CUP: Keselowski - Performance Made Me Lead Driver At Penske

Sprint Cup

CUP: Keselowski - Performance Made Me Lead Driver At Penske

Brad Keselowski won three Sprint Cup races last season for Penske Racing...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted January 19, 2012 Charlotte, NC

Brad Keselowski (Right) and crew chief Paul Wolfe (Left) have been a potent combination in 2012. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Brad Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe don’t feel as if they carry more weight at Penske Racing now that they’re the “veteran” team in the shop.

They might get asked first about how the organization should approach the task at hand, but Keselowski believes that’s more because he finished fifth in the Sprint Cup standings rather than having been at Penske two years longer than newcomer AJ Allmendinger.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with being a veteran,” says Wolfe, who is just in his second year as a Cup crew chief. “It’s getting results. When we ask for something, it’s a lot easier to get things when you get the results.

“When we ask for something or want to do something a certain way, when the boss gives it to you, you better perform with it. And we feel like [that’s what] we’ve done with it so far.”

Allmendinger came from Richard Petty Motorsports to replace Kurt Busch after the 2011 season and Penske elevated Nationwide Series crew chief Todd Gordon to Cup to replace Steve Addington, Busch’s former crew chief who left to become crew chief for 2011 Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart.

“I don’t know [if we have] more authority,” Keselowski said following the test session last week at Daytona International Speedway. “Maybe the question is asked to me first, but I can’t wait until the day when we get enough confidence in each other, AJ and I and everybody in the group, where we’re viewed very equally, and I think that’s coming with what I saw this week.”

After a shaky first Cup season at Penske, when he finished 25th in the standings, Keselowski won three races and finished fifth in 2011.

He might even have been considered the top driver at Penske last year. Though Busch has 24 career victories and won a Cup championship, he won just two races last year – to Keselowski’s three – and wound up finishing 11th in the final standings. He and Penske agreed to part ways after the season after a series of outbursts and controversial incidents by Busch last season.

With Busch out of the picture, it appears that Penske is building the organization around Keselowski, who signed a contract extension in November that will keep him at Penske at least through 2014.

“I’m really happy with how we ended last year,” Keselowski said. “There certainly are some areas to improve on, some of which I’ve seen us make large strides and some of which I have not.

“The areas where we’ve made large strides I’m very proud of and we’ve got to hit the items that we haven’t and we’ve got to hit them hard and have got to hit them quickly.”

Keselowski didn’t elaborate on where he feels his team needs to improve (critical of fuel injection last fall, he said “you know the answer” when asked about it last week), but he did say that being part of only a two-car operation – versus the three- and four-car teams fielded by Hendrick, Roush, Gibbs and RCR – will not be a disadvantage as the team works through any issues.

“It’s hard to get more than two teams to work together,” Keselowski said. “When you try to get three and four, it just turns into a circus. I don’t see any disadvantage being a two-car team.

“And if we were going to make it to the next level, we would need to go from two to four or else you become the odd man out. I think you see that at places like Gibbs.”

By having just two cars, it also should get Allmendinger integrated into the organization more quickly, Keselowski said.

“It just helps a guy like AJ get established quicker because there’s a little more equity in him, so to speak, or a little bit larger investment needed out of him, so that helps him get up to speed quicker,” Keselowski said.

For Keselowski to be successful, he’ll need to rely some on Allmendinger’s team.

“The biggest thing for us being the more experienced guys is just to make sure the communication between the two teams stays as it was last year,” Wolfe said. “That was a big part of our success.”

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