Jimmie Johnson won his third consecutive Texas fall race but it was not the highlight of the race event.
Jeff Gordon was left the even with a cut on his lip while his fierce competitor Brad Keselowski had a puffy face to look at with him rinsing it off with water to wash away the blood from his mouth.
But what happened? The race ruckus happened when Keselowski's move to pass Gordon entering turn one on lap 336 of the 341 lap race. Keselowski moved to the middle of the track to go inside Gordon, who restarted on the outside line in second, and the outside of Jimmie Johnson, the race leader. As Keselowski moved to the open space, Gordon came down, and the two drivers slammed into each other.
According to Keselowski "I couldn't even tell you what happened. Just a melee of people."
An irritated Gordon confronted Keselowski right after the collision with punches flying around. The fight was witnessed by NASCAR officials in the middle of crew members and others around Keselowski's No. 2 car.
Keselowski added "'We were just racing for the win. I didn't wreck him, and just raced him hard. He left a hole. Everything you watch in racing, you leave a hole, you're supposed to go for it. I don't want to ruin anyone's day. I wanted to win the race and that was the opportunity."
While a pissed Gordon who finished 29th while Keselowski was third said "The way he races, I don't know how he ever won a championship. This is why everyone is fighting with him. There wasn't any conversation. You can't have a conversation with him. There's big consequences. To me, it's just a bunch of crap. The kid is just doing stuff way over his head."
NASCAR senior vice president of competition and racing development, Robin Pemberton said that he had no issues with the hard race in Texas but was not particularly happy of the brawl.
He said "You shouldn't punch somebody. Everybody gets together, and when you're holding on to each other and grabbing and this, that and the other, it's one thing. When punches are landed, that's a different scenario."
