The Great American Gateway 400 at Pocono Raceway made huge headlines for several reasons. Chase Briscoe from Joe Gibbs Racing punched his ticket to the playoffs, fending off his teammate Denny Hamlin. But, despite the massive win for Briscoe, it was Brad Keselowski who became the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. The pit road blunder by the #6 team might have cost the veteran driver last Sunday.

Although Keselowski and RFK Racing posted another solid run with all three cars finishing inside the top 10, this was indeed a lost opportunity. And NASCAR Insiders like Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton shared their take on the pit road fumble that might’ve cost Keselowski a potential win or a playoff spot.

RFK Racing cannot afford another big fumble for Brad Keselowski

Steve Letarte shared a clip from the Inside the Race podcast on X and discussed what could’ve possibly gone wrong with Brad Keselowski’s pit road mishap. On lap 55, Keselowski’s sudden decision to enter the closed pit road cost him all the track position. NASCAR penalized the team, and the driver was sent to the rear of the field. No one on the team, the crew chief, spotter or the driver was on the same page, and that led to this incident.

“I do have the list of drivers that made the day more difficult, Brad, Blaney and Byron. For Brad, let’s start with the egregious mistake… There’s actually a radio conversation there. They thought they just came on pit road by themselves. It took almost a lap for them to realize it was closed. You pit when pit road is closed. That means you are tail end. This is just, um, like I said, I don’t want to make it sound like it’s, it’s, uh, it happens. People make this mistake, but this is a little like the briscoe not waiting for it be full. This is a mental or a communication mistake on the entire six organization.”

A communicative and mental error for the No. 6 team cost them a shot at the win at Pocono.

Let’s talk about it. 👇 pic.twitter.com/1qCOU81Ke1

— Steve Letarte (@SteveLetarte) June 23, 2025

Ideally, TJ Major’s who is spotting for the #6 car, should relay the message to the driver about the pit lane being closed. Even if that channel doesn’t work, the crew chief, Jeremy Bullins, should have a better idea about the situation and get back to Keselowski with that information. Even that didn’t work in this case, as they were sitting ducks and had no clue. The veteran driver did mention that the team had asked him to pit, “When we were going down to short shoot, the team said pit, this time, and I had no reason to challenge that.”

However, Keselowski was the one who made the final call, and despite the bright red flashing lights, he decided to pit all alone. “Ultimately, I hold the steering wheel and I’m the one that’s gotta check, and I gotta be the check for that. I didn’t check the crew chief or the spotter, and that’s my fault.” Meanwhile, William Byron had an off weekend, starting at the rear after the qualifying crash. The #24 was the fastest car in practice, but despite some early flashes in stage 1, Byron was mired in traffic. He ultimately ended the day with a 27th-place finish.

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Ryan Blaney once again fighting adversity at Pocono

After the starter on the No.12 car was replaced, Blaney had to start the race from the rear. Like Byron, he had his back against the wall on a track where he won last year. As if things couldn’t be bad for him, on lap 15th, his cooling suit malfunctioned, and that caused him more trouble. He made little progress but couldn’t score a ton of points in stage 1.

The #12 team used cautions to their advantage in stage 2, but yet again, the script flipped on him, and he restarted on the rear. But thanks to the team’s decision to pit for fuel in stage 2, they finally caught a lucky break on lap 78 as the caution forced the field to pit and with 20 to go, a short stop saw him gain track position, ending the stage 2 with an eighth-place finish.

In the final stage, the Penske driver found himself in contention for the win and was chasing down the #11 and #19 Toyota Camry. But despite Briscoe being in fuel-saving mode, Blaney couldn’t get clear of Hamlin, and the JGR cars finished 1-2. It was a solid points day for the #12 team, but had it not been for the cool suit malfunction or the pit strategy gamble, they could’ve had more than a P3 finish.