Keselowski wins — and tweets the news
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Here’s a tweet for Brad Keselowski: NASCAR champion.
Roger Penske must like the sound of that, too.
The man who stole the show at the season-opening Daytona 500 ended the year under the biggest spotlight of them all Sunday, beating five-time champion Jimmie Johnson to deliver the first Sprint Cup championship to Penske Racing.
His first act as champion? Sending a tweet, of course, from inside his car: “We did it!” with a picture of the celebration waiting for him.
“Always, throughout my whole life, I’ve been told I’m not big enough, not fast enough, not strong enough and I don’t have what it takes,” said Keselowski, 28, from the championship stage. “I’ve used that as a chip on my shoulder to carry me through my whole career. It took until this year for me to realize that that was right, man, they were right.
“I’m not big enough, fast enough, strong enough. No person is. Only a team can do that.”
So, with the Penske organization behind him, he delivered a trophy that had eluded “The Captain” since his 1972 NASCAR debut. Although his motorsports organization is considered the gold standard of open-wheel racing — 15 Indianapolis 500 wins — and his empire has made Penske one of the most successful businessmen in America, his NASCAR team has been merely average.
Then came Keselowski, the blue collar, Twitter-loving, Michigan native who visited Penske in 2008 convinced that the NASCAR team could win, too.
Four years later, they hoisted the Sprint Cup trophy together at Homestead-Miami Speedway following Keselowski’s 15th-place finish.
“It’s all about the people in our organization and obviously Brad coming on our board … and we set a plan and we stuck to it,” Penske said.
Keselowski needed 125 starts to win his first championship, the fewest starts since four-time champion Jeff Gordon won his first title in 93 starts in 1995.
Gordon, who avoided suspension last week but was fined $100,000 by NASCAR for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer the previous Sunday at Phoenix, overcame the controversy to win the race in a 20th anniversary celebration for sponsor Dupont and Hendrick Motorsports.
It was Gordon’s first victory at Homestead, which leaves Kentucky as the only active NASCAR track where he has yet to win.
Whom did Gordon beat? Bowyer, of course. And Bowyer’s secondplace finish moved him to a career-best second in the final standings.