( Mashable ) -- When the Daytona 500 ran into a protracted delay following an explosion and fire on the track Monday night , NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski did what any social media addict would : grabbed his phone and began posting status updates to Twitter . Then he gained more than 100,000 followers in less than two hours . Keselowski 's fellow driver Juan Pablo Montoya crashed into a safety vehicle mid-race . The collision and jet fuel â€ ” the safety vehicle reportedly holds 200 gallons of jet kerosene â€ ” sparked a huge ball of fire , although both vehicles ' drivers appeared to avoid serious injury . The race was halted . From his spot in the racecar traffic jam , Keselowski sent this tweet to his ( at the time ) less than 85,000 followers . More than an hour later , the race resumed . Keselowski 's follower count topped 185,000 . Keselowski 's initial tweet set off a hysteria in the sports Twittersphere , and triggered a set of funny exchanges between him and his fans . Keselowski then passed the continued delay with a steady stream of tweets updating and reacting to the accident and to-be-continued race . Eventually , the Daytona 500 got underway again , and Keselowski passed the message on to his swollen follower count by retweeting NASCAR 's senior vice president Steve O'Donnell 's message : `` Alright . Run jet quickly over area-drivers strapped in . Will run some caution laps and make sure we are good . Thanks for patience ! '' Earlier , Keselowski had retweeted fan Jessica Lynn Burkett , who spoke for pretty much everyone when she posted : `` So we have a Monday night # NascarPrimetime # daytona500 race , jet dryer blow up and @ keselowski tweeting from his car ... . # AWESOMENESS ! ! ! '' Keselowski then got into a wreck of his own after the race resumed . No word whether it was a case of tweeting-while-driving , but he did post another message to his account minutes after his crash . See the original article on Mashable.com . © 2013 MASHABLE.com . All rights reserved .
Mashable.com driver Keselowski had 185,000 followers in More than an hour later . Keselowski posted photo of Keselowski crash into a safety vehicle . Brad Keselowski then got into a wreck of his own after the race resumed .