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Atlanta NASCAR Cup race winner Brad Keselowski admitted that the illness he suffered during the weekend had made him question whether he would be fit enough to compete.
Penske called up its Xfinity Series driver Austin Cindric as a substitute for much of Saturday practice while Keselowski was trying to overcome flu-like symptoms.
Keselowski ultimately decided he was fit to race and held off Martin Truex Jr to secure the new Ford Mustang’s first Cup Series win and his 60th race victory for Penske – taking him past Mark Donohue to top the team’s win statistics.
Asked whether he was close to not racing, Keselowski replied: “Yeah, I wouldn’t have made this race [on Saturday]. I was nowhere near good enough.
“But thankfully the team here at the care centre helped me out.
“They pumped me with a couple of IVs and got me as good as I could be for the race.
“I wasn’t in very good shape. I lost five and a half, six pounds in less than 10 hours, and I was going the wrong way quick.
“Thankfully it all turned around late [on Saturday], and I appreciate the help of those in the care centre to make it possible.”
Keselowski won at Pocono in 2011 (pictured below) while driving with a broken ankle sustained in a violent Watkins Glen testing crash.
He was asked if winning while suffering with flu was the closest the modern era would get to famous NASCAR tales such as Ricky Rudd contesting the 1984 Daytona 500 with his eyes taped open to combat swelling from a horrific accident in the non-championship Clash race a week earlier.
“I don’t know if that’s fair for me to answer,” said Keselowski.
“There’s always somebody fighting through something. We’ve seen drivers with torn ACLs and broken fingers and wrists and things like that. I had to race once on a broken ankle.
“No, I don’t think you’re ever going to see guys taping their eyeballs open again, although I do think that was pretty cool.
“But there certainly is always going to be a part of this where you’re going to have to play when you’re not 100%.
“You get a little bit of adrenaline in you and you can get over that stuff pretty quickly, and it might not be the most fun I’ve ever had as a race car driver, but once you get to Victory Lane, you’re not going to remember the pain.”