Brad Keselowski takes blame for surprising error that cost him the lead

Experienced driver Keselowski had to pass a lot of cars to get a well-earned top ten finish at Pocono, but it could have been so much more

The RFK Racing co-owner was leading the way on Lap 56 at Pocono Raceway when he made a shocking error. Cameras cut to Brad Keselowski as he entered pit road, but he was the only one doing so. The reason? Pit road was closed and Keselowski had just willingly given up all of his track position. It was a stunning mistake by the No. 6 team and one they spent most of the race trying to make up for.

"When we were going down the short chute, the team said pit this time and I had no reason to challenge that," Keselowski told NASCAR on Prime. "Ultimately, I hold the steering wheel and I'm the one that's gotta check and I didn't check the crew chief and the spotter -- that's my fault."

To pit or not to pit

Brad Keselowski, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Keselowski did fight his way back up inside the top five, even taking the lead through the final cycle of green-flag pit stops. But misfortune wasn't done with him just yet. Crew chief Jeremy Bullins called him to pit road, but Keselowski wanted to stay out a little bit longer, taking advantage of the clean air. And that's when the caution flag flew, derailing his day once again.

"We had a great car today," said Keselowski. "Our Ford Mustang was really good. We got the lead there in the first stage and we felt like we were in control and lost control of the race early with the pit road penalty. I thought we recovered really well from that, got up to third or fourth there. We kind of had a strategy to run long and the yellow came out in the middle of the cycle and cycled us back to the end there."

However, Keselowski did not give up, fighting from 24th on the final restart to finish ninth as RFK Racing put all three cars inside the top ten.

Speaking more about the costly decision to run long, Keselowski added that his crew chief "asked me to pit the lap before and I was in a clean air spot and I wanted to keep running, taking advantage of my tires. If I would have pitted, the yellow would have come out while we were on pit road. We probably would have cycled inside the top ten on new tires. Might have had a shot to win the race. So, I feel bad about not taking advantage of that."