NASCAR Nationwide Series
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NNS: Keselowski Brings Title To Penske
Dodge driver wraps up first championship with two races to go...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted November 06, 2010   Fort Worth, TX
Brad Keselowski celebrates winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship with a third-place finish in the NASCAR Nationwide Series O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge as Carl Edwards celebrates finishing first at Texas Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
It took a guy from Michigan, a state very important in Roger Penske’s racing history, to finally give the “Captain” his first NASCAR championship.

Brad Keselowski finished third in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway and clinched the Nationwide Series championship with two races remaining. Keselowski needed only a 21st-place run to lock up his first series title.

Keselowski, 26, finished third in Nationwide points in 2008 and 2009, but Penske’s search for the ultimate success in NASCAR stretches back to the early 1970s. Despite a career dominating Indy-car racing and despite success in NASCAR with such drivers as Mark Donohue, Bobby Allison and Rusty Wallace, Penske had never won a NASCAR series championship until Keselowski’s Saturday clincher.

Keselowski, also a full-time Sprint Cup driver for Penske, ran a smart race, running in the top 10 much of the day and challenging in the top five over the event’s second half.

Keselowski entered Saturday’s race with a 485-point lead over second-place Carl Edwards, the TMS race winner. Keselowski has top-10 finishes in 27 of the 33 races to date – a solid run of consistency that led to his first NASCAR championship.

“First off, this is a family accomplishment,” said Keselowski, whose family has been a force in short-track racing in the Midwest. “My mom and dad, my uncle, my whole family made so many sacrifices along the way. They put up with me when I got in trouble. They did all those things great parents do.”

Keselowski hugged his car owner in victory lane as they celebrated Penske’s elusive title.

As is normal, Penske spotted for Keselowski high atop the speedway grandstand during the race.

Before Keselowski began a celebratory burnout on the frontstretch, Edwards walked to his car and congratulated him. Edwards, who is second in points, and Keselowski have been bitter – at times combative – rivals at both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup levels.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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