Keselowski buckled up for what could be a rocky 1st season of Cup

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Keselowski keeping head down at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch came up with an interesting hazing idea last year for Brad Keselowski, the pesky young driver who had racked up his share of enemies in his short NASCAR career.

The best lesson that could be taught, Busch figured, would be if five different drivers took turns wrecking Keselowski out of the first five Sprint Cup races this season. The punishment would knock Keselowski out of the top 35 in points and ensure a rough first season at NASCAR’s top level.

That was three months ago, when Keselowski was at the height of his feud with Busch’s teammate Denny Hamlin. But there’s been little follow-up on the threat since Keselowski came to Speedweeks last week for his first Daytona 500.

“I think he’s just kept quiet so far, kept under the radar,” said Busch, “so, go Brad.”

Under the radar might be the best place for Keselowski right now.

He rocketed into the spotlight as the full-time driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Nationwide Series team, winning six races over two seasons while finishing third each year in the final standings. That job helped Keselowski get some Sprint Cup Series starts, including last April’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

And that’s where Keselowski really got noticed.

His last-lap scramble with Carl Edwards led to contact between the two cars that sent Edwards sailing into the frontstretch safety fence. Keselowski scooted by for the improbable victory, winning a high-profile race in spectacular fashion in just his fifth career Cup start.

Suddenly, the 25-year-old Keselowski was a very hot prospect. With it lucrative job offers — he settled on Penske Racing for 2010 — and a whole lot of attention on the hard-charging driving style that had gotten him into NASCAR.

Other drivers, particularly Hamlin, didn’t care for Keselowski’s aggression.

Keselowski didn’t care what they thought.

“Respect is this two-faced part of the sport. In my mind, it’s so hard to come into this sport and run well when you’re worried about making everyone else happy,” Keselowski said. “I just don’t see how you can do that because in competitive sports, anytime your competitors are happy with you is when they’re beating you. That’s why a lot of the established drivers don’t like young drivers coming into the sport because there is an upset to that balance.

“Before, that ride wasn’t a ride that they had to worry about, and now it is. Realistically, it’s that they don’t want to race that guy.”

Hamlin didn’t mind racing against Keselowski, so long as they raced clean. And in Hamlin’s mind, Keselowski was anything but clean. The two had at least five on-track incidents over a one-year span, and all ended with Hamlin in a wrecked race car.

It led to a months-long feud that spanned over the final few months of last season, finally erupting with Hamlin delivering on his promise to wreck Keselowski in November’s Nationwide finale.

“It’s tough to have a rivalry with a mid-pack driver,” Hamlin said after that race. “I shouldn’t be racing him, anyway. … I just wanted to send a message that I am a man of my word, and my father once told me, if you say you are going to do something, you’ve got to do it. And he told me I had to do it, so I had to do it.”

The feud sparked interest in NASCAR, and there will be a ton of eyes on the two in Sunday’s race because they coincidentally will start next to each other in the middle of the pack.

They don’t speak to each other, and the rivalry has sparked passionate fan debates. In many of them, Keselowski is viewed as a potential savior of sorts for a NASCAR in desperate need of a brash new personality.

But others seem him as a driver who hasn’t yet earned the right to be so aggressive or outspoken.

Keselowski doesn’t know where he falls.

“I think it depends on which side of the fence that you’re on,” he said. “If you’re established in the sport right now, and you have a good ride and a good team, you don’t want to see a guy like myself come in. I don’t do you any good. If you have something to gain out of it, if you’re a sponsor or NASCAR themselves or the fans that enjoy the show, they seem to accept it and appreciate it.

“I think the negative feedback that I’ve gotten has been either from the established guard or the fan base of the established guard. The general fan base that appreciates the sport, that cares about the sport or has something to benefit, has been very respective.”

Earnhardt, who mentored Keselowski during his two-plus seasons at JR Motorsports, has ardently defended the driver and said Keselowski owes nothing to anyone in NASCAR but himself.

Still, he’s not so sure Keselowski won’t have a rough first season in the big leagues.

“I think Brad has a lot to learn. He’s a rookie coming into the sport, and I’ve never met a rookie yet that’s known it all,” Earnhardt said. “He’ll learn his lessons, whatever those are. I bet you at the end of the season, he’ll be the first one to admit all the lessons he got taught this year.”