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Nationwide
NNS: Keselowski About To Deliver For Penske
Brad Keselowski can clinch the NASCAR Nationwide Series title this weekend in Texas...
Brad Keselowski (Pictured) is on the brink of giving team owner Roger Penske his first NASCAR championship. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Bobby Allison couldn’t do it. Neither could Rusty Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield, Ryan Newman, Travis Kvapil, Brendan Gaughan, David Stremme, Sam Hornish Jr. or Kurt Busch.
And that makes what Brad Keselowski is about to do just that much more remarkable.
Keselowski, the fiery and at times controversial driver of the No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge, is about to give Roger Penske his first NASCAR championship of any kind. Considering that Penske has been racing in NASCAR since January 1972, when he entered Mark Donohue in an AMC Matador on the old Riverside International Raceway road course in Southern California, it’s safe to say it’s been a long time coming.
In fact, Penske’s first NASCAR race as a team owner came 12 years before Keselowski was even born.
Keselowski comes into Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway with a 485-point lead over Carl Edwards. He will clinch the championship if he finishes 21st or better, 22nd and leads at least one lap or 24th and leads the most laps.
At this point, the championship is pretty much a foregone conclusion. The only question is when.
The 26-year-old Michigan native has had a remarkable season: Keselowski has led the standings since his win at Talladega Superspeedway in April and has five poles and six race victories.
He leads the Nationwide Series in top-five finishes (23), top-10 finishes (26) and laps completed in 2010, having run all but one of the 5,884 laps contested this season. Keselowski has led the field for 1,146 of those circuits, marking the first time he has led more than 1,000 laps in a season in his career. And he has a NASCAR record of 99th consecutive NNS races without a DNF. That streak is still active.
Still, Keselowski said he’s not taking anything for granted.
“We’re close, but nothing has been decided yet,” said Keselowski, who is in his first year with the Penske organization. “Our attitude going into this weekend is that we are behind in points, which we are in the owners’ standings. Regardless of how this season turns out, I’m proud of this team.”
To accomplish what the team has in just its first season together has made the journey even better, according to Keselowski.
“To come out of the box like we have, with a brand-new team, is pretty remarkable,” he said. “I told Mr. Penske when I made the move to Penske Racing that I wanted to run the full Nationwide Series schedule because I thought we could be very competitive. We were able to attract great sponsors in Discount Tire and Ruby Tuesday. We were able to bring in talented people, including my crew chief Paul Wolfe. To be in position to win the first NASCAR championship for Penske Racing is something that I take a tremendous amount of pride in. It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people.”
Whenever Keselowki officially clinches, Penske, winner of 12 IndyCar national championships and 15 Indianapolis 500s, will have his first NASCAR series crown. The closest he came was 1993, when Wallace finished runner-up to Dale Earnhardt for the Sprint Cup Series crown.
“It’s a really cool feeling,” said Keselowski. “Ever since my family has been racing – going all the way back to the NASCAR Truck days – nobody in our family has been leading the points. Personally, it’s very gratifying. It’s been a lot of hard work to get to this point, but we know there’s a lot of work left to do.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
And that makes what Brad Keselowski is about to do just that much more remarkable.
Keselowski, the fiery and at times controversial driver of the No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge, is about to give Roger Penske his first NASCAR championship of any kind. Considering that Penske has been racing in NASCAR since January 1972, when he entered Mark Donohue in an AMC Matador on the old Riverside International Raceway road course in Southern California, it’s safe to say it’s been a long time coming.
In fact, Penske’s first NASCAR race as a team owner came 12 years before Keselowski was even born.
Keselowski comes into Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway with a 485-point lead over Carl Edwards. He will clinch the championship if he finishes 21st or better, 22nd and leads at least one lap or 24th and leads the most laps.
At this point, the championship is pretty much a foregone conclusion. The only question is when.
The 26-year-old Michigan native has had a remarkable season: Keselowski has led the standings since his win at Talladega Superspeedway in April and has five poles and six race victories.
He leads the Nationwide Series in top-five finishes (23), top-10 finishes (26) and laps completed in 2010, having run all but one of the 5,884 laps contested this season. Keselowski has led the field for 1,146 of those circuits, marking the first time he has led more than 1,000 laps in a season in his career. And he has a NASCAR record of 99th consecutive NNS races without a DNF. That streak is still active.
Still, Keselowski said he’s not taking anything for granted.
“We’re close, but nothing has been decided yet,” said Keselowski, who is in his first year with the Penske organization. “Our attitude going into this weekend is that we are behind in points, which we are in the owners’ standings. Regardless of how this season turns out, I’m proud of this team.”
To accomplish what the team has in just its first season together has made the journey even better, according to Keselowski.
“To come out of the box like we have, with a brand-new team, is pretty remarkable,” he said. “I told Mr. Penske when I made the move to Penske Racing that I wanted to run the full Nationwide Series schedule because I thought we could be very competitive. We were able to attract great sponsors in Discount Tire and Ruby Tuesday. We were able to bring in talented people, including my crew chief Paul Wolfe. To be in position to win the first NASCAR championship for Penske Racing is something that I take a tremendous amount of pride in. It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people.”
Whenever Keselowki officially clinches, Penske, winner of 12 IndyCar national championships and 15 Indianapolis 500s, will have his first NASCAR series crown. The closest he came was 1993, when Wallace finished runner-up to Dale Earnhardt for the Sprint Cup Series crown.
“It’s a really cool feeling,” said Keselowski. “Ever since my family has been racing – going all the way back to the NASCAR Truck days – nobody in our family has been leading the points. Personally, it’s very gratifying. It’s been a lot of hard work to get to this point, but we know there’s a lot of work left to do.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
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