“Eat or be eaten”: Brad Keselowski strongly reflects on Mark Martin wrecking him for JRM’s first win and the hard ‘racing lesson’ that followed

Recently on the Door, Bumper, Clear podcast, NASCAR legend Mark Martin reminisced about wiping out Brad Keselowski en route to his maiden win for JR Motorsports. It all happened on March 1, 2008, during the Sam’s Town 300 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Back then, Keselowski drove the No. 88 entry for the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned team. Running upfront, the Cup Series veteran thought he would get the organization its first Xfinity Series triumph.

Towards the end of the race, Keselowski received tough competition from then teammate Carl Edwards, who is now retired. They were running side by side, while Martin tailed the duo, looking for an opportunity to pass his fellow drivers.

Martin soon ran out of patience and decided to push Edwards a little. But the move took out both Keselowski and Edwards and gave Martin the opening he needed to log his 48th career Nationwide Series win.

Martin recalled the incident and said,

"I thought I would give Carl a little push, and it wiped out Carl and Brad. Yeah, so it wasn't too pretty and Brad has never forgot it."

Reacting to Mark Martin’s comments on the DBC podcast, Keselowski wrote (via X, formerly Twitter),

“Mark is right… he was faster and I didn’t forget. It was a particularly challenging time in my career. Desperate for success, hanging on to my dream by a thread, I kept getting wrecked for wins & It hardened me in a lot of ways that would ruffle feathers in the years to come.” “My days of being upset have passed, my heart is full of forgiveness, yet the racing lessons remain- Eat or be Eaten,” he added.

Well, Mark Martin doesn’t race anymore. Keselowski, on the other hand, races full time in the NASCAR Cup Series for RFK Racing, a Concord, North Carolina-based team which he co-owns as well. One could say that the drivers are now well over their 2008 fracas.

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"They wanna see whatever the broadcast partners want”- Mark Martin calls out NASCAR owners and broadcast partners

Speaking with Frontstretch during a virtual interview, Mark Martin said that most fans are still in favor of the old full-season points format. He then called out the NASCAR Cup Series team owners as well as the sport’s broadcast partners for favoring the current 10-race playoff format.

“I’ve seen a couple of active drivers hint that they wouldn’t mind seeing that [full-season points format],” Martin said. “You can’t expect them to tell the truth, because that’s how they make their living. But everyone that you get your information from is beholden to the TV money.”

The way Mark Martin sees it, the broadcast partners do not understand racing at all. Although the current system makes it easier for the journalists to cover the sport, Martin thinks that the actual winner gets lost in the obsession with the playoffs.

“A lot of the fans want to fault NASCAR — yeah, maybe, but I fault the owners, too. They’re addicted to the money. They wanna see whatever the broadcast partners want,” the Hall of Famer added.

That being said, NASCAR is all set to host its 23rd race of the season at Iowa Speedway. Scheduled for this coming Sunday, August 3, the Iowa Corn 350 will be televised on the USA network from 3:30 pm ET onwards. Exclusive radio updates will be available on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Edited by Anisha Chatterjee