Keselowski makes case for TV impartiality after Gordon’s comments
Brad Keselowski certainly has an interesting case for having independent voices involved in NASCAR’s television coverage.
Keselowski finished third in Monday’s race at Pocono after he got an early-race penalty after his crew was caught denting the right side of his car during a pit stop. NASCAR has cracked down on teams slamming the sides of the cars to create more aerodynamic side-force to help with corner speed.
[Related: Kurt Busch wins at Pocono]
As the race progressed, the NASCAR on Fox booth consisting of former drivers Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip and play-by-play announcer Mike Joy referenced Keselowski’s win at Las Vegas where the broadcast had footage of a crew member doing something similar. Keselowski didn’t get a penalty at Vegas.
“That’s because Jeff Gordon is in the booth,” Keselowski told reporters (via USA Today) of the reference to the Las Vegas pit stop. “They need to get some people in the booth who aren’t inbred to the sport and own teams and have internal knowledge, because that’s pretty crappy. But it is what it is.”
As you likely know, Gordon and Keselowski famously had an incident at Texas in 2014 while racing for the race win and a potential spot in the final round of the Chase at Homestead. Contact from Keselowski cut Gordon’s tire and Gordon went spinning. Neither driver made the final round and (most memorably) the two drivers and crews were involved in a skirmish after some influence from Kevin Harvick.
[Related: Quick Takeaways from Pocono]
Gordon is also listed as the owner for Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 car for Hendrick Motorsports and has been since the team was formed in 2002.
It’s important to note that numerous teams have been penalized for illegal modifications to the body of the car like Keselowski’s team has been. The rash of teams denting the sides of cars and flaring out the sideskirts on the bottom of the cars was the reason for the penalty in the first place. It’s a prime example of wondering if something is cheating when most everyone is breaking the rules.
When NASCAR calls the penalty, the driver must serve a pit road penalty and the team must fix the damage’ Keselowski’s team was seen popping the side of the car out (like you would remove a dent from your car) after protesting with a NASCAR official on pit road.
However, the enforcement of the penalty can be considered subjective at best. Without officials on pit road and cameras facing the right sides of the car, tire carriers can surreptitiously hip-check a car and get away with it.
Keselowski’s car was watched by a NASCAR official on pit road after the race, though it was also contacted on the right side by Jimmie Johnson’s car in what was the 10th caution of the day. The car also cleared post-race inspection at the track and NASCAR elected not to take it back for further inspection to the R&D center.
Gordon apologized for drawing parallels between the two incidents. While he brought the Las Vegas anecdote up himself on the broadcast, it was clear that Fox was ready for his observation given there was a graphics package ready for it.
The graphics package also circled what appeared to be dents on both sides of the car as Keselowski was celebrating at Vegas while only the right side of the car was shown on the pit stop.
“I don’t know what they saw so it is not really fair for me to say anything about that,” Keselowski said after emerging from his car. “I can tell you that every car I saw had some body modifications on it after pit stops out there today. I don’t know if ours was more egregious or even if we had one. That is for the team guys to really answer.”
Gordon is also not the only television analyst to have a job commenting on races with a financial stake in the proceedings. Fox also employs Michael Waltrip, whose race team folded after the 2015 season when co-owner Rob Kauffman joined forces with Chip Ganassi. During ESPN’s time televising NASCAR, JTG-Daugherty co-owner Brad Daugherty provided on-site analysis while Rusty Wallace was part of the coverage while he owned his own Xfinity Series team.
Keselowski has participated as a guest analyst for Fox during its Xfinity Series coverage as the network rotates in Cup Series drivers for the broadcasts.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
