After racking up a sixth-place finish in Stage 2 of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, it looked like Austin Dillon had bolstered his hopes at making the Playoffs.
Seconds later, Dillon’s day came to an end after a hard crash.
A HARD HIT for Austin Dillon at the end of Stage 2!
This puts him in a must-win situation next week at Daytona. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/fFxZseIlEX
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 22, 2021
The crash was sparked when Brad Keselowski turned down into the rear quarter panel of Dillon’s No. 3 car sending it right into the wall. Dillon hit head-on and the car got airborne and nearly flipped over.
“I was just trying to get as many Stage Points as I could get right there,” Dillon explained after coming out of the infield care center. “Did a good job side drafting, came down to the apron. It was after the start finish line. I was starting to come up off the apron because it’s so rough down there. I figured by that point, he would have given me a little room there. Thankful that the good lord kept me safe today. That was a heck of a wreck, but I feel fine.”
While it looked like Keselowski potentially caused the accident on purpose, his team radio would suggest that he did not intend to crash Dillon.
Following the crash, Keselowski keyed his radio and said, “Aw man, I didn’t want to do that, why’d he…. [inaudible]… I didn’t want to wreck him, just wanted them to calm him down.”
One Response
Doesn’t look to me that brad turned down into Austin. Looks like Austin went low and brad followed him and Austin came back up into Brad.