No block on Keselowski, but he still wrecks

Brad Keselowski wrecked out of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona before the end of the second stage and it had nothing to do with blocking.

“That would feel really good for some people on Twitter,” laughed Keselowski.

Keselowski was hit in the bumper by Kevin Harvick on the frontstretch going toward Turn 1. The contact shot Keselowski into the outside wall as Daniel Suarez, David Ragan, Joey Logano, and Daniel Hemric were collected in the aftermath.

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“It looked like Kevin was trying to give me a really good push, just didn’t have enough grip and I lost it,” said Keselowski. “He hit me pretty square -- I don’t know, it just was gone. It’s unfortunate, but we were fighting really hard … the first stage went really well.

“All the Fords worked together really and the Chevies just had so much strength when they got to the front we couldn’t do anything with them.

Five Fords were involved in the accident.

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“We just don’t right now have the speed that I think the Toyotas and Chevys do on the plate tracks,” said Keselowski said of the teamwork. “And we’ve been on the other side of that too where we were faster than them and able to dominate these races. Just part of the cycle.”

“We have to work together if we’re going to keep up with those other guys,” he continued. “They can run just a tenth or two faster than we can, and our only shot is really to be a band of brothers. I thought the Ford guys did a pretty good job of trying to do that it, just didn’t work out.”

On Thursday in final practice Keselowski became the story of the weekend when he spun William Byron. Afterward, Keselowski said it was to send a message to the field that he’s not lifting when the competition blocks.

The Team Penske driver’s frustration is that he has watched the end of too many superspeedway races from the garage because in being courteous to his fellow drivers he was the one wrecked. In the Daytona summer race one year ago Keselowski was spun by from behind when he avoided hitting Byron, who came back down to the bottom lane.

Sunday will be Keselowski’s fifth DNF in his last six Daytona races.

“I thought it was really good racing from what I could tell,” said Keselowski. “Can’t say I saw it all but that was really good racing.”