Brad Keselowski ready to prove 2012 championship was not a fluke

By Jan 29, 2014, 7:01 PM EST
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Brad Keselowski had a memorable season in 2012 and one he’d just as soon forget in 2013.

Such is the unpredictable nature of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from one season to the next. While he was the talk of the sport after winning the Cup championship in 2012, after a disappointing 2013, Keselowski is bound and determined not to be perpetually known as a one-hit wonder going forward.

As in one-time champion – a.k.a. one and done.

“Not winning the championship is disappointing,” Keselowski said Wednesday during the third day of the four-day NASCAR Media Tour. “That’s my goal, I want to win the championship, I want to win races. If you’re looking at it in a whole season sense, to not win a championship is absolutely disappointing and it should be. And I don’t want anyone working on my team that’s not disappointed when you don’t win a championship.”

Keselowski and Team Penske have made numerous changes to bounce back from 2013 to a more successful 2014. They’ve done a wholesale facelift of the pit crew (only two members remain from 2012’s unit), added an “athletic director” to monitor the workouts of crew members, and have done considerable realignment within the mechanical department to minimize what were far too many broken parts and strategy missteps last season.

“You have to compare your success to your failures and try to understand the difference,” Keselowski said. “There wasn’t one (failure last season), there was a series across the board, and it’s our job to resurrect that and I think the approach has been so to do that.”

The differences between his championship season of 2012 and failing to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2013 are stark.

In bringing Penske his first Cup championship in three decades of trying in 2012, Keselowski won five races, had 13 top five and 23 top 10 finishes in the 36-race schedule.

In 2013, however, he won just one race (and that didn’t come until the 31st event of the season, at Charlotte), had only nine top five and 16 top 10 showings. He also failed to make the Chase and defend his previous year’s title, eventually winding up as the highest finishing driver that didn’t make the Chase (14th place).

Still, that was little consolation to the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford.

“We had situations out of our control that we didn’t execute on,” Keselowski said. “It seemed like at any given point of the year, we were this close, but not there. We had too many mechanical failures, we certainly addressed those. … We had too many issues on pit road and I had too many issues behind the wheel. If we (improve) any one of them, we feel we’re right where we need to be a championship contender.”

Team owner Roger Penske concurs.

“We’ve here to win the championship,” Penske said. “We’ve got some work to do. The competition has never been tougher. Our goal is to be at that head table in Las Vegas in 2014 (at the NASCAR Awards Banquet).

“(Last season was) a big disappointment. We knew we were better than we showed. We didn’t have the reliability with the pit crew, the car and the engine. To me, I think it’s a learning curve, I think it makes (Keselowski) better because he has to come back now and show people it wasn’t just a fluke in 2012.”

With Keselowski and Joey Logano (who finished eighth in the Chase last season when Keselowski faltered) as the team’s two representatives in the Sprint Cup Series and Ryan Blaney running a part-time schedule in the Nationwide Series, youth is definitely being served at Team Penske this season.

“As I look at 2014, consistency and continuity are key from the standpoint of our team,” Penske said. “And when I think of our drivers, I think of youth. You take our two Cup drivers and then you put Ryan Blaney in there and (the average age is) 24 years old. These drivers have the ability to win, they were winners in their series in 2013 and we expect a lot in 2014.”

And right at the top of the list of expecting a lot – especially from himself – is Keselowski.

“Last year, I feel like I ran some of the best races of my life, and in a lot of ways I was a better driver than I was in 2012,” Keselowski said. “But this is not an individual sport. You can very easily argue that the team side carried me for part of 2012, and vice-versa in 2013. It’s a team sport and it’s a collective evolving. It was our responsibility to get it done and we didn’t. But that doesn’t mean we don’t think we can. I think we can.

“It’s a new opportunity. We’re ready to get going here in 2014 and I do think we have a lot of continuity. We think we’re where we need to be to run for another championship. I feel like we’re reloaded.”

With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”