine. The team eventually elected to put the car back out on the track just three laps down, but it could not keep pace or hold the lead draft. For the remainder of the night, Brad tried to keep out of the way of the rest of the field as he turned laps to finish the night. He did so successfully until just after the checkered flag.
While Earnhardt Jr. crossed for the win, Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 made contact with the rear of Hamlin’s No. 11, which went for spin. With Hamlin helpless, the out of control 11 spun back up the track and smacked the left side of the No. 3, sending it airborne into the catchfence. Nearly the entire field caught some part of the wreck, including Brad, who was coming in behind the back, well off the pace. As he tried to brake and navigate the No. 2 through all the wreckage, which included plenty of oil on the track, it spun and slid directly into the upended No. 3 of Dillon.
Crew members from several teams, including Earnhardt Jr’s victorious crew, sprinted out to check on both Dillon and Brad. Kes emerged unhurt, and walked toward Dillon’s car, just in time to see the young driver crawl out and wave to the fans, much to the relief of BK and everyone else at Daytona International Speedway.
Wow, saw @austindillon3 wreck, smoothly slowed down and the car instantly spun out. So glad he is ok.
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) July 6, 2015
Brad ended the evening with a 29th-place finish, which dropped him to seventh in the NSCS points standings and he remains seventh in the Chase Grid.
NEXT UP
The Sprint Cup Series now heads to one of Brad’s best tracks, Kentucky Speedway, where he’ll look to end his recent string of bad luck.
Kes has been dominant in the Cup Series at the 1.5-mile tri-oval. The track only began hosting NSCS events in 2011, and in four races this far, Brad has two wins and three Top 10 finishes. He won the pole and dominated the race last year, leading 199 miles en-route to his second victory of the season. That win sent him on a fantastic late-season run.
He’ll look to replicate that when the Quaker State 400 goes green on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. ET. Race coverage will begin at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Network.