DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — While Riley Herbst was draped in praise by Michael Jordan and Tyler Reddick for his role in helping push Reddick, his 23XI Racing teammate, to the win in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500, the actions that Herbst took after executing the race-winning shove weren’t well-received by Brad Keselowski.
As Reddick approached Chase Elliott, who was the leader of the race off of Turn 4, Reddick turned hard left to the inside of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. It was at this point that Herbst chose to then make the move that best gave himself a chance to win the race, and he swerved right to the outside of Elliott.
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As the two 23XI Racing cars split Elliott’s No. 9 car, Reddick would gain the lead. It didn’t work out as well for Herbst, who collided with Keselowski’s No. 6 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse, which was positioned to the outside of Herbst. The two drivers would go into the outside wall, and Herbst would shoot hard-left off the wall and directly into the right-rear quarterpanel of Elliott.
What ensued was a bunch of smoke, a lot of sparks, and scattering parts and pieces. And what emerged from the infield care center was an unhappy Keselowski.
Keselowski called the move that Herbst made to try to block him coming to the finish line, one of the dumbest things he’s ever seen.
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“Oh [Herbst] just wrecked me out of nowhere for no reason,” Keselowski said. “That was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. He had no chance at blocking my run.”
Keselowski continued, “I had a huge run. I don’t know if I could have got [Tyler Reddick] or [Ricky Stenhouse Jr.], but I would have liked to find out because my run was coming fast. And [Herbst] just wrecked us and himself. Pretty Stupid.”
After the race, Herbst understood and expected that Keselowski would probably not be happy with how the run to the checkered flag played out, but he says it was a slight misjudgment while trying to win te sport’s biggest race.
“I mean, it’s fractions of a second, and we’re trying to win the Daytona 500,” Herbst said in a post-race interview with Bob Pockrass. “Brad’s been trying to win [for 17 years]. So, yeah, he’ll tell you it’s a matter of inches, and we were on the wrong side of inches.”
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With Keselowski utilizing a cane during Speedweeks, as he continues to try to physically recover from his offseason broken leg, suffered during a family ski trip, there were questions coming into the race weekend about how he would be able to handle being behind the wheel for a 500-mile race.
In his first race back, Keselowski was pleased with how his leg held up in the car.
“Great. I Feel really good,” Keselowski said. “Race went really well, I felt really well in the car and kind of crashed at the end, and couldn’t even feel it. So, pretty good.”
When asked if walking away from his first post-injury crash unscathed helps build his confidence in his leg, Keselowski responded, “Yeah, absolutely.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Brad Keselowski Critical Of Riley Herbst After Daytona 500 Finish.
