“Gave up their opportunity to win”: Bubba Wallace’s spotter drops unfiltered take on RFK’s Iowa decision for Brad Keselowski

Bubba Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft, thought that the fuel strategy that RFK Racing came up with last Sunday at Iowa Speedway was exactly what took away Brad Keselowski’s opportunity to bag his maiden win of the season. Keselowski salvaged a P3, but that wasn’t the finish he was expecting.

Keselowski’s crew chief, Jeremy Bullins, felt that their plan to stay out at Lap 212 of the 350-lap race would work. The No. 6 team failed to feed enough fuel inside Keselowski’s Mustang during a pit stop on Lap 172, which meant that he would be able to go till about Lap 250, 20-25 laps down.

Keselowski didn’t want to give up track positions, so he stayed out until Zane Smith got wrecked on Lap 229. The caution came out, and the former Cup champ committed to the pit road on Lap 231. He was 26th before the impending restart.

“The caution comes out right before the end of the stage,” Kraft explained (40:00). “I felt like they gave up their opportunity to win the race right there because they kind of put themselves in a box for me where you know at 206 where there's four to go at the stage...there's going to be a large number of cars that flip the stage.” "Once they stayed out, they kinda made their bed where they were banking on the fact that we'll stay out here...and we're going to hope to God to run halfway into the stage, get another yellow and now everybody comes back and we're still leading,” Kraft added.

However, there were five more cautions over the final 119 laps. Needless to say, the strategy didn’t work. Others were able to capitalize on those cautions, but Brad Keselowski’s advantage ended up nowhere.

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Brad Keselowski opens up about the cautions that “shifted the dynamics” of Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350

Brad Keselowski is one of the drivers who have yet to log their maiden win of the season. Only three races remain until the playoffs begin. For someone like Keselowski, who sits 19th in the championship standings, 121 points behind the playoffs cut-line, winning is a must at this point.

Keselowski was visibly disappointed at how things turned out for him at Iowa.

“We had an opportunity today, but yeah, it's disappointing to not be able to get the win," Keselowski said in his post-race interview. “We put ourselves in position. We can't control what we can't control, and we need to focus on what we can.” “We couldn't control all the yellows that shifted the dynamics of the race today away from us. It's unfortunate, but I love the position we were in and the speed that we had,” he added.

Next up for Brad Keselowski is the Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. Fans can watch the 90-lap race live on USA (August 10, 2 pm ET) or listen to its radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Edited by Pratham K Sharma