Brad Keselowski and the #6 team are having a tough year on the pit road. After the speeding penalty in Nashville a few weeks ago, they dropped the ball big time at Pocono Raceway. After cycling out to the front due to caution on lap 55, Keselowski decided to opt for fresh rubber on his car, despite the pit lane being closed. Keselowski had no clue about the fumble until he rolled onto this spot, and the next thing you know, officials sent him to the rear of the field. What could’ve been a solid points day got restricted to just a top 10 finish.
Interestingly, Denny Hamlin and Carson Hocevar were with Keselowski, faking to head towards the pit lane. Hocevar was the one who even boasted about luring the veteran driver into the trap. “Yeah, I know. I wanted to bait him. I didn’t want him to have him realize the mistake.” Although Chase Briscoe won his first race, this mishap by Brad Keselowski’s team has become a hot topic of discussion, and Hamlin has now shared his take on the incident.
Denny Hamlin thinks Brad Keselowski could’ve avoided the Pocono fumble
“The pace car has really bright lights on the back of it and when it’s closed, they are red and they are flashing. I thought he was trying to bait one of us into going to Pit Lane. But I knew the whole time it was closed, obviously.” The balance between trusting crew communications and observing mandatory signals falls squarely on the driver. Hamlin emphasized, “Your team’s job is to relay pit-road open or closed, but you’ve got to look at them. They give me two points of reference. The pace car… flashing red… it never flashes anything but red. It’s on the driver.”
Keselowski himself acknowledged, “I didn’t check the crew chief and the spotter, and that’s my fault,” reflecting the rulebook’s insistence that while teams guide the strategy, the driver bears final responsibility when the pit-road light remains red under caution. But what was more shocking was that Keselowski’s spotter, TJ Majors, and his crew chief, Jeremy Bullins, didn’t alert their driver.
Hamlin felt Keselowski was trying to play a trick on him, “I thought he was trying to bait one of us and then he steers off and catches us, Hahaha, tricked you guys. And that time I steer down there like I’m going. I knew that whole time it was closed, obviously. I see these bright lights flashing red, so I’m like, surely six is gonna swerve off. Nope, he’s not. I’m like, What the hell is going on?”
July 17, 2023, Loudon, NH, United States of America: NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Driver Brad Keselowski 6 and crew make a pit stop for the Crayon 301 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon NH. Loudon United States of America – ZUMAa161 20230717_zaa_a161_009 Copyright: xWalterxG.xArcexSr.x
Hocevar had all the reason to take Keselowski down, as he would have one driver less to compete with for the playoffs. And the veteran RFK Racing driver took the bait. It was a rookie-like mistake, which isn’t expected from an experienced campaigner like Brad Keselowski, and for Hamlin, this fumble wasn’t a team mishap; rather, he singled out the driver. “He’s right behind the pace car, and it’s flashing red, and it never flashed anything but red, so it’s on the driver.”
Jeremy Bullins breaks down Keselowski’s Pocono pit-road misstep
In his SiriusXM radio interview, Jeremy Bullins laid bare how routine pit strategy can unravel under pressure. “So when I’m talking to Brad, I kind of took for granted that TJ can see the light and hear NASCAR… it just wound up being a miscommunication. He thought he heard it was open. I never heard anything.” At Pocono, pit road remained closed for three laps after the yellow, a nuance that even experienced crews must monitor closely under NASCAR’s rule that pit entry closes immediately when caution drops, signaled by flashing red lights.
Bullins had called for fresh tires to exploit clean air, a standard move when leading, but the convergence of spotter assumptions and unexpected timing turned that call into a misstep. His frank admission highlights how split-second judgments, relying on radio chatter and lights, can diverge, reminding everyone that even veteran teams can be susceptible when track quirks and competitor behavior collide.
Bullins didn’t shy away from responsibility. “At that point you’re waiting on NASCAR to tell you have a penalty… it seems unfortunate we had a great day going really put us in a bad spot. But it’s something we can clean up on our end… TJ and I checking off with each other because… we can’t let that happen.”
With every passing weekend, mistakes like these make things tricky for Brad Keselowski in his bid to reach the playoffs.
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