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 Talladega is usually an unforgiving place, but Sunday was the
perfect storm.
Actually, the rainstorm did not arrive until long after the race was
over despite threatening skies. But the threat of the race ending
due to rain had drivers racing aggressively and fighting hard to get
to the front throughout the second half of the race.
The box score included three Big Ones, two cars upside down and one
almost upside down. Headed to the checkered flag without anybody to
dispute his lead, Keselowski didn't get to the finish line before a
caution ended the race early as bedlam erupted behind him.
When it was over, Keselowski had nothing but praise for the track
that brought less than fond farewells from many other drivers.
"It's great to be back on this podium as a race winner," he said.
"Very, very proud and thrilled today. Never know what you're going
to get here. Talladega has always been that way. It's always been
very good to me. I'm thankful for that."
On a day when reigning Talladega champion Dale Earnhardt Jr., who
has six career victories at the track, wrecked twice and several
drivers said they were glad to see the track in their rear-view
mirrors, Keselowski could be forgiven for liking NASCAR's longest
and fastest superspeedway.
 In 2009, Keselowski won his first career Sprint Cup victory at the
track as Carl Edwards sailed into the catch fence near the
start-finish line. Keselowski had made a clean move to pass Edwards,
who then wrecked himself trying to block the upstart driver. Before
the season was out, Keselowsi had signed to drive for Roger Penske
in no small part due to the win at Talladega.
When Keselowski won the Sprint Cup championship driving a Dodge for
Penske Racing in 2012, the season included his second springtime
victory at Talladega. No wonder he gets pumped when he wins in
Alabama.
"Talladega has been a track for us that's been a great catalyst for
success," he said. "I don't know why that is. It's a track where if
you're capable of winning here, I think you show a certain level of
attitude and swagger that carries your way through the rest of the
year."
In some ways, Keselowski is making up for lost time. His grandfather
John entered a car in Talladega's first strike-torn race in 1969,
when Homer Newlands finished 27th in the Kaye Engineering Dodge. His
uncle Ron and father John have entered and raced at Talladega in the
Sprint Cup and ARCA Series, but have no victories to show for it.
It's never easy winning at Talladega. On Sunday, the Geico 500 -- an
ironic title given the company's auto insurance business --
presented a two-part problem. There's often a lot of crashes at
Talladega due to the tight confines of the high-speed draft. On this
day, two cars lifted off and rolled over after getting hit by
another car while spinning. Rookie Chris Buescher was the first, his
Ford barrel-rolling down the back straight, seemingly weightless.
The "quiet" inside the car with the wheels off the ground was
spooky, Buescher said of his first experience with all wheels up.
"I'm ready to go home," he said.
 Buescher was the innocent victim of a driver who hit him from behind
and then a second driver who launched his Ford. That's the problem
for all drivers at Talladega. It's hard to control one's own
destiny. Generally, the safest place is at the front. But as
Saturday's Xfinity Series race demonstrated, a battle for the lead
can get hairy in a hurry. Joey Logano, Keselowski's teammate at
Penske Racing, nailed the SAFER barrier instead of the landing in
victory lane.
The second flip on Sunday belonged to veteran Matt Kenseth , who
went over easy compared to Buescher. His Toyota landed on top of the
SAFER barrier on the back straight, before righting itself. Kenseth
said he's only been upside down twice before -- both at Talladega.
His biggest concern was claustrophobia had the car not returned to
its wheels.
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Danica Patrick was involved in the same wreck. Her car caught on
fire due to the impact and the foot pedals were deranged. Patrick
hustled out of the burning car, joking about it later. "I have a
lot of hair," she said, "and I want to keep it."
Patrick also joked about the chest X-ray she requested because she
had pain when breathing.
"My chest," she said, "is still symmetrical."
At one point, Earnhardt's steering wheel disengaged while at speed
-- forcing the driver to grab the column briefly with his hand
before re-attaching the wheel. It was more comic relief relative to
other harrowing incidents.
"That's what you call a power steering problem," was one of
Earnhardt's tweets after the in-car camera caught the episode.
Short of knocking down the banking of the Alabama track to slow the
cars, the nature of racing at Talladega is not likely to change.
Some participants voiced the possibility that NASCAR can do more
than the current use of roof flaps, which work well to keep cars on
the ground in solo spins. But when cars are hit and launched, the
laws of physics tend to take over. There's a limit to what can be
done with cars that first and foremost have to be designed to race.
Austin Dillon knows about flyers. After contact, his Chevy flew into
the fence last summer at the Daytona International Speedway in a
finish-line incident that left the car in tatters.
"I don't know how you'd fix (the problem)," said Dillon, whose
damaged car finished third on Sunday after surviving an earlier
incident. "I know NASCAR works hard to make the cars safe and that's
why all of us are walking away."
As far as Keselowski is concerned, there's nothing to be done about
car-to-car contact.
"The wedge flips," he said, "are part of it."
 Keselowski, who led five times for a race-high 46 laps, sees the
race from the point of view of the challenge and acknowledges that
he enjoys the daredevil aspect of racing at Talladega.
"You know if you make a mistake here, there's going to be a really,
really bad accident," he said. "You may get airborne."
If that sounds like Keselowski is throwing down a challenge to
drivers who have second thoughts about racing at Talladega -- asking
if they are up to the task -- there might be something to that. A
student of the sport, Keselowski surely knows Dale Earnhardt Sr.,
who had a career-record 10 wins at Talladega, once challenged
drivers to stay home if they were afraid of the restrictor-plate
tracks.
Keselowski is currently distinguishing himself as a guy who wins
regularly on NASCAR's fastest and most dangerous track. As it
stands, any driver coming into Talladega who looks forward to the
race is an increasingly rare species.
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