"I need to wreck more people"- When Brad Keselowski warned his NASCAR rivals to stop throwing 'bad blocks'
Brad Keselowski was left furious following the conclusion of the 2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. The #2 driver suffered a wreck at the Daytona International Speedway race in Daytona, Florida, and was far from happy. Following this, he sent out a clear warning to his fellow drivers ahead of Talladega and asked them to stop throwing bad blocks.
Daytona International Speedway hosted the 23rd race of the 2018 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Daytona, where Keselowski qualified in third place, behind pole-sitter Chase Elliott and second-placed Alex Bowman. As the race started, the then-Team Penske driver was running behind Elliott, and then Stenhouse Jr.
However, then came Lap 54 when Keselowski tried to get the lead of the race from Stenhouse Jr. But Stenhouse Jr. bumped Keselowski from behind and at the wrong angle. The push turned the #2 car right and he slammed against the wall.
It instantly triggered a huge wreck and took out all the cars nearby. As per reports, as many as 26 cars were affected by the wreck. As the wreck jeopardized Keselowski's race, he was furious at Stenhouse Jr. after the latter's untimely block triggered the mishap.
"Yeah I'm okay," Keselowski told NASCAR in a post-race media interaction. "You know Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) was pushing me and didn't do anything wrong just. My fault, you know, it's a really fast Miller Lite Ford and you know Dave, I'm not just wrecking enough people."
"I need to wreck more people, so they'll stop throwing bad blocks and that's what happened to me on the plate tracks. So, you know, everyone's that's watching all them drivers there, throw another bad block coming, I'm just gonna drive through and wreck you. So look out till that."
Besides Brad Keselowski, the likes of Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suárez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson, Bubba Wallace, Corey LaJoie, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, and many more were affected.
Brad Keselowski pinpointed the art of NASCAR blocks
During one of his interviews with Fox Sports after the Daytona crash, Brad Keselowski pointed out the art of NASCAR blocks. In his statement, the former Team Penske driver stated that a driver should know when to make a block, and when not to.
"It was a bad block," Keselowski said (via ESPN in 2018). "There's times you can make a block; there's times you can't. When you've got a guy behind you with a big enough run, you can't throw a block -- I made the mistake and lifted instead of wrecking him, and that's my fault."
Drivers blocking each other is common on restrictor-plate tracks, as they attempt to safeguard their positions. However, the blocks in question ruined Brad Keselowski's Daytona outing back in 2018.