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“Clint Bowyer Always Has to Play a Part”: Jeff Gordon Finally Reveals Guilt Over Infamous Brad Keselowski Brawl

Published 01/24/2023, 11:44 AM EST

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Back in 2014, there was an incident between Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski. This all kicked off at the Texas Motor Speedway during a restart when Gordon and teammate Jimmie Johnson were leading the field. Keselowski was just behind them and had a better restart, so he made an opportunistic move on Gordon.

Unfortunately, the two of them clipped each other, resulting in a puncture for Gordon. Later on, the fuming Hendrick Motorsports driver stormed over to brawl with his rival. Recently, he reflected on the incident and admitted that it was partly his fault.

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He told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, “Now I definitely would have done Texas 2014 over. I never told Brad Keselowski this, took me a little while to admit this to him. I missed the restart, first of all, we had multiple restarts.

Of course, Clint Bowyer always has to play a part in all this. It’s just the Clint Bowyer way. He spun out for that last restart, and that’s what caused that caution to come out. We had a couple of restarts prior to that, and I nailed them and was in a great spot to win the race. Then that last one came out, thank you Clint, and honestly, it was on me. I missed the restart, and he did exactly what he should have done, he filled the gap and it’s not like he just slammed me.”

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Did Jeff Gordon apologize to Brad Keselowski?

Obviously, the two of them would have patched things up and let bygones be bygones. At the end of the day, the contact was a bit minor, but Jeff Gordon simply snapped in the heat of the moment. Looking back on the incident and subsequent fallout, he was man enough to admit his own mistake and later confessed to Keselowski.

via Getty

Gordon continued, “It’s just one of those things. He fills the gap, I’m trying to block the gap. I’m trying to get back to the quarter panel—I think it was Jimmie—and win the race. I still felt like I could have, up until that happened. So, that was mainly just me really angry about the situation, and also angry at myself.

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I do go back through those situations, I must have shifted at Pocono, years ago leading the race. There’s a bunch of things like that, where you go, ’93 wins, that’s amazing! That’s awesome! Could have been a 100, maybe.'”

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Now, the 4-time NASCAR Cup Series champion has retired from racing. However, he is still associated with the sport because he is the Vice President at Hendrick Motorsports. Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski is still racing and also has dipped a toe into the realm of team ownership.

WATCH THIS STORY: Ryan Blaney & Bubba Wallace Deemed Favorites by NASCAR Fans to Repeat Jeff Gordon’s Impressive Feat

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Motorsports author for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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Edited by:

Nischal Kandpal