Brad Keselowski saw Bubba Wallace use a block to defend his lead and had a path around him but thought he had more time.
Instead, a four-car crash on Lap 117 of the scheduled 188 laps of Monday’s rain-delayed race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway brought out a caution, locking Keselowski into second place.
The rain returned soon after the caution was displayed, and NASCAR called the race off. Because there was not enough time to dry the track before darkness, the race was declared official because it had already passed the halfway point.
That left Bubba Wallace with his first career Cup Series win and Keselowski as runner-up, lamenting his choice to delay an effort to pass Wallace for the lead.
“Gosh, if I would have known it was going to rain right then, I had a move I could have made and I was like, ‘No we’ve got five laps in the stage left, I don’t want to burn that move yet,’ ” Keselowski said. “Then it rains and I kind of feel like I let one slip away here.
“We were really close to making a move on Bubba to win the stage and the race, but I didn’t need that rain. I needed another two or three laps.”
Throughout the shortened race, Keselowski had performed admirably. He led 13 laps, second only to Kevin Harvick’s 16 in the race, and consistently put himself in position to challenge for the lead.
Wallace had neatly blocked a Keselowski move just before the final caution.
“You never count out the Penske cars,” Wallace said. “We talk about them in our Monday and Tuesday meetings. Those guys make it work and there’s a reason why they win the races.
“Knowing we had to defend them. Freddie (Kraft, Wallace’s spotter) did a hell of a job on top of the roof. So proud of him. We just made the right moves and it worked out.”
Keselowski’s second-place finish hurt, but it still puts him in a solid position for the final race of the second round of the playoffs on the Charlotte Roval next Sunday.
Keselowski is now ranked fourth in the standings, 20 points ahead of the cutoff line. Following the race at the Roval, the bottom four in the standings without a win will be eliminated from further playoff contention.
“All in all, it’s still a great day,” he said. “We scored a lot of stage points, which is really positive and put ourselves in a good position next week to go to the Roval.
“We put ourselves in position to not have to go to the Roval and have a ‘hero’ day. We can have just a solid day.”
When asked what his initial thoughts were on heading to the Roval next week — the only road course in the Cup playoffs – Keselowski replied: “A tough race for us. Road courses have been really tough, but thankfully, we don’t have to go there and win.”
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