Testing at Road Atlanta Wednesday morning included a hard crash for Brad Keselowski that resulted in him being airlifted to the hospital.
Keselowski later tweeted that he was going 155mph when his brakes failed on a right-hand turn and he slid into a non-SAFER barrier at approx. 100mph. His left ankle is badly sprained, he has a right ankle laceration and also has a lower back strain.
ESPN's Marty Smith reported that Keslowski is perhaps being optimistic when he says he will race this weekend. He was scheduled to do the double and race both in Iowa and Pocono. RaceHub reported Sam Hornish and Parker Kligerman will be on standby for the Cup and Nationwide Series races in case Keselowski can't go.
The most interesting social media portion of this incident was that Jimmie Johnson was the amateur reporter and photographer on scene. The #48 team was also testing at the track that day. The pictures above are from Johnson via Twitter. He also spoke directly on Twitter with Keselowski about what happened and his condition in the hospital.
In response, Keselowski tweeted pictures of his injured ankle, which we will just describe as rather graphic. It certainly is interesting how the flow of information about topics in the sport is now often provided directly by the parties involved.
I would urge any hardcore NASCAR fan to subscribe to Twitter. It's easy to build a customized list of specific NASCAR interests. While detractors try to suggest that Twitter is about who ate what for lunch, nothing could be further from the truth.
Fans regularly interact directly with drivers, teams and reporters. Information by teams and tracks is updated continually, NASCAR itself offers twitter accounts for every series and many of the top executives are active as well. It's great for the sport in many ways.
If you need any help getting on Twitter or have any questions, just drop me a line at editor.dp@hotmail.com. Thanks as always for stopping by.
I use twitter to follow Nascar, golf and Green Bay Packer players.
ReplyDeleteToday Bubba Smith past away and Bubba Watson (golfer) tweeted and said he was named after Bubba Smith.
I don't often tweet back to anyone. Just read tweets from people I follow.
You can choose who you follow and if decide this person wasn't that interesting you can just un-follow this person.
You can customize your own twitter and who you follow.
Charlie, I'm about as hooked on Twitter as I am on Facebook. What an addiction. I must say the "like" factor for Jimmie Johnson has gone way up since he joined Twitter. Who knew he would be so personable and fan friendly and had such a great personality. I'm totally impressed with him. And I like the Kes a lot, too, but pleasantly surprised by JJ.
ReplyDeletewhy testing at Road Atlanta?
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the picture of Brad's ankle, I have no idea how he thinks he's going to race this weekend.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you had followed Jimmie Johnson on Twitter, you'd have seen his Tweets of pictures of "mini Chad" and about died laughing.
Twitter is the best, as JD says, because you can actually interact with these drivers one-on-one.
anonoymous#1-
ReplyDeleteTesting is only allowed at non-NASCAR sanctioned tracks. Many teams test for road courses at Road Atlanta
I started following JJ when he started using Twitter. Not because I'm a fan of his and I'm not, but just because I wanted to hear his take on things.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've seen since is not the vanilla driver I thought he was. He has a wicked sense of humor as he showed again yesterday with his saga of "mini Chad" tweets. It was hilarious!
He was there at the track and was the first to send out pictures of Brad's wreck. And keep us updated on Brad's condition along with Brad himself tweeting. Good job Jimmie and Brad keeping the fans informed of what was going on with Twitter.
Jimmie did such a good job yesterday, I think some of the lame stream NASCAR media should be afraid of being replaced. JJ showed that this reporting stuff isn't that hard at all. Good job Jimmie.
For those of you not on Twitter, you're missing a lot. Sure there's a lot of BS on Twitter, but as you use it you'll find out who to follow and who to not follow. It's a great source on information, especially on race weekends.
Another vote for the usefulness & appeal of Twitter in terms of information distribution, breaking news, glimpses into NASCAR personal lives & varied opinions. Do research in picking which accounts are best & definitely make use of lists to keep it organized & not overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteHornish is officially in for Keselowski at Iowa.
ReplyDeleteRoad Atlanta is actually one of the tracks that probably deserves its race back on the schedule, especially if we lose Montreal.
Update from Jayski: Kilgerman will practice Keselowski's Nationwide car and Hornish will qualify and race it; no word yet on Keselowski's status for the Cup race.
ReplyDeleteJust here to agree w. JD. Twitter is pretty damn usefull.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Jayski was on top of EVERYTHING and had the breaking news before anyone else? Yeah, Twitter is way ahead of him these days
You can look me up @wickedj8
On a related note, apparantly one of the NCWTS haulers crashed into the flag stand at pocono
ReplyDelete@bobpockrass: One of @NASCAR_Trucks haulers decided we needed a new flag stand. @poconoraceway http://lockerz.com/s/126566330
Well, like Karen, I'm as hooked on Twitter as I am Facebook: I don't get either. I just find the 'wheat to chaff' ratio to be too low. I also don't feel the need to get information immediately. It made no difference to me that I didn't learn about Brad's accident until I read it here several hours after it happened.
ReplyDelete