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Sprint Cup
HEMBREE: Keselowski Finishes Vegas Marathon
His voice failing but his spirits high, Brad Keselowski closed the books on Champion’s Week…
Brad Keselowski (Left) and Roger Penske (Right) celebrate his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship win in Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
It was a Champion’s Week in which we discovered that Dale Earnhardt Jr. still is quite popular (surprise!), Jeff Gordon still can be moved to near-tears on stage and Sin City still can contain a pretty big party.
The NASCAR circus began drifting out of town Saturday (some folks even hopped the red-eye back to the East Coast Friday). Championship gold and silver were tucked under the arms of some, dashed dreams trailed behind the tuxedo tails of others, and Brad Keselowski stood looking out into a future that appears to hold no bounds.
It was a week in which virtually every hour of Keselowski’s days was scheduled – a media appearance here, a photography session there, a luncheon down the street, a sponsor reception at the end of some long corridor in some hard-to-find corner in one of the biggest hotel/casinos in the world. It could not be confirmed that several banquet invitees were still circling the Wynn’s mile-long passageways Saturday morning looking for the ballroom.
But there was no evidence – at least none revealed by Vegas intelligentsia – that Keselowski ran out of patience.
He didn’t run out of beer, either.
But he almost ran out of voice. After two weeks of interview after interview after interview and a packed week of activities in Las Vegas, Keselowski’s Friday night voice was obviously a little off key.
And he was tired. After his Friday night speech, he strolled into the media interview room carrying the Sprint Cup trophy, placed it on a table, posed for a few photographs with his new championship ring, then kicked off his obviously uncomfortable black tuxedo shoes. “How do you women wear these things?” he asked of nobody in particular.
And the final interviews of the night – and of a long fortnight – began.
In a week or so, Keselowski, crew chief Paul Wolfe and a few friends will be off to the Bahamas to relax for a few days and absorb all that has gone on over the past few months. It has been a remarkable run.
For all the good tidings that were showered on Keselowski in Vegas – and particularly at Friday night’s sparkly, slickly-produced awards banquet, one of the themes of the Vegas week was repeated recognition and meaningful acknowledgement for team owner Roger Penske, who took home the Sprint Cup championship trophy for the first time since taking baby steps into the sport in 1972.
A first-class gentleman and a racer at heart, Penske is among the most widely respected individuals in the NASCAR garage. Even those who sought the trophy he finally won were genuinely happy to see him succeed in reaching the only significant motorsports accomplishment remaining on his list.
It was that sort of night – at the end of a fast-paced week – in Las Vegas.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
The NASCAR circus began drifting out of town Saturday (some folks even hopped the red-eye back to the East Coast Friday). Championship gold and silver were tucked under the arms of some, dashed dreams trailed behind the tuxedo tails of others, and Brad Keselowski stood looking out into a future that appears to hold no bounds.
It was a week in which virtually every hour of Keselowski’s days was scheduled – a media appearance here, a photography session there, a luncheon down the street, a sponsor reception at the end of some long corridor in some hard-to-find corner in one of the biggest hotel/casinos in the world. It could not be confirmed that several banquet invitees were still circling the Wynn’s mile-long passageways Saturday morning looking for the ballroom.
But there was no evidence – at least none revealed by Vegas intelligentsia – that Keselowski ran out of patience.
He didn’t run out of beer, either.
But he almost ran out of voice. After two weeks of interview after interview after interview and a packed week of activities in Las Vegas, Keselowski’s Friday night voice was obviously a little off key.
And he was tired. After his Friday night speech, he strolled into the media interview room carrying the Sprint Cup trophy, placed it on a table, posed for a few photographs with his new championship ring, then kicked off his obviously uncomfortable black tuxedo shoes. “How do you women wear these things?” he asked of nobody in particular.
And the final interviews of the night – and of a long fortnight – began.
In a week or so, Keselowski, crew chief Paul Wolfe and a few friends will be off to the Bahamas to relax for a few days and absorb all that has gone on over the past few months. It has been a remarkable run.
For all the good tidings that were showered on Keselowski in Vegas – and particularly at Friday night’s sparkly, slickly-produced awards banquet, one of the themes of the Vegas week was repeated recognition and meaningful acknowledgement for team owner Roger Penske, who took home the Sprint Cup championship trophy for the first time since taking baby steps into the sport in 1972.
A first-class gentleman and a racer at heart, Penske is among the most widely respected individuals in the NASCAR garage. Even those who sought the trophy he finally won were genuinely happy to see him succeed in reaching the only significant motorsports accomplishment remaining on his list.
It was that sort of night – at the end of a fast-paced week – in Las Vegas.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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