Brad Keselowski talks about fiery test crash at Watkins Glen
By Ted Fleming
Driver of No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion escaped serious injury after a rear brakes failure which forced him to cancel a Facebook Live session.
When Brad Keselowski took to the Watkins Glen International track for testing on Tuesday, little did he know that he was headed for potential disaster in advance of next week’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen.
In the first day of a two-day organizational test ahead of the Aug. 7 road course event, Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford was involved in a fiery crash after his rear brakes failed sending his car head first into a tire-pack barrier. He had just hit a top speed of 124.6 mph when he said the brake pedal “went to the floor.” He escaped serious injury after his car burst into flames.
“There was an installation error with the brakes,” Keselowski said at a media session at Pocono Raceway, as he prepares for Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500. “The brake line wasn’t installed in the proper way and it broke.”
The 32-year old Michigan native is never comfortable at road courses because of the inherent danger they present, although he did address the tire barriers most of these tracks have.
“Am I comfortable with the tire barrier? I understand the whole tire barrier concept,” he said. “In general, I’m not comfortable with tracks that have run offs that lead to very harsh angles, and that’s certainly the situation that that track has, and always has had it. Road courses remain the most dangerous tracks in motorsports for a good reason because of that, but we know that going in.
“Some place has to be the safest and some place has to be the most dangerous. It’s funny because a lot of times we end up talking about Daytona and Talladega and they don’t ever worry me as much as road courses do, I can promise you that. But I guess from a tire barrier perspective taking out the angles, yeah tire barriers or SAFER barriers it’s kind of a wash to me on those types of tracks.”
Unfortunately road courses are not just for NASCAR as other racing series use them and there are limitations as to what can be done.
One of the reasons Keselowski believes he was able to avoid injury was because of the safety enhancements made to the cars over the years including the reinforcement of floors and how seats are made.
“I think we went through, at least with Team Penske, a complete safety overhaul from the pedals being redesigned to hopefully not break my feet, which they didn’t and that was great. The floorboard is redesigned with a completely new style of carbon fiber and I’m trying to think of the right term there – but composite materials. The seat, we helped a company design a new seat from that time, which I think there are a handful of teams in the garage that are running it that we feel is significantly safer.”
Keselowski gave props to former NASCAR driver and road course specialist Mac Papis for helping to design a new steering wheel that is meant to absorb energy. Add to that shifter, helmet and seatbelt redesigns.
“I got lucky that I didn’t get too much of it, so in general I would say that I’m fairly pleased.”
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