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Keselowski not worried what others think: from a media press conference after qualifying 2nd at Phoenix, #2-Brad Keselowski answers some questions pertaining to the brawl at Texas and waht drivers think of him:
Q) IT SEEMS THE MAIN BEEF WITH YOU IS THEY FEEL YOU DON'T LISTEN TO THEM AFTER THE RACE AND YOU TURN YOUR BACK WHEN PEOPLE WANT TO TALK. DO YOU FEEL THERE'S ANY VALIDITY TO THAT?
Keselowski: "To answer your first thing, I honestly haven't paid that much attention to it. I knew early on in the week it was gonna be one of those weeks and I kind of put my head down and focused on Phoenix and my Madden team to kind of get me through, so I honestly haven't spent a lot of time with all that stuff and the rhetoric. I think at the end of the day we all have our own biases. I don't think it's really productive for me to get into the he-said, she-said because at the end of the day we disagree. That kind of is what it is. I think the more I dig into becoming what someone else wants me to be, the less I stay who I am and who I am is someone who can win races and be a championship threat year over year with a great team that supports me, a great cast of family and friends. I'm not looking to become what everyone else wants me to become, so I have not spent a lot of time on that rhetoric and I don't wish to spend a lot of time trying to justify anything I do or don't do. I feel pretty good about the actions I've taken. Certainly I'm not perfect. I've made some bad ones, but I didn't make any bad ones last week and I still feel that way."
Q) DO YOU THINK ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR ACTIONS AND IF YOU WOULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY WHEN JEFF GORDON CAME UP TO TALK TO YOU?
Keselowski: "You always think about that stuff. I've thought about it and moved on, and feel good about it."
Q) DO YOU FEEL THE SIX WEEK SUSPENSION FOR THE CREWMEN WHO PUNCHED WAS APPROPRIATE?
Keselowski: "I didn't really think that much about it. They took an action. Again, I go back to I have my own set of biases on that, obviously. I don't envy their job, that being NASCAR, at any given time. I'm glad I'm a competitor and not an official because I think no matter what decision they would have made there would be someone saying it was the wrong one. I'm not sitting here clapping for joy or angry either way on that direction. I don't take any pleasure in someone else's pain, so it kind of is what it is there. That's why I haven't put a lot of thought into it. I hate to use that cliché, but I can't spend all my time worrying about the other people. I have to worry about winning this weekend, this race, and this championship. That's where my focus is and will continue to be. Really, a lot of these conversations and a lot of these talking points are meant to serve as a distraction, so to sit here and really comment on a lot of them would really be to justify them because I know the things that I'm doing are the right things."(Ford Racing)(11-8-2014)

Gordon comments about Keselowski: #24-Jeff Gordon met with members of the media at Phoenix and discussed last week's post-race incident with Brad Keselowski, the transcript in part:
Q) LOOKING BACK TO LAST WEEK THE AFTER THE RACE INCIDENT. DOES THAT ESCALATE THE WAY IT DOES IF (KEVIN) HARVICK DOESN'T HELP YOU OUT?
Gordon: "Well, it escalates because Brad (Keselowski) didn't want to face the situation. Those pit crew guys were kind of in the middle of that. The thing that I feel terrible about is getting my guys involved with it. I feel like if we could have just had a face-to-face there would have been no incident. But Kevin (Harvick) played a role; there is no doubt about that. I didn't realize who it was at the time. I thought it was him, but it wasn't until I went back and saw it later on video and got a good chuckle out of that one that I realized what had happened. It certainly played a role. Let me address this. I think there is a little bit of misunderstanding. I have no issue with a guy being aggressive and making a bold move. If you win the race and the guy that you slam finishes third or fourth I will be the first one to stand up and say that was awesome, that was a great move. But when you don't win the race and you ruin a person's day then there are consequences that you are going to have to deal with. How you handle yourself after that is a part of that. To me if you are going to compare to the greats of this sport that have been aggressive over the years, you also have to compare how they handle themselves in those situations afterwards. The ones that I have had to deal with on that, they know how to not make enemies, they might not have a lot of friends out there, but they also don't have a lot of enemies. If they do they seem to find a way to patch that up fairly quickly."
Q) OBVIOUSLY YOU ARE STILL MAD ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED SO HOW DO YOU RACE BRAD (KESELOWSKI) GOING FORWARD?
Gordon: "I'm not mad about it. I'm ready to move on and focus on Phoenix. I race people the way they race me. If I am in a situation that I feel like I can make a bold move that I think is going to help me win the race and he stands in the way then I'm going to do the same thing that he did to me last week. The difference is if the same results happen how I'm going to deal with it afterwards and face him on that. So, my goal is to make sure that we have the fastest race car that we possibly can in qualifying, practice and the race. To go out there and win this race, that is our goal. I can't think about what may happen, what might not happen, how I'm going to approach each restart and all that stuff. You just don't know. But, I also know that the way I have raced over the years have gotten me here is that balance between aggressiveness and patience's and feeling like when it is worth taking the risk and when it's not worth it."
Q) WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN A SITUATION WHEN YOU APPROACH SOMEONE ON PIT ROAD LIKE YOU DID BRAD?
Gordon: "To be able to just have a conversation to discuss what their decision making process was at that time. Yes, it ruins your day; you want somebody to have a little bit of sympathy. Doesn't mean you have to take back what you did...it means you have to understand what it did for the other person. And that certainly is not the way that one was handled."
Q) SO JUST TO CLARIFY, NEITHER YOU NOR BRAD KESELOWSKI HAS REACHED OUT TO THE OTHER SINCE LAST SUNDAY?
Gordon: "No."
Q) ARE THE MODERN DRIVERS JUST GETTING AWAY FROM SOME SORT OF 'CODE' OR WAY OF SHOWING REMORSE?
Gordon: "Well, I don't believe in the whole texting thing and calling. I like face-to-face. But there's a period of time that needs to go by before; sometimes you can do face-to-face. But typically, I want it to happen immediately on both sides. And then, if that doesn't occur, then I'd like to wait until the next weekend when I can see them face-to-face. Or, if I run into them somewhere, I don't know. But I'm not one to do the calling and texting. That's just not the way I believe it should be done. I can't speak for what other guys say and do and how they should do it."(Team Chevy)(11-8-2014)
Harvick has no problem with how Keselowski races...but: #4-Kevin Harvick met with members at Phoenix on Friday and discussed post-race at Texas last week, the transcript in part:
Q) WHEN YOU PUSHED HIM (BRAD KESELOWSKI) IT ENDED UP IGNITING THE BRAWL, BUT THEY WEREN'T BRAWLING AT THAT TIME. WERE YOU JUST TRYING TO GET HIM TOWARD HIM AND SAY 'HEY GO TALK TO HIM' OR WERE YOU TRYING TO START A FIGHT?
Harvick: "No, I think for me... honestly I was leaning on the back of the car just kind of taking it all in and seeing what was going on. I have been in that situation with him (Brad Keselowski) before. For me it is like the week of two totally opposite situations. I have no problem with the way Brad races. I think he races hard. I think that is what we are all supposed to do and in those positions you would probably do the same thing yourself. But, I think that the problem that I have with it I have been in that situation with him before and have him turn his back on me and just walk off. I don't think that is the appropriate way to handle those types of situations. It just kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I reacted and obviously didn't really realize that it was going to ignite that. All in all it just kind of rubs me the wrong way when you have to just turn your back on situations and walk off and mumble your way off into no man's land and not just handle the situation. I think in those situations you at least deserve, even if you are going to get yelled at or whatever the case may be, you at least need to handle it like it needs to be handled."
Q) YOU ARE NOT KIND OF SNICKERING ABOUT THE WHOLE THING?
"I think in the end, you guys know, I love the controversy. But I think in the end the difficult part for me is to go home and realize that one day you are going to have to answer those questions to your son. It's definitely two different sides and how you have to look at it and how you have to approach it. I think you look at Martinsville and how that situation was handled. I have a lot of respect for Matt (Kenseth) and what he does on the race track. You leave the track and you talk about things and you figure out what went wrong and how to handle things moving forward. There is just never that opportunity really presented with Brad (Keselowski) and I think that is what frustrates me. I'm not going to speak for everybody else."(Team Chevy)(11-8-2014)

Phoenix International Raceway