Top NASCAR stories of 2014: No. 7 – Brad Keselowski’s six wins, but falls short of Championship Round

By Dec 24, 2014, 2:00 PM EST
0 Comments
source: Getty Images
Keselowski after his sixth win of the year, at Talladega. Photo: Getty Images

MotorSportsTalk will be counting down the top 20 stories of the 2014 NASCAR season over the month of December.

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

Today, we’re at No. 7 —Brad Keselowski rebounds with six wins in 2014, is in the crosshairs, then misses the Championship 4 finale…

In 2012, he made waves as a beer-guzzling, all-American first-time champion who delivered Roger Penske his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship (two years after also providing Penske his first NASCAR title overall, in the Nationwide Series).

A year later, Keselowski fell into the kind of slump that usually affects the previous season’s runner-up. The wins dropped from five to one, and Keselowski missed the Chase altogether, ending 14th in the standings.

In 2014, “Bad Brad” was back – with the term “bad” used as both an endearing, dominating and damning term at times this season, depending on the race.

There was an early season run of success culminating with a win at Las Vegas to get the season going. Then after the opening three races, Keselowski fell into a nine-race slump where he posted only one top-five.

Wins at Kentucky and Loudon followed in the summer. The former saw him cut his hand on a champagne bottle; the latter saw him celebrate with a lobster in victory lane.

A win at Richmond was one of the year’s most dominant, with 383 of 400 laps led.

A win a week later at Chicagoland firmly established him as the title favorite, thanks to one of the passing moves of the year with a dart through the middle of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson.

And then… the wheels fell off.

While the opening Challenger round was fine for Brad K and the 2 crew, with a win, a seventh and a second, poor finishes at both Kansas (36th) and Martinsville (31st) set him back early in each of the Contender and Eliminator rounds.

Those two poor results, of course, set the stage for the two most discussed moments in the Chase prior to the Chase finale itself.

Keselowski’s post-race dustup with Matt Kenseth at Charlotte and further skirmish with Jeff Gordon at Texas – the latter instigated as much by Harvick as the two protagonists and their respective crews – cast a cloud over what had been a championship-worthy season prior to that point.

In-between those two of course was an emotional and clutch win at Talladega – his sixth of the year – that vaulted him into the Eliminator Round of the championship chase. But when consistency was needed in the Chase, Keselowski was often a boom-or-bust prospect.

Keselowski never backed down in his frank assessments of how he would race this year. His team owner, Penske, backed him at every opportunity.

There was nothing wrong in either of their eyes with how Brad raced – but perhaps the moments where emotions and drama overtook the on-track result were the telling elements that defined his season more than the successes themselves.

In the end, six wins, 17 top-fives, 20 top-10s, five pole positions and 1,540 laps led were stats worthy of a title.

But Keselowski came up short both of the title and having a chance at it in Homestead. That proved an unfortunate ending to what was a needed bounce back season for the driver of the Miller Lite Ford.

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
5 Comments

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.

GARAGE 56 SPECS: Full comparison of NASCAR Cup car to Le Mans car

BUTTON’S BIG MOVE: Hendrick drone tour was NASCAR entryway for F1 champion

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.”