	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NASCAR CUP SERIES: XFINITY 500

November 1, 2020

Brad Keselowski

Ridgeway, Virginia

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Championship 4 driver Brad Keselowski.
We'll get right into questions here for you.

Q. Earlier this season you called this silently one of your best seasons of your career. Going into the Championship 4, do you still feel that to be the case?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, absolutely. Got four wins this year. Making the Championship 4 is a big deal. Credit to Team Penske for that, for having two cars in it, Joey and myself. The way Blaney ran the tonight, shows he's one of the best drivers out there, too. Could easily have been in the Championship 4 if some things would have gone his way.
Wow, it was a long night, right (laughter)? I thought we were one of the best cars at the end of the race, if not the best car. Was just a little disappointed in the speeding penalty. I'm still not sure I understand it. I didn't feel like I was speeding.
Either way, great finish for us. I'm really proud of everybody.

Q. How worried were you about Harvick making a charge there on the last lap?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Oh, very worried.
Sorry, Roger is calling me (laughter).

Q. Bigger name on the other line.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: I'll call him right back, if you're watching, Mr. Penske (laughter).
Anyway, he did a great job (indiscernible) so hard to pass cars (indiscernible).
THE MODERATOR: Brad, I think we lost you. It was about half an answer. Would you mind going through that again because you were breaking up significantly.

Q. Just take me through what was going through your mind over the closing laps. You're getting information, Harvick is getting information, closing in on you.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Yeah, well, I passed him to gain the seven spots I needed. It was just a matter of I knew he had some teammates in front of him that helped him out a little bit. It was very close. There's just only so much I can do about him. I was trying to focus on just myself. Of course, I wanted to know, right?

Q. We've been going through this Playoff system since 2014. Here we have the guy that has the most wins throughout the season not there fighting for the championship. Do you see anything wrong with that?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Well, I've been there, too. I won six races in 2014, didn't make the Championship 4. Most of anybody the entire year. I'll tell you, it stings. I feel for Kevin because I've been there.
The format is what the format is. It's our job to decide the format, it's our job to race the format.

Q. With the Championship 4 set, is there one driver you see as the biggest threat? If so, why?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: I mean, no. I think all of us are pretty evenly matched going into Phoenix. Denny has had some good runs there, Chase has had some good runs there. Joey won last spring. We've been so good on that type of track this season. I think it's about as even matched as it's going to get.

Q. Was that nerveâ€‘wracking? When you're in the moment, are you just: I need to get this, if I don't, I don't?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: You're just trying to control what you can control. I can't control the 4 car. I can't control those other guys. All I can do is really run my own race. That's what I was trying to do, is run my own race, not get ourselves in any trouble by overthinking it.
I definitely can't control the 4 car, the 11 car. I knew it was really close with all of us. But, whew, I hope you guys had fun. It was a hell of a race.

Q. You seemed a little bit surprised that you got a speeding penalty. Do you think your lights were off?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: No, I just think something didn't add up there. Being in the first stall, I shouldn't be able to speed the first or last segment on the racetrack. I wasn't even up to speed.
It's tough because on these rounded corner pit roads you don't have to be at full speed to be speeding because of the way the math is figured out. It's a time thing, not an actual speed. I'm going to have to take a look at it.

Q. When you guys incurred that speeding penalty, it would cause a lot of lesser teams to cringe, make excuses. You were back to a great finish and advancement. How proud are you of the resiliency that this No. 2 squad has displayed all season long?
BRAD KESELOWSKI: That was some resiliency. That was certainly some resiliency for sure to make it through a moment like that. I mean, talk about back up against the wall. Oh, my gosh. That's as backed up against the wall as you can get.
I just drove the best race I could drive and the team did the best they could do with the remaining pit stops and we were back at it.
THE MODERATOR: Brad, thanks for taking the time to join us. Congratulations on the Championship 4 berth. We'll see you at Phoenix.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: Thank you, everybody.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297