NASCAR: Trying to wreck somebody in practice is a stupid idea

Brad Keselowski tried to wreck William Byron in practice for Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway. He barely ended up spinning him, but this was still probably not the smartest idea.

In the NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway in July of 2018, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron led the race and blocked a run by Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, causing Keselowski and well over a dozen other drivers to be involved in a major wreck.

While this wreck, which took place going into turn three on lap 54 of the 168-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida, probably would not have happened had it not been for Roush Fenway Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. running into the back of Keselowski and spinning him out before Byron even managed to complete his blocking move, Keselowski did not see it that way and was instead upset with the blocking move that Byron put on him, even though it was clearly not made with the intent to cause a wreck.

Here is a video of this incident.

After the wreck, here is what Keselowski had to say about it, according to NASCAR.

"“I need to wreck more people so they’ll stop throwing bad blocks.”"

One year later, Keselowski stuck to his word, as he tried to wreck Byron in practice for this year’s 160-lap Coke Zero Sugar 400 at the track to “send a message”, although Byron was still able to save his car from getting into the wall.

Here is a video of this incident.

Here is what Keselowski had to say about this incident afterward, according to NASCAR.

"“Just had a big run. He put me in a position where I had to lift, and I keep telling these guys I’m not lifting. Just trying to send a message. I’m not lifting. I’m tired of getting wrecked at these (superspeedway) tracks. They’re all watching. They know.”"

Here is what Byron had to say about it, according to NASCAR.

"“It’s practice. I don’t think that was really necessary to turn us there…I didn’t really expect that, but that’s all right. It wasn’t like I changed four lanes down the backstretch and blocked him. I was just kind of holding my lane, and he just used his run to drive into my left rear.”"

With all things considered, trying to wreck or spin somebody in practice, especially if it was effectively due to “road rage” from something that happened a year ago, is a very stupid idea.

In one way, the driver who gets wrecked or spun isn’t affected all that much because it is, in fact, practice, but in another way, the driver responsible for the wreck or spin doesn’t gain much because it is just that — practice — other than the satisfaction of being the “bad guy”, of course.

Plus, the driver who gets wrecked or spun isn’t simply going to roll over and take it just because it happened in practice. Wrecking or spinning another driver in practice opens up the “bad guy” to have retaliation come his way when it actually matters.

Of course, wrecking or spinning somebody in a race does the exact same thing as far as the potential for retaliation is concerned, but at least the driver who causes the wreck or spin truly puts a dent in the other driver’s race before he inevitably gets retaliation served back to him. That is not at all the case in practice.

All things considered, Byron is probably one of the classiest and least controversial drivers in the field, so he may not exactly be looking for revenge against Keselowski, tomorrow night or ever.

That said, everyone has a breaking point, and being intentionally spun in practice over something you did unintentionally a full year earlier and/or so another driver can “send a message” might trigger it for most people, so suffice it to say that Keselowski is lucky that his attempt to wreck Byron failed and ultimately resulted in slight damage and a minor spin that did not involve the wall.

But will he be lucky enough?

Byron will be forced to go to a backup #24 Chevrolet for Saturday night’s race, so this story may not be over, which is exactly why it was a terrible idea on Keselowski’s part to turn it into one to begin with, and without gaining anything other than a “look at me” moment, which he admitted to doing after it happened.

This race at Daytona International Speedway is no longer a “restrictor plate race”, but as we saw in late April in the race at Talladega Superspeedway, the new superspeedway package creates racing that is just as close if not closer than the racing had been in restrictor plate races.

Keselowski has always been known as a great restrictor plate driver, and Byron led laps in four of his five career starts in restrictor plate races, so they could very well end up running close to one another in Saturday night’s race.

Maybe it’s somebody else’s turn to “send a message”.

Tune in to NBC at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 6 for the live broadcast of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona International Speedway to see whether or not this incident will end up boiling over into the 36-race 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season’s 18th race itself. Of course, you may want to tune in to next year’s running of this race on Saturday, August 29, 2020 as well, as this incident very well could boil over into this race, as evidenced by Thursday’s run-in between the two drivers.