NASCAR centerpiece: Brad’s rough start

For a driver with just 21 Sprint Cup starts, Brad Keselowski has made a lot of enemies. And while the violence of his wreck at Atlanta was shocking – his flip into the fence caved the roof in around his roll cage – the dynamics of the crash surprised nobody. Said Juan Pablo Montoya, one of several drivers who have vowed to retaliate after run-ins with Keselowski, “I’m sure a lot of people wanted to pay him back. Looking at the TV (replay), somebody did.” So how did Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing No. 12, get to this point?

In a one-off start for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team owner Bob Germain, Keselowski won the pole and led 62 laps. (Ironically, Keselowski got his career-altering opportunity because the team’s regular driver, Ted Musgrave, was serving a one-race suspension for a retaliatory wreck.) But midnight struck on his Cinderella story just 10 laps from the end, when a bump from Travis Kvapil spun him out of the lead. The experience accomplished two things: It showed Keselowski that apparently anything goes in big-time NASCAR racing when a win is on the line, and it brought him to the attention of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports outfit, which signed him to a Nationwide deal and put him on the fast track to a Sprint Cup ride.

Talladega Superspeedway, April 26, 2009
This was the Memphis experience turned inside out. In his first start for part-time Sprint Cup team owner James Finch, Keselowski was running an improbable second as the field prepared to take the checkered flag at Talladega. Leader Carl Edwards moved low to block the hard-charging Keselowski, who never lifted. Edwards ended up sailing into the fence and Keselowski had a stunning victory. “Carl and I are were coming with a full head of steam and there was no stopping us,” Keselowski said afterward. “I’m sure he probably regrets that now, but I certainly don’t.”

Homestead-Miami Speedway, November 21, 2009
After several dust-ups with Keselowski during the season, Denny Hamlin reached his last-straw moment when Keselowski executed a bump-and-run pass in the penultimate Nationwide race at Phoenix. Vowed Hamlin, “I’m just happy I signed up for next week’s Nationwide race. There’s a lot of guys that owe (Keselowski). … I’m just going to be the first one at the pay window.” True to his word, Hamlin dumped Keselowski 35 laps into the Ford 300, earning a black flag from NASCAR. Said an unrepentant Hamlin, “It was well worth it.”

Atlanta Motor Speedway, March 7, 2010
After a bump from Keselowski on a lap-41 restart caused him to collide with Joey Logano, Edwards returned to the track 155 laps down and found Keselowski, who was running sixth. Afterward, Edwards didn’t deny that his intent was to wreck Keselowski. He just said that he didn’t intend it to be so violent. “Brad knows the deal between him and I,” Edwards said. “The scary part was his car went airborne, which was not at all what I expected. … I wish it wouldn’t have gone like it did, but I’m glad he’s OK. We’ll just go on and race some more and maybe him and I won’t get in any more incidents together. That would be the best thing.”

THE LOWDOWN This is the only weekend of the 2010 season when all three of NASCAR’s major series are idle. The Sprint Cup series will be off again the first weekend in April for Easter Sunday, but both the Camping World Truck and Nationwide series will be in action at Nashville Superspeedway, on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The Nationwide and truck troops double-date again on an idle Cup weekend in July, at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis. But there are several occasions when either the Nationwide or truck series enjoys headline status as the only NASCAR show in town

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