HAMPTON, Ga. -- A late caution disrupted Brad Keselowski's strategy last weekend at Pocono Raceway, but don't expect the No. 6 team to be more cautious as they continue to pursue a playoff-sealing win.
Sure, this particular gamble of running long and getting track position didn't pay off at Pocono, but it certainly could later in the season.
"It's like the age old blackjack story where you sit down at the table and you don't hit on 16 and the next card that comes up was a 4 and you lose and you're like, 'Wow, that was pretty dumb,'" Keselowski said in response to a question from AltDriver at EchoPark Speedway.
"And so your tendency the next time is, 'Let's hit,' and then you get a face card and you bust. It's kind of like you pick a path and you stick to the path. When you flip-flop back and forth on the path, I've always believed that's when you make a mistake because a lot of those shots are 50/50 shots and they come back and that's what I meant."
Of course, having a gamble pay off is only part of the process. Once you get that track position, you have to have a car capable of staying out front and leading laps.
That's the part that caused frustration in the RFK Racing camp last weekend at Pocono Raceway. The No. 6 had race-winning speed, which Keselowski put on display multiple times. He used this speed to go from outside the top 20 to inside the top 10 in the closing laps. He just ran out of time to work his way further through the field.
"You've just got to make sure that when it does go your way you're fast enough to make it count and it didn't go our way at Pocono," Keselowski added. "We were good enough to make it count if it did and that's just the breaks."
Gambling on strategy is a time-honored tradition in NASCAR. It has helped numerous drivers throughout the decades win races.
Sometimes, they ran long waiting on a caution. Other times, they gambled by making an early stop because they felt a caution could happen at any time.
Joey Logano, in particular, can point to multiple fuel gambles as one reason for his championship win last season. Yet, he is far from the only driver who has embraced these gambles in recent seasons. Keselowski's teammates are also big supporters.
"In this garage, with our cars as close as they are throughout the entire field, with as much dirty air as we deal with and as hard as it is to pass in so many of these racetracks, when you look at how close this thing really is, I think you have to be willing to take some gambles, take some chances, knowing that they're not always going to work out," Chris Buescher said.
"Ultimately, I think that is really the easiest way to differentiate yourselves from just being stuck in that same spot for an entire race. So, no, I think it's important to understand the risk, but certainly don't let off the throttle."