Brad Keselowski had one of the fastest cars in Sunday's The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway. In a race that was difficult to pass, Keselowski, who eventually finished ninth, worked his way up through the field multiple times and appeared to have race-winning pace.
Following a caution for Bubba Wallace on Lap 57 of the 160-lap race, Keselowski came down pit road as the leader. The only problem was that pit road was still closed, which forced the 2012 Cup Series champion to lose his track position and restart at the tail of the field.
2014 Cup Series champion and FOX analyst Kevin Harvick weighed in on the pit road gaffe from Keselowski and the No. 6 team during a recent episode of his Happy Hour podcast. Harvick simply put the blame on the entire team when assessing how everything played out.
"To me, this is just a failure on everybody's part," Harvick said. "I mean, you can blame it on the spotter, you can blame it on the driver, you can blame it on the crew chief. Whoever you want to blame it on, just take your choice."
It is apparent from Keselowski's radio communication that he was told pit road was not open from his spotter TJ Majors, but still came down pit road while it was closed, much to the surprise of some of his competitors.
That was not the only thing that Kevin Harvick voiced his opinion on
While Keselowski was able to recover from the pit road mishap earlier in the race, that was not the end of his troubles. During the final green-flag pit sequence, Keselowsk made the call to stay on track one lap longer than his team suggested. Mexico City winner Shane van Gisbergen spun off Turn 1 with 36 laps to go, which delivered another setback for the Cup Series veteran and more reaction from Harvick.
"I think this is, and I've had to learn this lesson and go down this road before too, when you want to become overly involved from the driver's seat into the strategy and you don't know all the calculations and numbers... yeah, I think that's an error on Brad's part to get involved in that," Harvick said. "It definitely hurt them in this particular situation. But as I went through the last 10 years of my career, I never got involved in the strategy at all. Don't have the computers, don't have anything to go along with what is happening."
It is important to keep in mind that Keselowski has an unusual role as driver and co-owner of the team, so perhaps that played a factor as well. Nevertheless, Harvick did not agree with Keselowski's decision from behind the wheel.
"I think this is where, when you talk about my generation of guys, and you say, 'Ok, what has changed with how today's NASCAR world works?'" Harvick said. "Driver needs to butt out. Driver needs to butt out of the strategy. Once you buckle into the car, you're the driver if you want to get the most success out of it, in my opinion."
What makes matters worse for Keselowski is he currently sits 31st in the playoff standings and in need of a win to make the playoffs. For some drivers, the mistakes he made on Sunday would not be as costly in the grand scheme of things, but for Keselowski, being unable to take advantage of one of the best cars in the field up to that point is likely what played a role in the final stage decision to stay on track.
The decision ultimately backfired on him, combined with the bizarre pit road moment from earlier in the race. With nine races remaining before the playoffs, Keselowski at least knows he has to win a race. If he and the team can put a mistake-free race together, they clearly have the speed. It is just about executing from the drop of the green flag and putting a full race together, which they are more than capable of doing.