Iowa's yellow flags derail Brad Keselowski's chances to win, earn playoff spot

NBC Sports

a day ago

NEWTON, Iowa — The radio chatter between Brad Keselowski and crew chief Jeremy Bullins was lengthy at times during Sunday's Cup race at Iowa Speedway, but twice Keselowski finished their talks about strategy with succinct messages.
'Be aggressive, buddy,' Keselowski told Bullins at Lap 212 of the 350-lap race when Keselowski said he was fine with not pitting then.
'Jeremy, don't take this the wrong way,' Keselowski said during a caution at Lap 255, 'but I don't want to see you again.'
Bullins, also noting he preferred not to pit then, responded: 'I'd prefer not to see you until this is over.'
When they did see each other, it was after a chaotic race that saw seven cautions in the final stage, turning the event upside down.
While Keselowski finished third — his third consecutive top-10 finish and fifth in the last seven races — it wasn't the victory he wanted. Or needed to make the playoffs with only three races left in the regular season.
'It's frustrating not to win,' Keselowski said in response to a question from NBC Sports, 'but I'm not frustrated at my team. I'm frustrated that we didn't catch the breaks we needed.'
Instead, it was William Byron — who has twice run out of fuel at the end of races this summer — stretching his fuel to score his first victory since the Daytona 500.
Nate Ryan,
Yet, earlier in the race Byron was among those who were a lap down when a caution came out in the middle of a pit cycle. Byron was the first car a lap down and got the free pass. Then the series of cautions in the final stage put him on a trajectory to victory.
Keselowski had one of the best cars, but not the fortune.
He was told at Lap 204 that the team did not get as much fuel in the car as they wanted during a pit stop at Lap 172. That meant that Keselowski could only go to about Lap 250 — instead of at least another 20-25 laps.
The discussion tuned to when to pit. Keselowski, who was leading, didn't want to give up track position. Passing was difficult. Once trapped in traffic, it was hard to emerge.
So Keselowski stayed out until a caution for Zane Smith's accident and came to pit road at Lap 231. Keselowski was 26th before the restart.
There would be five more cautions over the final 119 laps. Those cautions allowed others to make it to the finish on fuel, nullifying the advantage Keselowski had.
'Every yellow was bad for us,' Keselowski said. 'You get frustrated at the field for wrecking so much.'
While under caution at Lap 273 for Ty Dillon's spin — the fourth caution in a 30-lap window —an annoyed Keselowski said on the radio: 'It would be nice to get to race here.'
Byron took the lead on the ensuing restart and led the final 74 laps, while Keselowski chased him.
After scoring no top-10 finishes in the first 12 races of the season, Keselowski has seven in the last 11 races.
'I wished things would have gone a little differently and we could have got the win, because, obviously we need it to get in the playoffs, but we've been capable of this all year,' Bullins said. ' … It's all starting to come together. There's no doubt in my mind that this team can win races and we're not done yet.'
When the race was over, there wasn't much more for Keselowski to say.
'I know it stinks not to win,' he told his team on the radio. 'We did all the things we could do. It just didn't come to us.'
Three-wide racing leads to a pair of spins and hot tempers during Stage 3 at Iowa Speedway.