Will Becoming NASCAR's Biggest Villain Help or Hurt Brad Keselowski's Career?

Brad Keselowski may not win this 2014 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup. But at the rate he has been going, he will be the one driver most remembered for it whether he wins the championship or not.

Keselowski was front and center in the middle of another controversial Chase moment last Sunday when Jeff Gordon went after him on pit road following the conclusion of the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. It was the second time in four Chase races that an angered fellow driver sought out Keselowski post-race with the apparent intention of doing the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford physical harm.

At this point, it is readily apparent that Keselowski has become the villain of the Sprint Cup garage, and the question is, will that help or hurt his career?

The answer is obvious. It's already helping him. He's obviously inside the heads of many of the drivers around him, and apparently emboldened by the current state of affairs to the point where he's willing to take risks to win races without worrying much about the consequences brought about by how he gets it done.

The truth is, Keselowski has never been all that popular with other drivers in the garage. He's sort of like the annoying know-it-all who invites himself out for beers with the guys, who can only tolerate his self-righteous sense of superiority for so long before conspiring to stuff him upside down into the nearest garbage receptacle.

Denny Hamlin pretty much summed up what most of the other Sprint Cup drivers think of Keselowski after witnessing Sunday's latest incident.

"It's the same old story, I guess," Hamlin told FoxSports.com. "Someone should probably notify Brad you can't be 'Bad Brad' if you're a dweeb, and he is. He's going to get beat up pretty bad one time."

But man, the dude can really drive a race car.

You know who else annoyed other drivers for pretty long stretches during their Hall of Fame careers? The late Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip.

Both were masters at playing psychological games with opponents, including each other. And they never hesitated to drive aggressively to the point that when other drivers saw them coming up in the rear-view mirror, they frequently were spooked into uncharacteristic mistakes at the mere sight of them, wondering what they might do.

Along the way, many fans who once were indifferent to Earnhardt and Waltrip, or even booed them, turned into loyal followers. The more you win, the more that tends to happen.

If Gordon wants to know the truth, guys like those two probably would have done the same thing Keselowski did last Sunday at Texas.

On a late restart, Gordon, running in front of Keselowski, drifted ever so slightly up the track, and in doing so, he left a hole open ever so briefly. Keselowski saw it and went for it. By the time Gordon tried to close the hole up, it was too late. His No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Keselowski's Ford banged doors—and Gordon, who suffered a cut tire in the exchange, ended up with the worst of it.

Keselowski told FoxSports.com afterward that he came to race "100 percent" and said that it's what fans pay to see. And he was exactly correct, adding: "We were just racing for the win. I didn't wreck him, just raced him hard. He left a hole. Everything you watch in racing, if you leave a hole, you're supposed to go for it. It closed back up and we made contact. I don't want to ruin anyone's day. I wanted to win the race, and that was our opportunity. It just didn't come together."

Gordon, of course, saw it a different way after eventually suffering a flat left rear tire and spinning. He immediately confronted Keselowski on pit road following the race to express his displeasure.

From there, it escalated into a full-scale brawl involving crew members from both teams and even some other crew members from another team who supposedly were trying to break it up, plus Kevin Harvick, who gave Keselowski a shove from behind, directing him back into the middle of the fray.

"I didn't get in the middle of anything" Harvick insisted to FoxSports.com. "I just turned him around and told him to go fight his own fight."

Keselowski responded by saying he's a racer, not a fighter, saying, "I came here to race, not fight. If I wanted to be a fighter, I would have joined the UFC or have a management team like (Harvick) does. I came here to race, 100 percent. That's what I did (Sunday)."

No matter what Keselowski does, he's a lightning rod. You might love him or hate him, but no one is indifferent about him.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

His role as villain has been thrust upon him in some ways but is at least partially self-inflicted, and it may come back to haunt him over the final two races of this Chase if one of his fellow competitors looks to take him out to even a score. But unlike in Charlotte, when Matt Kenseth attacked Keselowski in the Sprint Cup garage because of out-of-control, uncalled for actions Keselowski took during the cool-down lap and on pit road after the race, this time Keselowski did nothing wrong.

Keselowski may have to win at Phoenix to advance to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway that will decide the championship between the final four Chase drivers left standing. The guess here is that he'll go for it "100 percent" and no one will wreck him—out of fear of wrecking themselves while they're at it.

In other words, no one is likely to wreck Keselowski because, well, no one else drives as aggressively as he does without worrying about the consequences.

No matter what happens, half of the crowd is likely to be cheering for him and the other half booing him. Or maybe it will be 60-40 or 70-30 in favor of the boos.

But no one will ignore him, and that's why being NASCAR's latest villain is a good career move for Brad Keselowski whether he arrived here intentionally or not.

Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.

Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report as well as covering NASCAR as a writer and editor for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.