[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”216″][/media-credit]In just his third full-time season, Brad Keselowski is crowned champion. The road to the championship hasn’t been easy but Keselowski has gone down the path and conquered the end result. Keselowski is one of the most popular champions among the fans due to his driving style and personality. Keselowski is one of the more out spoken drivers and the fans enjoy that. For the first time in seasons, most fans have to agree they like the champion.

When Brad Keselowski sent the “Tweet Heard ‘Round the World” from his race car in Daytona during a red flag period, he became more of a likeable driver among the fans. When the tweet was sent, very few people would have believed that 36 races later, he would be holding up the championship trophy. A very dominant Chase, left Keselowski on top after ten races and he can now say he beat a five-time champion.

With just two races left in the season, Keselowski was trailing Jimmie Johnson in the point’s standings and no one though Keselowski could catch up and beat Johnson but he proved he can in the final two races. It took some mistake by his opponent but a championship is a championship and Keselowski has conquered that goal. One of the most incredible things to come out of the Chase this past season was that Keselowski beat a five-time champion in the same game the champion (Johnson) has won five times before. Somehow, Keselowski did it and that is one reason for celebrating.

In forty plus years in the sport, Roger Penske was unable to have one of his drivers win the championship but the forty years of trying ended Sunday evening when Brad Keselowski held up the championship trophy. For over a decade, Roger Penske put three different drivers in the iconic No.2 Miller Lite Dodge and he thought he could get a championship with each of those drivers but reality has it that a young, fan favorite driver was able to get the championship.

Every action, good and bad, Brad Keselowski made this season led people to like him. Over the last seven seasons, I don’t believe we have had a fan’s champion but in 2012, I think we accomplished the goal. Would Brad Keselowski consider himself a fans champion? No but once he realizes that the season he has had was incredible he will come to believe the fact that he is a fans champion. One of the scariest things about “Bad Brad” winning the championship is that he is only 28 and he has years of racing ahead of him.

Keselowski’s unique personality and attitude attract people to like him and if Keselowski will be dominating the league for years to come, NASCAR will be a sport filled with fans enjoying a fans kind of champion in seasons to come.

[media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”249″][/media-credit]What an incredible 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. A season that started off with a Monday night under the lights Daytona 500 all the way to a riveting championship battle all the way to the final few laps at Homestead. I would like to give out some awards of excellence to close out 2012 and to honor some of the best performances of the season.

Driver of the Year – Brad Keselowski: Sunday night’s championship clinching race culminated Brad Keselowski’s meteoric rise to the top of the NASCAR mountain. In just three years he accomplished what many drivers never do in a career that spans more than a decade. After a sluggish first seven races of the 2012 season, the driver of the Penske Dodge went on an incredible run of consistency recording four wins, 11 top-5’s, and 19 top 10’s over the final 29 races of the season. Brad only finished outside the top-15 in three of those final 29 races. 2012 proved to be the year for Brad and with solid resources from Penske Racing the sky is the limit for this 28 year old from Michigan.

Crew Chiefs of the Year – Paul Wolfe and Chad Knaus: Without question the two smartest men in the NASCAR garage. Paul and Chad played a huge role in their respective teams successes in 2012. The No.2 and No.48 accounted for 10 wins, 31 top-5’s, and 47 top-10 finishes. As long as Paul and Chad are on top of the pit boxes and Brad and J.J. are behind the wheels of the race cars. Look for many more battles between the No.2 and No.48.

Breakout Driver of the Year – Clint Bowyer: 2012 can be summed up as nothing short of a banner year for the Emporia, Kansas native. Heading into 2012, Clint’s best finish was third in 2007 also he raised a lot of eyebrows by announcing he was leaving Richard Childress Racing (RCR) for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) for the 2012 season. Clint proved the experts wrong about the decision to leave by posting his finest campaign in the cup series. Clint posted three wins, 10 top-5’s and 23 top-10 finishes not to mention a career best second place finish in points. With a solid team returning and Brian Pattie continuing to call the shots look for this No.15 team to be in the hunt for 2013.

Organization of the Year – Michael Waltrip Racing: To go from an organization that had only won two races in its existence to having two cars make the 2012 chase and all three cars running consistent through the 2012 season with four different drivers makes for a very successful season for MWR. As a collective unit MWR won three races, recorded 24 top-5’s, and 57 top-10 finishes in 2012. Also was very close to going to victory lane on several other occasions. Look for MWR to continue in 2013 the strong momentum from the 2012 season. MWR has become one of NASCAR’s elite teams.

Story of the Year – Hendrick Motorsports 200th NSCS win and Roger Penske’s first NSCS title: Nothing compares to these two moments in 2012. Jimmie Johnson’s win in the Southern 500 at Darlington and Roger Penske finally getting the one prize that had eluded him in Motor Sports definitely tops 2012’s great moments of the season. I can add a third moment with Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning and breaking his four year win less drought at Michigan in June.

ugg boots sale

2012 was one of those years that gave us a lot of moments. A lot of celebration and heartbreak. It is what draws us as fans to the sport. Hopefully 2013 can produce those same kinds of moments as 2012 did. Three long months till Daytona, I don’t know about you but I am already ready to go racing in 2013.

[media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]At the end of the 400 mile finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, NASCAR would see a new champion crowned in the form of Brad Keselowski.

Though it wouldn’t just go as simple as everyone thought as at one point, Jimmie Johnson looked to have the advantage through strategy.

“They were throwing everything they could at us,” Roger Penske said afterwards. “It’s something I can’t hardly believe right now.  I played this race in my mind over the weekend so many times what could happen yes or no.”

“It wasn’t going to be easy, and we weren’t in the best situation we wanted to be in,” crew chief Paul Wolfe added. “But like I said before, part of that is just — I wish we had a little more speed in our car tonight.  I thought we would have.”

Keselowski admits that he was stressed at that moment because the right call was to pit under caution when Keselowski didn’t. Johnson did and it looked to be the advantage.  However, Johnson would have a problem on a late race pit-stop with dropping a lug nut, followed by a gear problem a couple laps later.

“I guess when Jimmie lost that lug nut, I said someone gave us four aces right there in our hand, so what we need to do is be sure we didn’t drop them,” Penske said. “But I just want to thank Paul for the great job he’s done in building this team.”

Keselowski added that he was glad they got back to 15^th so they wouldn’t have to hear the “what if” scenario.

Some critized crew chief Paul Wolfe for not playing the same strategy of the No. 48, which was the winning strategy as played out by Jeff Gordon. However, Wolfe said that they were playing it smart.

“At the end of the day, regardless if the 48 went to the garage or not, we were able to overcome that by taking the four tires and pitting twice for fuel and being able to work our way back up to 15^th,” he said.

A couple years ago when Keselowski signed with Penske Racing, nobody expected that they’d have this success in three years, or that the “Bad Brad” was “Penske Material”. However, Keselowski knew he was from the moment he met with Penske.

“I knew from that moment what level of commitment that Penske Racing had to the sport,” he said. “And all the pieces were there to be successful, and the fact that RP spent the time with me to — he didn’t have to talk to me.  How old was I then, 23, 24? He didn’t have to do that.  You had just won the IndyCar championship that year — I can’t remember, I think you won the 500 that year.  I remember that because I saw you and I said, “congratulations, 500 winner.”  I think Helio had just won it.  He didn’t have to talk to me, he just won an Indy 500.”

Keselowski said he knew that they could win races together, it was all about putting the puzzle together. In the span of three years, they have done that by finding the right combination with Paul Wolfe and Keselowski, along with other key people within the organization.

Keselowski has also grown as a driver since then, changing his style on track from being overly aggressive.

“I was trying too hard to be the I in team, and there is none, and that’s pretty obvious looking back now,” he said. “But I didn’t know that.  I do now. But it’s not until you have a group around you that shows you that you don’t have to do all the work, that you can share it, and that as long as you respect them, care about them and work with them, you can be successful.  And that’s something I had to learn on my own.  I never had anybody teach me that.  Nobody ever taught me about teamwork.  That’s something I had to learn on my own.”

Moving forward, Keselowski says this is just the start of what is to come.

“I feel like this team with these two people sitting next to me that we can do anything we set our mind to if we work together like we have over the last few years,” he said. “I really do.  And I just feel so fortunate to be where I’m at right now in life and with racing, to have guys like this around me because you’re a product of who you surround yourself by, and I’m surrounded by the best.”

Though for now, in moving forward representing the sport, Keselowski says to “expect the unexpected.  That’s my MO, right?”