NASCAR fans have begun floating conspiracy theories about Brad Keselowski following Joey Logano’s championship-winning performance in the season finale.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano clinched his first career NASCAR Cup Series championship by entering the season finale, the Ford EcoBoost 400, at Homestead-Miami Speedway as one of the four drivers who had a chance to win the title and winning the race.
But after Logano won the 267-lap Championship 4 race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Homestead Speedway oval in Homestead, Florida, fans began to float conspiracy theories that his victory was set up.
This is pretty much to be expected from NASCAR fans whose drivers don’t win races or championships despite the fact that nothing is going to change no matter how “loud” they whine and complain about it on Twitter on Facebook while sitting at home on their couch.
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Nevertheless, let’s have a look at what they’re saying.
Logano entered the race competing against Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick to win this year’s championship. Heading into what these drivers expected to be the final round of pit stops late in the race, Truex Jr. led the race ahead of Logano.
However, it was Harvick who made his way into the pits first. As a result, he emerged ahead of Logano, who passed Truex Jr. in the pits when the two drivers came into the pits on the same lap, and Truex Jr. once they made their pit stops. Truex Jr. ended up passing Logano back on the track.
Meanwhile, Busch stayed out on the track to inherit the race lead knowing that if a caution flag period took place, he and the rest of the field would come into the pits and he would be in a prime position to win the race and thus the championship.
But by doing so, Busch risked having to pit under green flag conditions after staying out on the track several more laps than Harvick, Logano and Truex Jr. did on slower tires. As a result, if a caution flag period did not take place, his championship hopes would effectively be over.
This caution flag period ended up taking place with 20 laps to go, which put Busch in a position to win the race and thus the championship.
Here is a video of the incident involving Front Row Motorsports’ David Ragan, Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Suarez, which caused this caution flag period.
A chain reaction sends Daniel Suarez spinning, completely changing this championship race.
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 18, 2018
Less than 20 to go on NBC. Stream here: https://t.co/3p5NjkleVX pic.twitter.com/4udiP8kAmE
Busch led the other three Championship 4 drivers into the pits and came out of the pits in the lead despite the fact that his pit stops had not been all that great up to that point in the race. He led the field on the ensuing restart with 15 laps to go.
However, it also put Logano in a better position. He had been passed by Truex Jr. after they made their pit stops despite the fact that he had been fast on short runs, and it did not look like he would have a great chance to get past Harvick had there not been a restart.
The ensuing restart stacked up the field, and Logano was able to pass Busch for second place after Truex Jr. passed Busch for the lead, and he was then able to pass Truex Jr. for the lead with 11 laps remaining. After that, he took the checkered flag to earn the race victory and his first career Cup Series championship.
Because of the fact that it was Joey Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski who spun out Joe Gibbs Racing’s Daniel Suarez to cause this caution flag period to take place, fans have suggested that Keselowski spun Suarez out to intentionally bring out a caution flag period so that Logano would have a better chance to win the race and thus the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series championship.