Keselowski incident irritates Johnson

Don’t look for Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski to go out for ice cream together any time soon.

The NASCAR Cup champions had a dust-up Sunday when both drivers tried to occupy the same piece of track during a late restart at Kentucky Speedway and a bump from Keselowski sent Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro spinning from contention.

Johnson, whose winless streak grew to 111 races, lamented later on Twitter that a quality car and effort were wasted. “I do look forward to my next restart behind (Keselowski) though,” he added in the tweet.

Rochester Hills native Keselowski said the contact on lap 250 of the 267-lap race was “part of the mayhem of these restarts.”

“There was kind of unavoidable contact at that time,” Keselowski said. “I hate that it ruined his day. I don’t … necessarily know what to do (differently).”

The trouble started when the front row of Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney led the field to the green flag for the restart.

Johnson, in third place, darted to his left in an apparent move to get around Blaney’s No. 12 Ford Mustang.

But, on the Fox telecast, analyst Jeff Gordon said Johnson “wasn’t quick enough” to block the oncoming Keselowski in the No. 2 Ford.

“I was turning down toward the grass,” Keselowski said. “I don’t know if he was trying to turn down to block me or if he was trying to turn down to get underneath Blaney, but he turned down and I was too far forward.”

Johnson, who did not lead a lap in the race won by rookie Cole

Custer, finished 18th.

That left the seven-time champion 15th in points and without a victory for the season. The top 16 drivers make the playoffs.

Keselowski, who led 34 laps on the 1.5-mile oval where he has won three times, finished ninth.

He was among six Ford drivers who finished in the top 10.

“I hate that we had control of the race and just didn’t have enough speed to keep it, because I feel like we could have brought this race home,” Keselowski said.

“We had a really good car on restarts, but we just

didn’t have the speed to keep the lead.”

The incident continued a season of misfortune for Johnson, who is retiring from full-time driving after 2020.

He has been in contention to win races, but has only two top-five finishes for the year.

The Kentucky race marked Johnson’s comeback after he missed the Indianapolis event after testing positive for COVID-19. He had started 663 consecutive races before catching the coronavirus.

Johnson has not won a race since June 2017 at Dover.

The All-star race is at Bristol on Wednesday, and then the Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway at 3 p.m. next Sunday.

MARK HUMPHREY PHOTOS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Jimmie Johnson, right, waits for the start of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series at Kentucky Speedway. Johnson is not happy after an incident with Rochester Hills native Brad Keselowski during the race in which Keselowski bumped Johnson from contention following a late restart.

Ryan Blaney, left, and Brad Keselowski drive during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway. Keselowski made contact with Jimmie Johnson following a restart later in the race when Johnson tried to maneuver around Blaney.