By David Poole
McClatchy Newspapers
Within the passing of one year, 24-
year-old Nationwide Series driver
Brad Keselowski had perhaps the
lowest and the highest points in his career occur
at the same place.
In 2007, Keselowski started last in a 43-
car field at Nashville Superspeedway in
Tennessee. He completed only 23 of 225
laps and finished 40th.
"It was about as bad at it gets,"
Keselowski remembers. "We brought a
road course car here and broke down
about five times. I was afraid I was going
to knock the wall down and get myself hurt.
It was one of those times when I was asking
myself, 'What am I doing?'"
After that race, what he wasn't doing
was working in NASCAR. The team he
was with folded up after that outing,
and Keselowski was out of a
ride.
That all must have seemed
but a distant memory for him
one week ago after
Keselowski returned to
Nashville and won this
year's Federated Auto
Parts 300 to pick up his
first career victory in his
49th career Nationwide
Series start.
Keselowski became
the first first-time win-
ner in stock-car racing's
No. 2 series with that
victory, taking a giant
step forward toward realiz-
ing the potential he showed
in working his way into this
current job as driver of the No.
88 Chevrolets owned by JR Motorsports.
with some lower-level teams and when you're
doing that and breaking down or blowing up
every week you're questioning yourself.
"Then you catch a break like I did and
get to drive for somebody like
Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. that vali-
dates and vindicates you. I
have a team that keeps
getting better every
week and I keep get-
ting better with
it. I felt like it
was just a matter
of time."
Motorsports team had been through
rough patches, too, until
Keselowski came on board. But
Keselowski finished 14th in his
first outing at Chicagoland and
had six top-10 finishes the rest of
the way.
When Earnhardt Jr. joined Hendrick
Motorsports after last season, that deal
also included co-operation between the
Hendrick operation and the JR Motorsports
team that Earnhardt Jr. owned. Keselowski cer-
tainly understands what opportunities that
opened for him in the No. 88.
"When you feel like you have the equipment
to win with, you forget about the rest " or at
least I do," he said. "You forget about who
you're competing against, and you know if you
run the car right you can win."
With crew chief Tony Eury Sr. providing a
veteran's seasoning to Keselowski's youth, tal-
ent and enthusiasm, the team already had six
top-10 finishes " and a couple of brushes with
victory " before the win at Nashville.
Going into this week's race at Kentucky
Speedway, Keselowski is fifth in the
Nationwide standings and just 26 points
behind second-place Carl Edwards. He trails
championship leader Clint Bowyer by 192
points.
The Nashville win and the solid runs in sev-
eral other races this year has whet the young
driver's appetite for success.
"We've had a shot at winning a couple of
times but we just hadn't caught any breaks," he
said. "There were some races where we were
fast enough to win but we just didn't execute,
we made mistakes. Then there were races where
we haven't been fast enough but ran a perfect
race. (At Nashville) we just made zero mistakes
and that's what is going to take to win."