NSCS Race Victory Lane at Bristol Motor Speedway Twitpic Keselowski. Photo credit: Getty Images for NASCAR
Yes, it wouldn’t be Brad without seeing him and his phone out while at the track. But how special is is when your in Victory Lane? Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T and winner of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, focused more on the social media (Twitter) on Sunday afternoon in Victory Lane and here’s his reason why:
“It’s something that I thought would be really cool to do, for sure. I know that NASCAR and all of its partners are working really hard to continue to do the best they can to provide the best service possible. When you have over 60 thousand people in a very confined area that can be difficult to do, especially an area that’s probably not extremely populated or urban area I guess you can say. I know I’ve been to Michigan football games where they have a hundred thousand people in the middle of Ann Arbor which is kind of a tech hub, so to speak, and there’s no service there. You know, it’s an ongoing battle and challenge that I know NASCAR is working very hard with their partners to work on. It’s something that I’ve been in conversation with them about and certainly, for our generation, timeliness is of extreme importance. I’d like to see that process obviously get a little bit faster and the right people are working on it to make it happen. When it does happen, it’ll be less than a half hour.”
I got on Twitter and got kind of PO’d at some people that said I won it because of the timing line. I knew this Blue Deuce was fast enough to win the race last fall with or without timing lines. It feels so good to just prove it here today in the spring race. This car here, a brand new car that Penske Racing built, everybody back in the shop did a phenomenal job. The last few races have been really good, and I knew we had a shot at winning one if we ran like we were. , we closed the deal. I love Bristol and Bristol loves me (laughs).
As we all know a few weeks ago at Daytona International Speedway, Juan Montoya brought out the red flag after his No. 42 Target Chevy plowed into the jet dryer. During that red flag period of 2 hrs., 5 minutes, Brad Kesewloski was tweeting pictures of the drivers and answered fans’ questions via Twitter while standing out of their cars on the track. His tweets and photos were being viewed on the jumbotron’s around Daytona International Speedway.
NASCAR Cup drivers during the red flag at Daytona International Speedway. Twitpic by, yes, Brad Keselowski, himself!
It appeared that having a phone in the car could violate NASCAR rules regarding the use of radios and recording devices in cars, however, the next day, NASCAR released a statement saying they would not penalize Keselowski. Other drivers, one being Kevin Harvick who has remained against having cell phones in the cars, aren’t so sure that they agree with NASCAR. He already has found a miles-per-hour application for his phone that he believes he could use to monitor his speed down pit road. “I’m going to look for every app I can for mile-per-hour, GPS mapping, and anything I can find to put in my car,” Harvick said. “I’m looking for it because I’m looking to outlaw this rule as fast as I can because I don’t want to have to keep up with it. I have found a mile-per-hour app, so that’ll be good down pit road.”
When asked why he carries his phone with him, Keselowski said he doesn’t keep his phone in the car to tweet, but to be able to contact family if he gets in an accident. He said since that bad crash at California in September 2007 where he was airlifted to a hospital, he had no way to contact his parents. After his August 2011 accident at Road Atlanta, he had his phone and could text his mom from the helicopter before she heard it on the news.
In the meanwhile, NASCAR’s Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said that NASCAR will watch and see where this all heads, but there’s not much of a concern about it.
You can follow Brad on Twitter @brad_keselowski. Just look for the 252,900+ followers and you know you have the correct account.