CHARLOTTE, N.C.—If his racing career boiled down to a choice between success and popularity, Brad Keselowski would choose success every time.
But that doesn’t mean the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion doesn’t want fans and fellow drivers to like him.
“I want to be able to win races and win championships, and that’s the priority in my life and my number one goal,” Keselowski said Tuesday afternoon during a media day gathering at the NASCAR Hall of Fame featuring the eight drivers who advanced to the Chase’s Eliminator Round on Sunday at Talladega. “To do that, sometimes with this current setting, you’re going to have to ruffle some feathers, and not everybody’s going to like you, whether that’s teams, drivers or fans. I’m comfortable with that, or as comfortable as you can be.”
That doesn’t mean that Keselowski is oblivious to boos and catcalls at driver introductions. At Talladega, a week after run-ins on the track and in the garage with Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin at Charlotte, Keselowski heard more than his share.
“They don’t feel good, but over time, I’ve grown OK with it, so it just becomes part of it,” Keselowski said. “I’m happy that they’re making noise. What hurts most is when I went out there, and nobody made noise.
“That’s when you don’t even feel relevant. In some ways it’s fuel for the fire to race even harder and continue the path that I’m on, because I know that will turn over time.”
Perhaps no driver in the history of the sport inspired such strong emotions on both sides of the equation as did the late Dale Earnhardt. On the strength of his season-saving victory at Talladega on Sunday, Keselowski has evoked comparisons in a number of quarters to the seven-time series champion.
“There’s only one of those,” Keselowski demurred when asked about similarities to Earnhardt. “I would say that racing in some ways is like music, that you can be influenced as a band by another band, and certainly there are some influences there—but I’m not that band.
“It’s flattering, with all the success that he had, but I’m not that band. I’m just trying to do things my own way, the best way I know how.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
- NASCAR to debut new short track package at Phoenix - February 28, 2023
- The Wrench Who Stole Racing - December 16, 2022
- Matt DiBenedetto’s excellent run comes to abrupt, violent end - February 17, 2019
