As the curtain rose on the playoff season, it didn’t disappoint, serving up a rollercoaster ride with several heart-stopping moments that had NASCAR aficionados biting their nails. Denny Hamlin may have clinched two stages but finished at P25, especially because of a tangle that wasn’t Hamlin’s own doing but a dance between Kyle Busch and Todd Gilliland; consequently, it was Kyle Larson who took home the bacon, despite being thrown against the ropes multiple times.

Yet, amidst the great performance drama, an incident centering around Brad Keselowski‘s team stole the spotlight. It not only set tongues wagging among the NASCAR faithful but also cast a shadow over pit crew safety. Now, the man of the hour has stepped into the spotlight to spill the beans on what really sparked the issue and their game plan to address it.

Chris Buescher’s impressive 3rd position owes a lot to an unsung hero in Brad Keselowski

When the lights threw a fit at turns 3 and 4, causing a yellow flag on lap 189, Chris Buescher didn’t miss a beat and took the bull by the horns. By lap 192, just as his crew had wrapped up the tire change, his car’s rear end decided to throw a mini-pyrotechnic show, setting the track ablaze.

The grapevine, coupled with the on-camera proof and Keselowski?s pit crew intel, suggests the impromptu fireworks were due to the routine fuel spillage during pit stops. However, the plot thickens when Dalton Leonard’s, the man behind the tire gun for Buescher, quick-change act misfires. A rogue spark danced into the spilled gas, turning the car’s rear into a fleeting fireball.

Yet, in a show of mettle and grit, Dalton soldiered on, hell-bent on ensuring Buescher didn?t lose precious time. As Leonard recounted, “I am thinking I’ve got to finish this stop because we are coming down under caution, so it?s not like it?s under green. You don?t have that little bit of wiggle room, and we are in the playoffs. So, there?s no time to be given, and we have to finish the stop. So, just sit in it, deal with it for 3?4 seconds at most, and get Chris on his way.”

And when the NASCAR legion voiced that Dalton deserved more than just a pat on the back for his fiery dedication, his response was golden: “I saw several comments saying that I need a raise, and fire is strictly in the job description; that?s a part of it. It can happen at any given stop, and we try to minimize it, but it?s part of it. This candid spirit surely revved up the admiration meters of countless NASCAR enthusiasts.

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Basking in the spotlight, but Keselowski’s employees are not hungry for the hero badge

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Despite their swift action during the fiery incident being worthy of applause, Keselowski’s crew humbly sidesteps any praise. Musing on the episode, Nicolas Patterson, the maestro with the jack for Buescher’s No. 17, chalked it up to a pit-stop blunder. And while many in the NASCAR fraternity hailed the team as “heroes”, Patterson shrugged off the accolade, suggesting they were merely setting things right.

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In his own words, “You don?t want to be considered a hero because technically we made a mistake. But to correct it, it was really a heads-up.”

It’s true that to err is human, but errors on the racetrack can be fatal. Whether they acknowledge it or not, it’s these unsung champions who often bear the brunt, ensuring drivers cross the finish line without a hitch.