David Ragan captured his second career victory on Sunday in the Aaron’s 499 from Talladega Superspeedway but not everyone was happy. Brad Keselowski took to twitter after the race to accuse Ragan of lining up in the wrong spot on the final restart of the race.
Keselowski sent out the following tweet “mad as hell about that finish. We were suppose to line up 10th when the 34 switched lanes entering 3 before green. That lane won. BS”
The No. 2 car driven by Keselowski finished 15th in the race.
NASCAR released the following statement in regards to the incident:
“The No. 2 car (Keselowski) was not in the proper lane for the final restart,’’ NASCAR’s statement read. “So NASCAR had the No. 2 car move into the proper lane – the No. 34 car (Ragan) was lined up properly all along.”
After the race Ragan spoke in the NASCAR Media Center and attempted to downplay the event.
“Well, obviously Brad wanted to start on the outside, because he knew the same thing that I knew, that the outside lane had an advantage on the restart but he just didn’t want to listen to NASCAR. So NASCAR makes the call on where we line up at, and I listen to what NASCAR has to say. My spotter told me that’s what they radioed on the NASCAR channel, the crew chief said the same thing, and Brad was just trying to snooker us and get the preferred lane, and eventually he decided he should do the right thing and he restarted ninth and I restarted 10th, so there’s no controversy.”
NASCAR often takes a lap or two to reset the field and determine the restart order following a wreck. Ragan is sure that he and Keselowski lined up in the correct positions.
“Well, NASCAR will set him straight eventually. He maybe won’t admit it, but he knows that he lined up in the right spot and I lined up in the right spot.”
While Keselowski was upset that lining up in the inside line cost him a chance at the win, Michael Waltrip was able to turn an 11th place restart into a fourth place finish.
