TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Brad Keselowski, first thing after sitting down in the media center, began rubbing his face and examining his hands.
"They say when you have a lot of adrenaline, your facial hair and your fingernails grow faster," he said, sort of deadpanning yet somehow somber. "I've got a shadow, and my nails need to be trimmed."
Clearly he was drained. He had to win to advance in the Chase, and he did.
Minutes earlier, at that same table, Matt Kenseth had clapped Clint Bowyer on the back in gratitude for a push to second place. Bowyer grinned and put the irony of Sunday succinctly: "Do you realize you pushed Brad Keselowski to the win? That was a bitch, wasn't it?"
"I was hoping to spin him out," Kenseth cracked. "I'm just kidding."
He really was. In the blinks of an eye with which situations change in wild Talladega finishes, there was not even an instant to think that he was charging up on the very guy he had charged physically after last week's race at Charlotte.
But Keselowski saw enough in his mirror, down the backstretch on the final lap, to get the humor of the situation.
"You can't drive Talladega without looking in the mirror," Keselowski said. "It's just funny how this racing world works out. ... I got a chuckle out of that. But I didn't feel uncomfortable in the least bit."
Eight days after Kenseth had chased down and headlocked Keselowski in the garage at Charlotte in anger over two on-track encounters, they were together again, this time on the Talladega backstretch.
"It just so happened that Matt was leading his lane, and his lane had the best run at the end," Keselowski said. "I came down and blocked it. That was enough to seal our fate as winner and seal his fate in second."
And seal both into the next round of the Chase.
"It's just funny how that stuff works out," Keselowski said.
Now there are eight. Kenseth's second place let him advance as one of only two drivers left in the playoffs without a win this season. Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin also advanced.
Ryan Newman, also winless, apparently is in, but his car was judged to be too low in postrace inspection. NASCAR officials said they will make a decision on whether he advances sometime next week.
Out of the Chase is Jimmie Johnson, who also had to win Sunday and did everything he could, leading the most laps and driving a masterful race up front before late stops for splashes of gas knocked him out of the lead he so fervently defended for so long.
Out too is Dale Earnhardt Jr., caught up in the final crash of the day, the one that left Keselowski in front for the second green-white-checkered restart.
For the final restart Sunday at Casino de Alabama, dba Talladega Superspeedway, not one but two Team Penske roulette balls dropped into the right slots. Keselowski had just passed Newman for the lead. Logano was fourth, so when Keselowski chose the outside lane to restart, Logano was right behind to give his teammate the initial push.
But the Penske pair couldn't sustain the tandem, and Newman took the lead at the white flag before Keselowski got the winning push from Kenseth down the backstretch.
Keselowski's day was nearly ruined early in the race, when "the 1 car [Jamie McMurray] blew a tire and half spun and got into our door," Keselowski said. "It was a pretty hard hit. I thought the car was torn up pretty good." But the center punch to the side didn't hurt the aerodynamics much.
"We maybe lost just a touch of speed," Keselowski said, "but not enough to overcome the will to win we had."