Brad Keselowski beats the flu and the field to win the Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500.
Driver battles illness while setting mark for wins at Team Penske
Brad Keselowski had his hands full with a new car and a new rules package — enough to make for a trying race — before a stomach virus nearly flattened him.
Keselowski missed a portion of final practice, received intravenous fluids at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s medical center, and had a replacement driver on standby Sunday in case he couldn’t make it the full 500 miles.
Sick day? No way. Keselowski recovered from flu-like symptoms to win the 60th Annual Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 at Atlanta and move past Mark Donohue as the winningest driver in Team Penske history. It was the first win for Ford’s new Mustang and a rebound for the manufacturer after Toyota swept the season-opening Daytona 500.
“A race car driver is who I am. It’s what I do and what I love. I’m not going to let anything get in the way of it,” Keselowski said after the win. “We had the team to win, of course things still have to go your way, but I don’t want to be the reason why they don’t.”
He was admittedly hot, tired and somewhat dazed after 31/2 hours of racing. Had the event been one day earlier, Keselowski said he wouldn’t have been healthy enough to drive. He lost nearly 6 pounds battling the illness but wasn’t complaining after the win.
“Whenever you have a fast car, it’s funny how fast those things disappear,” he said.
NASCAR debuted its new competition package Sunday that is designed to improve the on-track product and help the smaller teams contend. But the first look at the new rules was tempered because the abrasive asphalt at Atlanta is unlike any other surface NASCAR will race on this season.
But it was clear NASCAR successfully designed a package that slowed the cars and bunched them closer together, which made for intense racing when the field was packed on restarts. The nature of Atlanta’s challenging 1.5-mile speedway led drivers to eventually fan out into single file, which NASCAR is trying to avoid, but the racing is expected to improve moving forward.
Keselowski, meanwhile, raced to his 60th win for Roger Penske to pass Indianapolis great Donohue’s mark as the team leader.
He has won 27 of his 28 Cup victories for Penske.