NASCAR: Brad Keselowski clearly not insulting Tyrann Mathieu, PETA video

Despite what non-NASCAR fans want you to think, NASCAR Cup Series driver Brad Keselowski was clearly not insulting Tyrann Mathieu or his PETA video.

After Kansas City Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu filmed a video for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for Heat Awareness Day, NASCAR Cup Series driver Brad Keselowski used this video to add fuel to the debate as to whether or not NASCAR drivers are truly athletes.

In this video, Mathieu attempted to illustrate the dangers of leaving pets in hot cars, especially during summer months, and he successfully did so. After only eight minutes sitting in a car with a temperature of 120 degrees inside, he emerged from the car and stated that he could not take it anymore.

Keselowski, however, saw this as an opportunity to illustrate the toughness of NASCAR drivers that he believes makes them just as much athletes as any other athletes on the planet.

Here is what he tweeted about the matter.

The 35-year-old Rochester Hills, Michigan native is referring to the fact that NASCAR drivers spend hours not just sitting in hot cars but driving them at high levels of competition for several hours at a time, and these cars can reach upwards of 150 degrees.

Meanwhile, a former NFL Pro Bowler couldn’t last for more than eight minutes sitting in one 30 degrees cooler than that.

Mathieu took offense to Keselowski’s remark and decided to insult his occupation and career in addition to firing the F-bomb at him in a now deleted tweet. Here is what this petulant tweet said.

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"“You clearly missed the point of the video. But assuming you drive cars at top speed you must think you can fuck with me….. so what’s up?”"

But given the context of the situation of the ongoing debate about whether or not NASCAR drivers are athletes (although anyone who thinks it’s even a debate at this point probably can’t tell a Formula 1 car from a quarter midget), it is obvious that Keselowski wasn’t insulting Mathieu specifically, much less the video or the reason for the video itself, and thus there was no reason for Mathieu to respond the way he did.

In fact, such an insinuation is simply ridiculous.

Mathieu was making a point about the dangers of leaving pets locked in cars, especially during summer months, and Keselowski saw it as an opportunity to add yet another piece of evidence to support the idea that NASCAR drivers are athletes.

It wasn’t like he was laughing at the former Pro Bowler by making fun of the fact that he can last 20 to 30 times longer in a car that is even hotter while competing in it at a high level as opposed to just sitting in it. Love him or hate him, Keselowski wouldn’t randomly take such a stance — period.

Whether or not Keselowski was right to use this particular instance of Mathieu trying to promote a good cause to promote the idea that NASCAR drivers are athletes, as accurate as it is, remains questionable and likely will forever be considering it did somewhat detract from Mathieu’s message itself, but the fact is, he wasn’t trying to insult anybody.

Making this even more obvious is the fact that he literally just used fellow driver William Byron essentially as a prop and tried to wreck him in practice to “send a message”.

So as far as using Mathieu goes, it was clearly nothing personal. He was simply using the situation to “send a message”, and when you think about it,  given what happened between Keselowski and Byron earlier this week, this should perhaps be most obvious to Keselowski’s haters.

Of course, people who don’t follow NASCAR wouldn’t know this, which is probably why Brad Keselowski has faced the backlash that he has faced over this situation, but it doesn’t change the fact that this was nowhere near being as insulting as non-NASCAR fans want you to believe it was for Tyrann Mathieu’s sake.