After slow start, Keselowsi in contention for Nationwide title

Brad Keselowski has gone from bottom-of-the-pack finishes to one of the leading prospects in the Nationwide Series. Getty Images Tim Tuttle's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Tim. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

In 2007, Brad Keselowski was reaching the middle of his first season with a result he hadn't quite expected as a hopeful rookie: the season had been a bust. He drove 13 races in Nationwide for Keith Coleman Racing and finished 32nd or worse in 11. His best was 24th.

Fate intervened. Coleman was forced to shut down his team for health issues and Keselowski found himself unemployed in late June.

Now Keselowski, a 24-year-old Michigan native, has emerged from obscurity to become one of the leading prospects to move into Sprint Cup. He's earned his shot with an impressive performance in the Nationwide Series with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team, winning twice and challenging for the championship with nine races remaining.

For Keselowski, his break came (again) just when it didn't look like his career was going anywhere. Germain Racing needed a driver for its Craftsman Truck Series team after Ted Musgrave was suspended for one race after ramming a competitor intentionally at Milwaukee. Keselowski had driven in 40 Truck races, with one top-10, and he was hired to drive the team's Toyota at Memphis.

It was a first-class truck. Germain had won the championship with Todd Bodine the previous year.

Keselowski put the Toyota on pole, led 62 laps and was in front with nine to go when Travis Kvapil used the bump-and-run to pass him and win the race. Keselowski finished 16th, but he'd made his mark.

"To run at Memphis was very important in my career," Keselowski said. "It was good in the media and with different car owners. It was a major accomplishment for me, to be in the best equipment I'd been in and to prove what I could do. In a career sense, it kind of defined what I wanted to do and how capable I was."

For a long time until then, Earnhardt had been keeping his eye on Keselowski. They'd started to form a personal relationship through several conversations, but Earnhardt hadn't talked to Keselowski about driving for JR Motorsports, which had Shane Huffman driving its Chevrolets. Earnhardt wasn't happy with Huffman and was looking around for a replacement.

Shortly after Memphis, Earnhardt released Huffman and signed Keselowski to a three-race deal. Keselowski was 14th at Chicagoland and 10th at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, so Earnhardt extended his contract for all but the two road courses races (which were committed to Andy Pilgrim).

"For Dale, I think Memphis meant a lot to him and was part of the reason he called," Keselowski said. "He thought I could go to a team that was struggling and help fix it. There's no doubt there was some pressure. You walk into a race shop with torn up race cars and they needed a driver to lead them. I needed a team with their resources and capability."

Keselowski finished sixth at Texas, seventh at Dover and Bristol and ninth at Memphis. He'd found a home.

After a slow start this season, Keselowski has nine top-fives and 15 top-10s in the last 23 races. He's second, 122 behind Clint Bowyer, in the championship. Keselowski won at Memphis in the 15th race of the season and backed it up with another victory last Friday at Bristol. He started 37th and passed Bowyer for the lead with 24 laps remaining.

"We saw a lot of development last year in the little bit that he drove for us when we made a driver change," veteran crew chief Eury Sr. said. "I think Dale Jr. had watched him before that and knew this guy had a lot of talent and that's why we made the change. We were running out of cars for one reason [crashes]. We put him in the car and he did exactly what Dale Jr. thought he was going to do. ... We are going to give Clint [Bowyer] and Carl [Edwards, third in points, 119 back] a run for it."

But Keselowski figures he needs to win a few more races to win the championship.

"That's the focus of our team, to win races and win the championship," he said. "We probably need to win one or race or two more to legitimately win the Nationwide championship."

Keselowski is signed and committed to running the entire Nationwide Series next year with JR Motorsports, but he's also interested in running in Cup. It seems likely he'll make his first start in Cup this season.

Earnhardt's team merged with Hendrick Motorsports last year when he joined the organization. JR uses Hendrick chassis, engines and has engineering support.

In Cup, Hendrick supplies Haas Racing with chassis and engines and the team's No. 70 car does not have a full-time driver. It would appear to be a prime opportunity for Keselowski to make his debut.

The team will become Stewart-Haas next season with two cars driven by Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. Stewart-Haas plans to expand to four cars eventually and that could be where Keselowski lands in 2010 or 2011.

"There are lot of [Cup] opportunities out there," Keselowski said. "There are a lot of opportunities on the table, but I have no answer where [I'll end up]. I'm looking forward to running in the Cup series, but it takes time and it has to be right to do it."

Keselowski will undoubtedly get his chance in Cup. The only question is when -- and everybody will be waiting.

"I saw a lot of things in Brad early that you can't teach and rarely pick up over the course of experience or a course of years," Earnhardt said. "He's done such a good job for us this year."