Keselowski, who was six laps down at the time, was racing in the middle of a big pack of traffic near the front of the field when he appeared to get loose and lose control of his car.
Keselowski spun in front of Trevor Bayne, igniting a big crash that claimed at least 14 drivers. Bayne, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, polesitter Brian Scott, Alex Bowman, Tony Stewart and others were caught up in the accident.
“I don’t know what happened. I just spun out in front of the field,” Keselowski said. “It just broke loose and spun out on me. I don’t know if I ran over something or just busted the rear end or what. I feel bad for the guys who were caught up in it.”
Keselowski was trying to get one of his laps back when he wrecked, drawing the ire of several drivers and crewmen.
“I’m not really sure why he was driving the way he was driving,” said Gordon, one of several drivers knocked out of the race. “He was laps down and I don’t know what he was doing obviously thinking that was going to be the way to get his lap back and all that did was get a bunch of other cars wrecked."
“Brad made a pretty bold move early in the race,” said Matt Kenseth, who tangled with Keselowski last week at Richmond. “I thought he was a bunch of laps down, but Brad just spun out in front of all of us and tore up a bunch of racecars.”
Keselowski said he was trying to race to the front to get one of his laps back.
“We were trying really hard to get our lap back there and without a yellow or a break, I had to be really aggressive and hope something went our way,” Keselowski said.
EARNHARDT DOOMED
Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t want to get in a big wreck near the end of the race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, and he didn’t.
But he also didn’t have a shot to win as his decision to lay back after a fuel-only pit stop with 36 laps remaining put him 13th and he never ran any higher the rest of the day.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver couldn’t get a run on the lead pack and opted to fall back and stay out of the wreck. The only move he tried to make didn't work and he settled for 26th.
Earnhardt charged to the outside on a restart with eight laps to go, but Josh Wise pulled out in front of him, stalling his momentum.
"That killed us," he said. "Anytime somebody jumps in the outside lane in front of you, you are not going to shove them on out there, especially a car like that. It just killed us."
The reason he didn’t make a move before then, or try again? He said he couldn’t.
“We put ourselves in a bad spot back there in the back,” Earnhardt said. “We were great leading the race. When we came down pit road to get fuel, them other guys were way more aggressive.
“I couldn’t do nothing after that but drive up in there and get wrecked. So I just sit there and watched the wrecks until the end of the race.”
The winner of the Daytona 500 admitted disappointment in himself for the strategy.
“I wasn’t confident that we could get to the front,” Earnhardt said. “I just knew all we could do was drive into the back of that pack and sit there and ride and get boxed in and probably get run over or run into in one of those crashes. … We avoided tearing up a good car.
“We’ll try to go to Daytona and just do it a little bit different to where we are (not) pitting and giving up all that track position at the end. You can’t give up all that track position and expect to get it back. It’s just not going to happen.”
DANICA'S CONTACT
Danica Patrick said her contact with Brad Keselowski might have been her fault, but she said it wasn’t done on purpose or with malicious intent Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Keselowski hit the right front of Patrick’s car as they battled for the lead just 14 laps into the Aaron’s 499. The accident caused Keselowski to spin, heavily damaging his car.
“My apologies if that was all my fault,” Patrick said. “I mean, shoot, I struggle to take people out and not take myself out. I don’t even know how to do that. That by no means is anything I was trying to do. I am not out here to make enemies, especially on speedways.”
Patrick said she isn’t sure what happened during the incident.
“I was running the bottom, and I was feeling I was about to get hung out,” Patrick said. “He went up to the outside and I was looking up into my mirror to see if I was clear of the 24 (of Jeff Gordon) to slide in. I was moving up to get into that lane to clear it, and I just thought the 2 (of KeselowskI) had enough momentum to be gone past me.
“I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know if it was just me coming up. It very well could have been. I don’t know if it was him coming down. I’m not 100 percent sure.”
Keselowski also said he didn't know what happened to cause the contact.
“I’m not really sure what happened. I made an aggressive move to take the lead and the next thing I knew I was spinning, so I’m not really sure," he said. "Obviously, there was some kind of contact but I don’t know what happened.”
Keselowski’s crew chief said Keselowski didn’t need to make such a move that early in the race, but others thought Patrick might have caused it.
Patrick finished 22nd, not the result she wanted but at least with a car that had virtually no damage. She led six laps.
“It was nice to lead laps — more than one where you just get pushed by the line,” Patrick said. “I think that shows that we’ve improved our cars and makes me look forward to Daytona and make me think real hard how we are going to stay up front because you’ve just got to be there (at the end)."
JOHNSON PERPLEXED BY SPIN
Usually there is an argument over what causes big wrecks at Talladega.
But for the second-biggest wreck Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, there was no question what started it.
Jimmie Johnson. No one else.
Johnson spun with 13 laps remaining with seven other cars getting collected in the aftermath.
“It didn’t snap, it just did a big, lazy slide,” said the six-time Cup champion, who limped home 23rd. “I don’t know why. I know we had a lot of right-side damage, but it was not expected at all.
“It went in there and it kept sliding and sliding and I’m like, ‘Wait a second, where is it going?’ And around it went.”
Several drivers couldn’t continue, including Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Reed Sorenson, David Ragan and Michael McDowell. Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also were involved.
“You come into this race almost expecting something like that to happen,” Logano said. “It’s unfortunate. We had a really fast car. Our car was (moving) along at the beginning of the race and we just lost our track position with about 50 to go and that’s what we get.”
Contributors: Bob Pockrass, Jeff Owens
