Brad Keselowski Wins Nationwide Series Title at Texas

Today at Texas Motor Speedway, Brad Keselowski won the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship after finishing third in the O'Reilly Challenge. 

Keselowski, who only had to finish 21st or better to clinch the title, won the first ever NASCAR title for team owner Roger Penske. 

"Part of you feels honored to do it for Roger,'' Keselowski said. "To get to see him carry that (NASCAR) trophy and do something he's never done, it's hard to give a billionaire something. It's pretty cool.''

One-time rival Carl Edwards, who won the race today and is currently second in the Nationwide Series standings, leaned into Keselowski's cockpit and congratulated. 

"It's his first championship. They've done a good job,'' Edwards said. "We've had our differences and our battles, but today is his championship day and he beat us.''

This season, Keselowski has won at Talladega, Richmond, Nashville, Michigan, Charlotte, Fontana, and Gateway. He has 24 Top Fives and 27 Top 10s in 33 races as well as five poles. 

This is the first championship for Dodge in NASCAR since Ted Musgrave won the 2005 Craftsman Truck Series Championship and the manufacturer's first ever Nationwide Series title. 

Keselowski has held the points lead since winning at Talladega in the eighth race this season—April 25. He got to Texas with a 485-point lead over Edwards that got trimmed by only 20 Saturday.

"Going through the last few weeks knowing that it looked pretty good to win the championship, I couldn't help but think of all the things that could go wrong,'' Keselowski said. "When you think of those things, I don't want to get my hopes up until it's really there. It's here. It really happened.''