USA TODAY International Edition
FOR KESELOWSKI, A BUMPY REIGN
Driver missed Chase yet hopes he made mark
AVONDALE, ARIZ. Brad Keselowski’s reign as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion will end Sunday at Homestead- Miami Speedway. The followup season to Keselowski’s first title didn’t go according to plan.
The 29- year- old became the second driver to miss the Chase for the Sprint Cup while defending his championship and was winless for the season until last month’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Meanwhile, his ambitious agenda as champion — laid out during a wide- ranging preseason interview with USA TODAY Sports — seemed to ruffle feathers among the NASCAR establishment.
That wasn’t what Keselowski had in mind when he took the banquet stage just a few days after swigging Miller Lite in a victory celebration with team owner Roger Penske and gave a speech reminiscent of a political candidate.
“We have some of the smartest people that can solve any problem,” he said then. “As a champion, I want to be your leader and I want to help you make it happen.”
But did anything really change? Did Keselowski achieve what he hoped?
“I don’t think it’s fair to answer that question in the scope of one year,” he said. “I think that’s a question that answers itself over the course of a decade, maybe more.
“We have to get better if we’re going to exist at the level we’re at. This is a big ship, and whether things are going right or wrong it takes a long time to turn it.”
Keselowski said the demands on his time were a little bit harder to manage this year but there weren’t many other surprises about being the champion. He found his words carried a little more weight but said he anticipated they would.
Asked about Keselowski’s reign, five- time champion Jimmie Johnson said the Penske Racing driver likely
learned a lot about the impact of winning the title — good and bad.
“It does change a lot, but it doesn’t change the way you are viewed in the competition department of NASCAR,” Johnson said. “You are still one of 43. What it does change is ( with the news media) and what happens out there with the fans. People listen more.
“You have an opportunity to say more and to be heard, and your voice carries a lot further. All champions — especially first- time champions — go through trying to understand how to use that new power.”
Keselowski has been burned by his outspokenness at times — at least based on the reaction from fans and those in the NASCAR garage.
His preseason interview with USA TODAY Sports — in which he said there were too many races and repeat visits to certain tracks, Wi- Fi and an emphasis on social media were needed at every track and NASCAR couldn’t reach its best model until all of its many factions started working seamlessly together — earned him a trip to NASCAR CEO Brian France’s office.
He also took heat for comments he made on NASCAR’s concussion policy for 2014 that calls for mandatory baseline testing, saying, “Doctors don’t understand our sport.”
But he seems more hesitant to pull the trigger on voicing some of his opinions now.
That hasn’t sat well with some of his fans who found the driver’s candid nature refreshing amid a world of corporate speak.
One fan recently chided him on Twitter for staying silent on how best to fix NASCAR’s lack of side- by- side racing with the new Generation 6 car.
“UR the voice of a generation and have been very quiet,” Twitter user @ devin_ smrekar wrote.
Asked why he seemed to pick his spots more carefully, Keselowski said it was not worth sounding off about every topic on which he had an opinion.
“There’s a lot of requests; it’s just those people don’t have to pay the fines,” he said. “I do. There’s a lot of things I’d like to say or do.
“Even though it might not seem like it, I do filter some of the things I say.”
A sampling of Keselowski’s outlook as the season draws to a close:
uOn why he thought the racing would be better if cars were less dependent on aerodynamics:
“Clint Bowyer and I were talking about the All- Star Race. He goes, ‘ All these media people want to know what I’d do to win a million dollars. Damn, I can’t even get to somebody’s bumper to wreck them! If I wanted to wreck someone, I can’t get that close.’ And it’s all because of the aerodynamics.
“If you can’t get to someone to race them side- by- side, how are you ever going to have those key moments I think we look for? That’s more specific to mile- and- a- half ( tracks), but I think it’s across the board. When I go back and look at racing over the last decade and how it’s evolved, aerodynamics have changed.
“Now the cars make almost 2,500 pounds of downforce. To put that in perspective, these cars are close to being able to race upside down based on the amount of air that pushes on them. That’s IndyCar- like numbers out of a stock car that haven’t existed
“Those people don’t have to pay the fines. I do.” Brad Keselowski, on fans who urge him to be more outspoken
until really the last six years. As that’s happened, I think we’ve seen the gaps across the field really spread.”
uOn how to fix the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series:
“The key to the lower series’ future is to not allow Cup drivers to compete for Cup owners. I think it serves the sport in every level. But I’m not confident that will become a rule.
“Kyle Busch has been the most dominant Nationwide driver of the last five years, and he had a year ( in 2012) where he competed for himself and didn’t win any races — going from ( eight wins) the year before. Same thing with ( Kevin) Harvick: Won two championships — absolutely obliterated the field in 2006 — then became an owner- driver and ran well but certainly didn’t post those same numbers.
“That showcases the real issue that a tandem effort between a Cup driver and a Cup car in a second- or thirdtier series is a pretty fatal advantage for the rest of the field.”
uOn what changes NASCAR should make to the Cup schedule:
“The only thing I want out of our schedule — other than to see less races — is to see us go to Canada. I think that’d be a huge win for our sport. ... You pick ( the track). That ( fan) base is starving for us, and we should go where the people want us.”
With all that said, does Keselowski think he’ll still have a strong platform from which to have his opinions heard after someone else becomes the Cup champion?
“That’s hard to say,” he said. “Success breeds respect, so you just have to be successful. But at the end of the day, no one can take that championship away.”