Keselowski talks driver double-dipping, Erin Andrews and more

Brad Keselowski's top-15 finish at Martinsville served as a huge confidence booster for the newbie to the Cup Series. John Sommers II/Getty Images

Brad Keselowski does a bi-weekly diary for SI.com. In this latest edition, he talks about building momentum after two top-15 finishes, speaks on the controversy of Cup Series guys double-dipping in the Nationwide Series, and offers his suggestion to fix the sport's ailing Rookie of the Year program. Plus: what he'll never forget Dale Earnhardt, Jr. told him about dealing with NASCAR's rabid fan base.

Talk to us about your Cup race at Martinsville on March 29th. Back-to-back top-15 finishes must have you feeling pretty good.

Yeah, the Cup side's going well. We were probably about a 12th-place car at Martinsville, and that's where we finished. I thought we were going to get more on that last restart. We were actually running about eighth or ninth when the last yellow came out, and then got put back to 10th and got the wrong line on the restart.

The wrong line shuffled me back to 12th. That's just racing. But I can't complain, that's where I think we deserved to finish.

It was kind of a long week with the rainout, but that's what we get paid to do so we made it all work out, and brought home a fairly decent weekend.

Now, as someone new to the Cup Series, tell me how a top-15 finish at a track where you've never been before boosts your confidence as opposed to, say, a 12th-place finish at Talladega.

It'll boost your confidence, absolutely. I feel like my team is starting to gain some momentum. It's really big, for them to know we can run well anywhere, anytime. That's a good confidence booster and I take that with me too.

Hopefully, we've got a little bit of momentum behind us and we'll continue to grow as a team. That's so important right now. We've got to get better every week and good runs make it easier to go back in the shop and improve.

With Kansas rumored to add a second date in 2011, many are worried Martinsville might be on the chopping block. Should Martinsville be on the short list, and if not, where should that second date come from?

I like Martinsville a lot. It's a unique track and NASCAR needs variety. That's what the fans like. That's what I like.

That being said, it's tough when a track gets rain every year. It's not fair to teams and it's not fair to the fans because they come to a venue expecting a show and then we can't give it to them. That's just the way our sport works with the weather, so naturally, if we're going to work that way we can't race on tracks that get rained out seven of every eight years.

So whatever we've got to do to fix that problem, that's what I'm in favor of. I don't necessarily have a solution, but maybe we should look at moving that date to another time of the year before we decide to give up on a piece of NASCAR history.

Well, how does a rainout affect your psyche? How difficult is it to get ready to race, then have to wait another day?

It's frustrating because you build momentum during the week, from practice to qualifiers to the race, and your mind focuses on winning each one. You want to be the best in practice, in qualifying, in Happy Hour. It takes different skill sets and all of that leads up to the race.

But when a day goes by without being on the track, you lose all that momentum. It's frustrating because you feel as if you've wasted your time and energy.

You're also coming off a top-five finish in the Nationwide Series, pulling you within 16 points of rival Carl Edwards for the point lead. Tell us about your hard-fought drive back to fifth after falling back mid-race.

Well, we had an awesome car. That's been consistent on the Nationwide side. Our cars are extremely fast, which is a really good feeling as a driver. Every program is built around speed, but you have to be able to execute. Speed is in the car, but executing is not making mistakes, being able to drive through traffic, having good pit stops and good pit strategy.

I feel like we're doing all those things. If we do them, we're going to be competitive every week. At Nashville, we put ourselves in contention and we caught a bad break with our strategy and the yellow flags. That's really all you can do at the end of the day, is put yourself in contention for good things to happen. When good things don't happen, you need to do the most you can to minimize the damage accordingly. I think we did that, charging up to fifth.

With seven of nine Nationwide and Truck races won by Cup guys this season, there's been a lot of criticism about drivers "double-dipping" in those divisions hurting the sport. As someone who fought against this problem for years, what's your position on that? And is there anything NASCAR can do to fix the problem?

Attendance is down, there's no doubt about it. I think the economy's starting to recover, but we're working on a little bit of backward momentum. I talked to Roger Penske, and their dealerships are starting to take off, but we're still not back to where we once were as far as the sport is concerned.

I think that's more the problem than Cup drivers who "double-dip". When I talk to fans, I hear them tell me, "We're not coming because we can't afford it right now." Our fans simply don't have the money, so I don't think we can blame lagging attendance on Cup drivers.

One other complaint is how these Cup guys take rides from other drivers looking to make a name for themselves. As a former development driver, how do Cup guys hurt others coming up through the ranks?

It kills them. I feel bad because it really does cripple them. There are a lot of good drivers that just don't get the opportunity to prove themselves, and when they do they're not prepared for it. There's no chance they're ever going to be prepared for it, nor should they be with the amount of time they run. It's a tricky situation.

It's almost like now, you need to run the Truck Series before you ever go near the Nationwide Series. The reason I say that is that you can run standalone events in the Truck Series, you can actually learn something and then you can take that knowledge and apply it to the Nationwide Series and then to Cup. But to me, the Nationwide Series right now, and over the last few years, is no longer a developmental series. Instead, it's used as a stepping stone. It's where you polish your skills after you already developed them to go to Cup.

You've also dipped into car ownership this season, running the No. 29 Ram in NASCAR's Truck Series. Tell me what your biggest challenge has been in being an owner/driver.

The biggest challenge is trying to find the money to pay for it. It's really hard in those lower two series to find enough funding. I feel like I can do what it takes to win, but I have to find the money to be able to do it. So that's a constant challenge, and one that everybody has, regardless of whether you're Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Mike Skinner or whoever.

What are your future plans with that program?

The plan is to put other drivers in the seat. Although I don't have any drivers at this point, I'd love to get other drivers in there. It gives me a level of pride to watch other drivers. But it's all about finding the money to be able to do that.