Brad Keselowski Admits He Changed His Mind About Austin Dillon’s Nashville Incident
· Yahoo Sports
Brad Keselowski isn’t standing by his initial reaction to last weekend’s incident with Austin Dillon at Nashville Superspeedway.
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After leaving Nashville frustrated and openly questioning whether Dillon’s contact was intentional, Keselowski said Saturday at Michigan International Speedway that a deeper review of the incident led him to a different conclusion.
The RFK Racing driver said conversations with Dillon and a closer look at the available data helped him better understand what happened during the chain of events that ended his race.
“I looked through all the data and had some conversations with Austin,” Keselowski said. “There was a lot that happened in one really quick moment that, after having a chance to look at, made a lot more sense to me.”
The comments marked a noticeable shift from Keselowski’s immediate post-race frustration following the Cracker Barrel 400.
A Different View One Week Later
The incident unfolded during a chaotic restart sequence late in the race at Nashville.
Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford slammed the outside wall after contact from Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet, ending what had been a promising day for the 2012 Cup Series champion. In the hours after the race, emotions were understandably high, and questions quickly surfaced about whether the contact had been deliberate.
A week later, Keselowski no longer sees it that way.
Instead, he described a situation that looked much different after reviewing the evidence and discussing it directly with Dillon.
That conversation appears to have helped clear the air between two veteran drivers who have raced each other for more than a decade.
Austin Dillon Says He Reached Out
Dillon said he contacted Keselowski after the race and explained his side of the incident.
“I mean, I think he understood after I explained things to him that it wasn’t intentional,” Dillon said. “Things just happened, and it was quick and fast, and the apron at Nashville is not fun, and everybody that touched a rear bumper last weekend got turned, so just unfortunate events.”
Dillon also said he spoke with Keselowski’s longtime spotter, TJ Majors.
“I talked to TJ, too,” Dillon said. “He said, ‘After I took a day, I’m better.'”
The exchange appears to have brought closure to one of the more talked-about incidents from Nashville weekend.
Focus Shifts to Michigan
With NASCAR confirming earlier this week that no penalties would come from the incident, both drivers entered Michigan focused on moving forward rather than reliving what happened seven days ago.
For Keselowski, the timing is important.
The Michigan native returns to his home-state track still searching for his first victory of the season and looking to build momentum as the playoff race continues to tighten.
And after reviewing the evidence for himself, he no longer believes Nashville was a case of intentional contact.
Sometimes the view from inside the race car looks different than it does a week later.