Brad Keselowski

Bradley Robert Keselowski
Born	February 12, 1984 (1984-02-12) Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States
Achievements	2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion
Awards	2008, 2009, 2010 Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
89 race(s) run over 4 year(s)
Car no., team	No. 2 (Penske Racing)
2011 position	5th
Best finish	5th - 2011
First race	2008 Dickies 500 (Texas)
Last race	2011 Ford 400 (Homestead)
First win	2009 Aaron's 499 (Talladega)
Wins Top tens Poles 4 20 2
NASCAR Nationwide Series career
168 race(s) run over 6 year(s)
Car no., team	No. 22 (Penske Racing)
2011 position	91st
Best finish	1st – 2010
First race	2006 Ameriquest 300 (Fontana)
Last race	2011 Ford 300 (Homestead)
First win	2008 Federated Auto Parts 300 (Nashville)
Wins Top tens Poles 17 103 12
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
48 race(s) run over 7 year(s)
Truck no., team	No. 19 (Brad Keselowski Racing)
Best finish	21st – 2005
First race	2004 Kroger 250 (Martinsville)
Last race	2010 O'Reilly 200 (Bristol)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 4 1
Statistics current as of January 15, 2012.

Bradley Robert Keselowski (born February 12, 1984) is an American auto racing driver and team owner currently competing in the #2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger in the Sprint Cup Series and the #22 Discount Tire Company/Ruby Tuesday Dodge Challenger in the Nationwide Series for Penske Racing. He was previously a driver for JR Motorsports from 2007 to 2009 in the Nationwide Series and for Phoenix Racing and Hendrick Motorsports in the Sprint Cup Series. He won his first championship in the 2010 Nationwide Series; the first championship for both Brad and Penske Racing. Keselowski also owns a Camping World Truck Series team, Brad Keselowski Racing.

He is the son of Bob Keselowski and the nephew of Ron Keselowski. His older brother Brian competes part-time in the ARCA RE/MAX Series, the Nationwide Series, and the Sprint Cup Series.

NASCAR

2004–2006

Keselowski began his NASCAR career in the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series season, as the driver of the #29 for his family-owned K Automotive Racing team. He made his debut at Martinsville Speedway, where he started 26th and finished 33rd. He made seven more starts that season, his best finish coming at Mansfield, where he finished 16th.

In 2005, Keselowski began competing in the Truck Series full-time with backing from SUBcrews.com and Samson Stone. He opened the season with a career-best seventh-place finish at the Florida Dodge Dealers 250. Running every race that season, he finished 21st in points. He ran the first two races of 2006 for K-Automotive, finishing sixteenth at California Speedway, before a lack of sponsorship caused the team to temporarily suspend operations. Keselowski then drove a pair of races filling in for the injured Kelly Sutton, where he had a seventh-place start at Memphis Motorsports Park. He returned to the Trucks in August, where he finished 33rd at Bristol Motor Speedway driving the #63 for MB Motorsports.

2007–2009

In 2007, Keselowski began running in the NASCAR Busch series full time and for Rookie of the Year honors with Keith Coleman Racing, but the team suspended operations in July. During the 2007 racing season, Keselowski was tabbed by Germain Racing to replace Ted Musgrave at Memphis Motorsports Park after Musgrave was suspended for an in race scuffle with another driver in Milwaukee. He qualified first for the Saturday night race, and led a majority of the race, but got bumped by Travis Kvapil with about nine laps to go. Keselowski finished 16th. Shortly afterwards, he was called by car owner Dale Earnhardt, Jr to drive his #88 United States Navy Chevrolet for JR Motorsports for the rest of the year in the Busch Series, posting five top-ten finishes.

Keselowski re-signed with JR in 2008, and got his first win came June 7, 2008 at Nashville Superspeedway, overcoming Clint Bowyer after the final caution in the closing laps of the race. His second Nationwide career win came in the same fashion at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 22, 2008. He ended the season third in the points standings, the highest finish by a full-time Nationwide Series-only driver. Late in the season, Keselowski was hired to drive the #25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for two races with Hendrick Motorsports.^{[citation needed]} Keselowski was on stand-by for an ill Jeff Gordon in Kansas and for expectant father Casey Mears at Talladega that season as well. Keselowski made his Cup series debut at Texas after failing to qualify once due to a rainout. He finished the Dickies 500 in 19th position, and 23rd in the season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway.

Keselowski continued driving the 88 for JR in 2009 as well as competing in a limited Cup schedule. He will drive the #25 in seven races, and is scheduled to drive the #09 Phoenix Racing in ten races. He won the Aarons 499 in just his fifth career Cup start.

Keselowski pulled off an upset and earned his first Sprint Cup win during the 2009 Aaron's 499 at Talladega. In the pass through the tri-oval, Brad went high to try to fake Carl Edwards out. When Edwards went high to block, Brad went low to pass. Edwards went to block. However, Keselowski made contact with Edwards left rear quarterpanel, making him lose control of his car in a crash that sent Edwards back into the path of Ryan Newman. Edwards' car bounced off of Ryan Newman's hood and then up into the catch fence, injuring seven fans. Brad Keselowski did not go down below the yellow line due to the circumstances at the race last year involving Regan Smith and the yellow line (Smith passed Tony Stewart below the yellow line to finish first, but lost the win, even when there was controversy over whether he was forced to move below the yellow line). Keselowski won in his fifth career start (third start in 2009) and led his first career Sprint Cup lap, Lap 188 (in fact the only lap he led the entire race). It was the first time since May 2007 a driver had won his first career win in a major, and the first win in the Aaron's 499 by a first-time driver since Phil Parsons in 1988. It was also the first time a driver's first ever lap led was to win the race.

2010–2011

It appears that his win in Talladega has earned him more seat time in the James Finch-owned Chevy. Originally scheduled to appear next in the 18th race of the season, at Daytona International Speedway, was then scheduled to appear in the upcoming race at Richmond International Raceway. Keselowski raced the Sprint All-Star Race as well.^{[citation needed]} He was forced to pull out of the Richmond race due to commitments to his Nationwide series team.

2009 #88 Nationwide car

Keselowski got his third Nationwide victory at Dover. Kyle Busch cut a tire on the restart, second-place Joey Logano rammed Busch and Keselowski passed them both.

After taking a gamble and staying out past his "pit-window," Keselowski garnered his fourth win at the first ever Nationwide race at Iowa Speedway after battling Kyle Busch to take over and maintain first position. Keselowski finishing first over Kyle Busch made Busch tie his record of nine consecutive top 2 finishes.

Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch dominated Michigan, but Keselowski came on top when momentum broke between the two, allowing Keselowski to pick up a victory in his home state.

In 2010, Keselowski joined Penske Racing in the NNS (NASCAR Nationwide Series) and NSCS (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series). Keselowski scored his first win in the NNS in 2010 at Talladega on April 25 and then went on to win five more races at Richmond, Nashville, Michigan, Charlotte, and Gateway. He also collected five poles, 26 top 5s, and 29 top 10s. With the 26 top 5s, he beaten Kyle Busch's record with 25 top 5s. With crew chief Paul Wolfe, Keselowski won his first ever NASCAR Nationwide Series title. But in the NSCS it was a different story. Keselowski finished 25th in the final Sprint Cup standings and recorded one pole, zero wins, 0 top 5s, and 2 top 10s.

In 2011, Keselowski will drive the #2 Miller Lite Dodge. Keselowski's current #12 Dodge team will become the #2 Miller Lite Dodge team. Kurt Busch and the current #2 team will become the #22 Shell Penzoil Dodge for 2011. Shell as a stipulation of sponsorship wanted Kurt Busch as their driver feeling that he is more established then Brad Keselowski. Paul Wolfe will replace Jay Guy as crew chief of Brad Keselowski's #2 Miller Lite Dodge. Todd Gordon will be Keselowski's crew chief in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He won the pole for the 2011 Coca Cola 600, and the following week, he was able to get the lead with 9 laps to go and hold off a charging Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to win the 2011 STP 400 at Kansas Speedway on fuel mileage. During his victory celebration, he ran out of fuel.

Keselowski had a violent accident at the Road Atlanta circuit which left him with a broken ankle. However, he took the lead with 16 laps to go from Kyle Busch and won the Good Sam RV Insurance 500 at Pocono Raceway, notable for being one of the most tricky tracks in the series. This win, happened 3 or 4 days after the violent crash.

The next week, Keselowski gave a valiant 2nd place effort at Watkins Glen International, leading with 2 laps to go but getting passed by Marcos Ambrose in turn five. He followed that with a 3rd place finish at Michigan International Speedway. The next week, Keselowski got his third win of the year at Bristol by holding off Martin Truex, Jr. and Jeff Gordon.

That win virtually assured Keselowski a spot in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup, given NASCAR's rule change designating the final two Chase spots as wild cars slots for drivers ranked 11th through 20th in the points with the most wins. Keselowski finished the "regular season" 11th in points, using his three wins to qualify for his first career Chase.

Keselowski was a factor for much of the Chase, before a late spin at Martinsville derailed his championship hopes. Still, Keselowski finished his second full Cup season fifth in the point standings, 84 points behind champion Tony Stewart. Keselowski finished the season with more wins than teammate Kurt Busch (three to two) and with a better points finish.

2012

In addition to continuing running in the Sprint Cup Series and a limited Nationwide Series schedule for Penske Racing, Keselowski will compete in a limited number of Camping World Truck Series races for his own team, Brad Keselowski Racing, as a teammate to Parker Kligerman.

Complete Sprint Cup Series results

Note:This list does not include exhibition races.
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	No.	Sponsors	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	NSCC	Points
2008	Hendrick Motorsports	25	GoDaddy.com	Chevrolet	DAY	CAL	LSV	ATL	BRI	MAR	TEX	PHO	TAL	RIC	DAR	LOW	DOV	POC	MIC	INF	NHA	DY2	CHI	IND	PO2	GLN	MI2	BR2	CA2	RI2	NH2	DV2	KAN	TL2	LO2 DNQ	MA2	AT2	TX2 19	PH2	HOM 23	57th	200
2009	HMS / PhR / PR	25 / 09 / 12	GoDaddy.com / Miccosukee / Penske	Chevrolet / Dodge	DAY DNQ	CAL	LSV 38	ATL	BRI	MAR	TEX 23	PHO	TAL 1	RIC	DAR 7	LOW	DOV DNQ	POC	MIC	INF	NHA 6	DY2 24	CHI 32	IND	PO2	GLN	MI2 24	BR2	AT2	RI2 38	NH2	DV2	KAN 13	CA2	LO2 12	MA2	TL2 8	TX2 35	PH2 37	HOM 25	38th	1528
2010	Penske Racing	12	Penske Racing/Verizon Wireless	Dodge	DAY 36	CAL 21	LSV 26	ATL 36	BRI 13	MAR 12	PHO 16	TEX 14	TAL 34	RIC 14	DAR 12	DOV 18	CHA 20	POC 21	MIC 27	INF 35	NHA 26	DY2 30	CHI 18	IND 19	PO2 20	GLN 20	MI2 34	BR2 19	AT2 25	RI2 15	NH2 18	DV2 22	KAN 23	CA2 26	CH2 27	MA2 10	TL2 10	TX2 33	PH2 42	HOM 13	25th	'3485
2011	Penske Racing	2	Miller Lite	Dodge	DAY 29	PHO 15	LSV 26	BRI 18	CAL 26	MAR 19	TEX 18	TAL 33	RIC 26	DAR 3	DOV 13	CHA 19	KAN 1	POC 23	MIC 25	INF 10	DY2 15	KEN 7	NHA 35	IND 9	PO2 1	GLN 2	MI2 3	BR2 1	ATL 6	RI2 12	CHI 6	NH2 2	DV2 20	KA2 3	CH2 16	TL2 4	MA2 17	TX2 24	PH2 18	HOM 20	5th	2319

Brad Keselowski Racing

Main article: Brad Keselowski Racing

Keselowski formed his own race team in 2007. The team began competing in the Truck Series in 2008. Brad drove the #29 Chevy himself and earned the team's first Top 10 finish.

In 2011, Brad will have young prospect Parker Kligerman drive his #29 Dodge Ram for all 25 races, attempting to win Rookie of the Year, and possibly even the Championship. Currently Kligerman is 3rd in the Rookie Standings and 8th in the Championship Standings.

Kligerman actually did fairly well for Brad. "Klig" got two 2nd-place finishes for BKR, finishing 11th in the final point standings, and acquired additional sponsorship from Cooper Standard who will sponsor the duo for another full-season in 2012.

Images

• 

  2010 Nationwide car

References

• "Brad Keselowski Career Statistics". Racing Reference. http://www.racing-reference.info/driver?id=keselbr01. Retrieved 2011-02-12. 
• "Brad Keselowski Owner Statistics". Racing Reference. http://www.racing-reference.info/owner?id=keselbr01. Retrieved 2011-02-12. 
• "Brad Keselowski Racing". Brad Keselowski. http://bradracing.com/. Retrieved 2011-02-12. 

External links

• Official website
• Brad Keselowski at Racing Reference
• Keselowski Family Website

Sporting positions
Preceded by Kyle Busch	NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion 2010	Succeeded by Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
Achievements
Preceded by Carl Edwards	NASCAR Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver 2008, 2009, 2010	Succeeded by Elliott Sadler