NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The idea was born in a safety meeting, executed better than they could have imagined and named by another driver.
The “Iron Lotus” may become the standard for creativity with Burnouts on Broadway should the event enjoy a long history.
Fans can see it and the other burnouts at 6 p.m. ET Saturday on NBCSN. That show leads into coverage of the NASCAR Awards.
Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski were looking to do something different during Wednesday night’s Burnouts on Broadway when they hatched a plan.
With Keselowski moving to a role of owner/driver at RFK Racing, it would be their final time together as Team Penske teammates. They wanted to do something unique.
“Do we do three-wide burnouts down there?,” Blaney said they discussed. “I’m like, '(The road is) pretty narrow. I don’t think we’ll be able to do that.’”
Said Keselowski: “We were trying to find something fun.”
So what to do?
“During the safety meeting - that we were not paying attention in - we drew up this plan that (Corey) LaJoie named the ‘Iron Lotus,’” Logano said.
“We put all three noses together. We really weren’t sure this was going to work. Never seen this done before. What the heck? You got to try it.
“If the cars crashed, we’re never racing them again, who cares?”
The burnouts are done one car at a time, so this plan would be different. But only they knew what was to come.
“You can’t really ask to do something like that because the answer is going to be no,” Logano said.
So, they didn’t ask permission.
#NASCAR … @Team_Penske burning it down with @Blaney @joeylogano and @keselowski pic.twitter.com/NLXJW9ZpPx
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) December 2, 2021
With the drivers aligned around each other in the staging area, they took off together.
No one tried to stop them.
“They just kind of looked at us and we went,” Logano said.
Blaney, Logano and Keselowski drove three-wide into the burnout zone and then maneuvered so that they formed a capital Y by pointing the noses of their cars toward each other.
Then they mashed the gas.
“I couldn’t believe that it worked,” Blaney said. “I thought we were going to break apart and slam into each other.
“It got so smoky, I pulled off. I thought we were done. I got out of the car and they’re still doing burnouts.”
When all three were doing their burnouts, they could see each other since they were pointed toward one another.
“You should have seen all our faces,” Logano said. “We could see each other. When it actually started working, we were like … ‘Oh my God.’ It was fun. It was cool.”
Said Blaney: “We were all laughing. Once we got our noses together and got going and started to get some smoke and we weren’t breaking apart, we all started laughing like ‘Can’t believe this actually worked.’ It was pretty amazing.”
Of that moment and seeing the faces of Blaney and Logano, Keselowski said: “That’s a screenshot in my mind. That was cool. I’m glad we got to do that.”