NASCAR: Conspiracy theories suggest Brad Keselowski drives for Joe Gibbs Racing

With Joey Logano having won the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series championship, the conspiracy theories are flying around left and right. One such crazy one leads to the suggestion that teammate Brad Keselowski actually drives for Joe Gibbs Racing — really.

With 20 laps remaining in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season finale, the Ford EcoBoost 400, at Homestead-Miami Speedway, three of the Championship 4 drivers had made what they had initially planned would be their final pit stops of the race.

The fact that these three drivers, including Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. and Team Penske’s Joey Logano, had come in to the pits meant that the other Championship 4 driver, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, was the race leader.

Busch knew that he needed to pit again, and he knew that he was losing lots of time each lap as a result of the fact that Harvick, Truex Jr. and Logano were driving around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida on new tires.

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However, Busch also knew that if a caution flag period took place before he made it into the pits, he and the rest of the field would all come into the pits for new tires, meaning that he would be able to maintain the race lead and be in a position to win his second career Cup Series championship and first since the 2015 season.

With 20 laps to go in the race, that caution flag period began, as Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski spun Daniel Suarez as a result of the fact that Front Row Motorsports’ David Ragan made contact with Keselowski’s #2 Ford.

Here is a video of this incident.

Busch led the field into the pits and emerged as the race leader despite the fact that his pit crew had struggled in the pits throughout the race. He was in a prime position to win the championship as a result of this caution flag period.

However, he was passed by Truex Jr. and then by Logano after the race’s final restart with 15 laps remaining, and Logano ended up passing Truex Jr. with 12 laps remaining. Logano went on to win the championship, causing conspiracy theories to fly around left and right about the possibility of Keselowski spinning out Suarez intentionally to bring out the final caution flag period.

This should be a non-issue considering the fact that Ragan’s contact with Keselowski is what caused Keselowski to spin Suarez. But let’s assume that Keselowski would have made contact with Suarez regardless to prove that even the suggestion that this contact was intentional is ridiculous.

For those who aren’t aware, Keselowski does NOT drive for Joe Gibbs Racing. While no one has come right out and stated that they believe in this insane conspiracy theory, the idea that Keselowski would intentionally spin out Suarez points to the idea that they actually believe this.

Why do I bring this up? Yes, Keselowski spun out Suarez, and Suarez does drive for Joe Gibbs Racing. However, had this happened in any other race, no one would have batted an eye at this, so this isn’t at all why I bring this up. I bring this up because of the fact that the ensuing caution flag period that took place as a result of this incident basically HANDED the race win and thus the championship to Busch — not to Logano.

Keselowski “causing” this caution flag period certainly gave Logano a better chance to win the championship, as he had gotten passed by Truex Jr. after making what ended up being his penultimate pit stop, and Harvick had overtaken both drivers as a result of the fact that he came into the pits slightly earlier than Truex Jr. and Logano did for new tires. The battle for the championship appeared to be between Harvick and a charging Truex Jr. with Logano lurking.

But above all, Keselowski “causing” this caution flag period took Busch’s chances to win the race and thus the championship from next to nothing to making him the favorite. After all, on a late restart, who can you trust — or who would you typically think you can trust — more than Busch?

Busch needed to have a clean restart and 15 more good laps — something he has had many times throughout the course of his career — to clinch the championship. He couldn’t get a clean restart, and the race’s final 15 laps resulted in him being passed by all three of the other Championship 4 drivers.

While Logano went on to win the race and thus the championship, it was Busch who was in a great position to do so as a result of the final caution flag period — and it was actually Truex Jr. who originally took the lead from Busch following the final restart. Logano simply outdrove them both and took both the race win and the championship away from them.

If Keselowski spun Suarez intentionally to help someone, he certainly didn’t do it to help his teammate — unless you believe he drives for Joe Gibbs Racing and wanted to help Busch win another championship.

The bottom line is that no, Brad Keselowski spinning Daniel Suarez was not a plan to help teammate Joey Logano win the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series championship. It put Kyle Busch, not Logano, in a prime position to do so, and he simply could not pull it off, which allowed Logano to capitalize. Keselowski would never, ever do anything out of the ordinary to HELP Busch win a championship.