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CUP: Last Hendrick Race For Keselowski
Written by: Tom Jensen   
10/01/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Brad Keselowski will move to Penske Racing next year to compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos

Rising star Brad Keselowski will drive a Hendrick Motorsports Sprint Cup car for the last time this weekend at Kansas Speedway, where he’ll attempt to put the No. 25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in the field for Sunday’s Price Chopper 400.

Keselowski, of course, was expected to eventually replace Mark Martin behind the wheel of the No. 5 Hendrick Chevy, but when the 50-year-old Martin signed a two-year contract extension, that left no room at the inn for Keselowski. So instead of driving full-time for Hendrick next year, he’ll move to Penske Racing and drive the No. 12 Dodge Charger that David Stremme currently pilots.

This season, Keselowski has run the entire NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports. He’s also run nine Sprint Cup races this year, splitting his time between Hendrick and James Finch’s Phoenix Racing. Keselowski stunned the Sprint Cup garage with an upset last-lap victory at Talladega Superspeedway in April in one of Finch’s cars. He also had an excellent seventh-place finish at Darlington with Hendrick and a sixth in the first New Hampshire race driving for Finch.

The Michigan youngster has also enjoyed a fair amount of success in NASCAR’s AAA division, where he ranks third in points behind Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. All told, Keselowski has three victories, 17 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Nationwide ride, which he’ll also drive this weekend at Kansas.

On the Cup side at Kansas, Keselowski’s No. 25 team will be led by crew chief Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt’s cousin and former crew chief on the No. 88 Hendrick Sprint Cup Chevy. And Keselowski seems confident the team will have a good run at Kansas.

For one thing, he’ll be driving
Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 25-537, the same car that Keselowski raced to his seventh-place finish at Darlington.

“I really think that Kansas is the place we can break out and get a solid finish in this GoDaddy.com Chevy,” said Keselowski. “We have definitely shown some strength at the last couple of races I've competed in for Hendrick Motorsports. We just don't have the finishes to back that up. At both Michigan and Chicago we had top-10 runs going but didn't finish that way for one reason or another. I'm confident that Tony Jr. will have this car ready to go, and I'm excited to get out there on the track and see what we can do.”

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of ?Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,? and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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