During the early stages of Sunday's race at Kentucky, Kurt Busch made an aggressive three-wide move to the apron of the tri-oval and the inside of Brad Keselowski. But when Busch's car re-emerged back onto the banking, he wasn't clear of Keselowski's car and tagged the defending champion on the left rear quarterpanel.
Keselowski did his best to save the car after it spun towards pit road on lap 49, but after he corrected it and started sliding in the direction of the outside wall, he collected Greg Biffle and Dave Blaney in a vicious accident that sheared off the front of Biffle's car.
Travis Kvapil and Landon Cassill also sustained damage behind the crash.
"It's a wreck. Wrecks happen," Keselowski said. "It takes a chain of events to get there. We had the bottom lane on two or three restarts in a row and got shuffled back a little bit. We were trying to get patient because it looked like we will get the whole race in before rain and there is no reason to drive like an animal. Apparently I am the only one that got that memo. It is one of those deals."
"I know he didn't intentionally wreck me but it is just one of those things. A chain of events with the way the cars drive and the track has that really bad bump down there and we all know it. There is no reason to go down there but he still did."
Busch apologized on the radio after the accident, saying the track shot him up towards Keselowski's car as he got back on the banking. As he was on the apron, Busch's car bottomed out heavily at the start/finish line over that bump.
He also apologized on Twitter after the race.
I hate that my mistake ruined @bradkeselowski @gbiffle @RCR27PMenard & their teams day. Apologized 2 them all but mad at myself still
— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) June 30, 2013
After a string of poor finishes, Keselowski had slid to eighth in the points standings before Kentucky, where he won last season. Now, after the crash, he's 13th, 14 points out of the top 10, but also 17 points ahead of 18th without a win this season. Though Keselowski says it won't change his team's approach with nine races before the Chase.
"We are just going to go do our thing and we are just on a streak of bad luck," Keselowski said. "It will turn around and when it does we will be in victory lane and be alright."
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