Brad Keselowski Blasts Riley Herbst After “Stupid” Daytona 500 Crash

Brad Keselowski firmly believes that Riley Herbst is to blame for the former's crash and P5 finish at the Daytona 500.

Brad Keselowski Blasts Riley Herbst After “Stupid” Daytona 500 Crash

The 'Big One' crash at Daytona (via Getty), Brad Keselowski (via motorsport.com)

In Short
  • Brad Keselowski criticized Riley Herbst for a reckless move that ended his chances at the Daytona 500.
  • Keselowski described Herbst's actions as one of the dumbest things he has ever witnessed in racing.
  • Despite the crash, Keselowski expressed pride in his performance after recovering from a knee injury.

The Daytona 500 did not turn out to be positive for many drivers apart from the likes of Tyler Reddick and others. Brad Keselowski suffered from a disappointing end to the race. Keselowski was caught up in the ‘big one’ and lost his shot at the race win. Now, the RFK Racing star hits out at Riley Herbst, blaming him for ending the former’s winning chances at Daytona.

Brad Keselowski was looking strong to contend for the race win against Tyler Reddick, coming off Turn 4 right before the big crash that picked up over 20 drivers. However, he couldn’t even dream of winning the race, as his chances to win disappeared right before his eyes because of the crash. Now, despite Justin Allgaier taking the blame for the crash, Keselowski has still fired some shots at Riley Herbst.

Brad Keselowski did not hesitate to heavily criticize Riley Herbst for his antics at the Daytona 500, despite him not being completely at fault. Further, Keselowski highlighted that Herbst committed to one of the dumbest moves he had ever witnessed in his career. The RFK Racing star reckoned that he had no shot at blocking the former’s chance at victory without ending his race early.

Looking back at the incident, Brad Keselowski reckoned that he would have liked to find out how he would have fared if he had not crashed with Riley Herbst. Sadly for Keselowski, he was unable to end his winless streak, which he has been going through since the 2024 season. For now, the RFK Racing star will look back at the race and figure out where he could have performed better to ultimately achieve the race win.

The 35 [Herbst] just wrecked me out of nowhere for no reason, That was one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. He had no chance of blocking my run. I had a huge run — I don’t know if I could have gotten to the 45, but I would have liked to have found out because my run was coming fast and the 35 just wrecked us and himself. Pretty stupid.

Brad Keselowski told John Newby of Savage Ventures.

Brad Keselowski sees the positive in the Daytona crash following his leg injury recovery

Brad Keselowski had missed out on the Bowman Gray Clash as he recovered from a past knee injury because of his skiing trip. The RFK Racing star gained the NASCAR license just a few days ahead of the Daytona weekend. As such, Keselowski reckoned that with limited mileage ahead of the race, he performed pretty well all things considered.

Brad Keselowski (via The Daily Downforce)
Brad Keselowski (via The Daily Downforce)

Speaking on the entire race, Brad Keselowski noted that he was proud of himself for making it this far in the race. Keselowski recalled how he was uncertain if he would even be able to run the race because of the injury. Still, he was disappointed not to bring the victory home after a long-fought battle on the track. The 42-year-old accepted that such wreck situations were more of a roll of the dice and no one intentionally crashed into one another.

I’m proud to make it this far, a few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to run this race. To run this race and get an opportunity to win it, that feels pretty good. I’m just disappointed to not bring it home. At the end, it’s a roll of the dice of who’s going to wreck who, who’s going to make good moves and bad moves, and the dice didn’t fully roll our way.

Brad Keselowski noted.

The 2026 season has just begun, and it is a long ride until the season finale in Phoenix. Brad Keselowski still salvaged a P5 finish at the Daytona 500 race and walked out of the weekend with decent points scored. Now that he has made a full recovery, he will look forward to the upcoming AutoTrader 400 at the EchoPark Speedway.

Read More: It Feels Like I Won a Championship!” Michael Jordan Is Over the Moon as Tyler Reddick Wins 2026 Daytona 500