Brad Keselowski praises NASCAR’s Next Gen car safety following recent William Byron run-in

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen on September 15 saw a huge wreck between Brad Keselowski and William Byron. To the utter relief of the fans, both drivers walked away unharmed from their battered cars. With that said, Keselowski praised NASCAR for enforcing an added layer of safety to the left-rear corner of the car, which he thought had protected him from the impact.

It all happened following a late-race restart. Byron, who drives the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports, rammed into the left rear quarter window of Keselowski's RFK Racing Mustang after the latter took a hit from fellow Ford driver, Joey Logano. The cars brushed the wall for a few yards before coming to a halt.

Here is the damage caused by the No. 24 Chevy (via RFK Racing/X):

According to a recent report by Motorsport, Keselowski's helmet was "just inches away from Byron’s splitter and tire." So how did Keselowski not sustain any damage at all? Before diving deeper, let's look back at a Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway from last year.

Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson was running through the pack when his car got turned due to an impact from a fellow racer. Stewart-Haas Racing's Ryan Preece, who was right behind, was not able to avoid Larson and hit the right side of the latter's No. 5 car. As a result, the safety cage in the 32-year-old's car broke and a piece of the tube came protruding out.

Later, NASCAR studied the wrecked car and came up with an additional tubing to the left rear corner, that could provide the driver an additional layer of safety during similar instances. This explains how Keselowski escaped any injury to his head at "The Glen".

Fast forward to today, the 40-year-old lauded NASCAR for making the adjustment in a recent post on X and said:

"Big dent. Credit where it’s due, this area is very safe."

Keselowski fell out of the playoff picture after last week's race at the Bristol Motor Speedway, where he finished 26th. Nevertheless, he will start his engine next week at the Kansas Speedway, a tri-oval intermediate speedway located in Kansas City, which is expected to host the opening race of the Round of 12.

"Just got to be faster"- Brad Keselowski pinpoints RFK Racing's shortcoming

Brad Keselowski qualified 23rd for last Sunday's race at the Bristol Motor Speedway while his teammate, Chris Buescher, started 17th in Row 9, alongside Front Row Motorsports driver, Michael McDowell. The 40-year-old finished the race 26th while Buescher delivered a P14 finish.

Brad Keselowski was one of the four drivers to exit the playoff rumble. Although determined to return stronger next year, the 40-year-old speedster recalled his lackluster performance during a post-race interview at Bristol (via The Speedway Digest) and said:

"Didn't have the pace we needed out of our Castrol Ford. We ran as hard as we could, but there wasn't anything there. Executed what we had to execute with on pit road, and took the chances we needed to take. But just got to be faster."

"We don't want to just make the playoffs, we want to go deep in the playoffs. Obviously, we didn't do that this year so we've got to keep working and find more pace," he added.

However, Brad Keselowski does have seven more races to earn his second win of the season and the 36th of his Cup career. Fans can watch the former NASCAR Cup Series champion in action next week (September 29) on NBC Sports and USA from 3 PM ET onwards.