How Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano Have Broken the Conventional Team Penske Mold
If you've been involved with auto racing for as long as I have, you sort of get used to seeing the name Penske being associated with the sport.
Most often you would find it mentioned in the same sentence as the words "winning" or "perfection."
Lately, however, it's also being associated with "aggressive," "brawl," "fracas" and "penalties," as in, " … today NASCAR officials handed down penalties."
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
What the heck is going on here?
One name comes to mind: Brad Keselowski.
Now, if you've never been to a NASCAR or IndyCar race in person, then you've probably never seen the Penske folks up close. They're easy to spot in the garage—starched white shirts, black paints and shoes, with an attitude that reeks a bit of condescension. And for good reason—they are the best at what they do.
This is not an organization that one would easily associate with race track fights, bloody faces and driver aggression bubbling over after a race.
But then, Roger Penske hasn't had the likes of two young guns named Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski driving his stock cars before now. These two have not only broken the Penske mold; they've shattered it into a million pieces. And the racing organization is better for it.
These two are definitely not the white shirt and black pants type. They're blue jeans, T-shirts and messed-up hair. They're hungry, aggressive and talented. All the things that team owner Penske values in his drivers—without the fashion points.
The organization's history is deep. Its Indy Car roots go back to 1968—its NASCAR roots to 1972. Penske has had some of greatest drivers in the history of IndyCar racing driving for him—Mark Donohue; Rick Mears; Danny Sullivan; Bobby, Al and Al Jr. Unser; and Helio Castroneves.
In NASCAR, the bench hasn't been as deep, but it does include names like Bobby Allison, Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman, who won Penske his only Daytona 500 in 2008.
The general consensus among NASCAR pundits was that Penske always put his IndyCar teams first, and his NASCAR teams ran a very distant second. The phrase, "How can he win so many Indy 500s (16) and not equal that success in NASCAR?" has been used for decades to describe Penske's NASCAR effort.
Not anymore. Penske arguably has the two top drivers in the sport today driving his Sprint Cup cars—two drivers who have talent, moxie and an attitude of "win at any cost" that Penske has never had before in his stock car camp. I'll write it again—these guys are the two best drivers The Captain has ever had in a stock car.
And I will take the heat from the Rusty Wallace fans for saying that. Although, here's The Captain in his own words.
"But for me, I've been in NASCAR a long time, this is 11 races we'd won, 10 was our best season with Rusty," Penske said in the post-race press conference following Keselowski's win at Talladega. "We set a record today for the team."
The duo of Keselowski and Logano has sparked a renaissance in Team Penske's NASCAR efforts. There's no question that they've been good before this season. Keselowski's 2012 Sprint Cup title proves it.
And the best part? This isn't going to be a one-time affair. Oh no. Both drivers are thrilled to be driving for Penske and aren't planning on going anywhere. This is the future—now.
Having your team owner support you is one thing. To have him be Roger Penske and offer the kind of support Penske continues to show to these two is nothing short of remarkable.
"Look, I like him. He's a great driver," Penske said, referring to Keselowski in the same post-race press conference at Talladega a few weeks ago. "We have a long-term relationship with him. If he wants to get a little upset sometimes, that's okay with me. We'll let NASCAR figure out if he's over the line or not. I guess it cost us 50 grand. I'll take 50 grand and the win this week. Wouldn't you?"
That "50 grand" he was talking about? That's from Keselowski's Charlotte faux pas when he rammed both Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth at the end of the race.
It's obvious that Penske sees these two drivers as historically his best combination of drivers—in NASCAR.
"Well, we've had a lot of great drivers," Penske said in a post-race conference after Logano won at Kansas. "Probably when I had Mears and Unser at the same time, I'd say those were pretty special guys. That just comes off the top of my head."
That's some very heady company when you're being compared with two of the greatest IndyCar drivers in history.
But, even when Mears was winning all those Indy 500s (four of them) and Castroneves was winning three, there was always an air of respectability surrounding the Penske camp. To race against a Penske driver meant that he'd race you clean and fair.
That may still be true in the open-wheel world. But it's not even close to the attitude in NASCAR, where Logano and Keselowski have earned a reputation as being both aggressive and tactless. There's a "get out of my way I'm going to the front" attitude that I'd only seen once before in a Penske driver—Paul Tracy.
Tracy had the attitude while driving for Penske, but despite his race wins (eight) for The Captain, he didn't fit the mold and moved on.
This is a new era for Penske—one that is as exciting as it is successful.
Why has it taken so long?
Some things just do, and, as with anything successful, you have to have the right people at the right time.
"I just think it's the human capital," Penske said in the post-race press conference at Kansas. "It's the people that we've been able to attract as we got some speed and we got some success."
This weekend, Logano, with five of those 11 wins, sits comfortably atop the driver's points standings, tied with Denny Hamlin with just one win this season. Such is the new Chase format.
Keselowski, on the other hand, is fighting to salvage a stellar season at Phoenix. He's near the bottom of the Eliminator Round ladder, with only four drivers advancing to the finale in Homestead with a chance at the championship.
One might expect Logano to be a part of the scenery at Phoenix International Raceway, playing safe and staying out of trouble. But that's doubtful.
His teammate will be dealing with a field full of not-so-friendly faces making the smallest of spaces on the race track seem even smaller. But I expect Keselowski knows that and isn't fazed by it.
Both drivers could be tied for the lead if it weren't for Keselowski’s bad day (and a bad tire) at Kansas. (It was at this same event that Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Chase hopes were also struck a fatal blow by a failed tire.)
Keselowski referred to that day as a game of Russian roulette. "It was our turn at the gun," he later called it during a live television interview.
"He came to the shop and said he could help us build a world-class team," said Penske at the Talladega post-race press conference. "He did that personally the way he drives, but also at the shop. He's a leader not only on the race track but also at the shop.
"To me, putting his arm around Joey, getting him to come on the team, he's something that I would call the key asset of the team right now. He's a good team player with Joey."
Earlier this week, Penske voiced his support for his "key asset."
"Brad Keselowski is a champion who competes to win in every race, which is what I expect of him," Penske said in a statement. "While the actions by others following the race in Texas were unfortunate, Brad has my 100 percent support."
Jeff Owens of Sporting News says, "Like it or not, Keselowski is a lot like Earnhardt, a little like Waltrip and very much a throwback to the glory days of the '70s, '80s and '90s."
I couldn't agree with him more.
What's left now is to see which one of these two drivers will end up being the champion. Logano would be a popular champion—young, brash and with a bit of an "aw shucks" demeanor.
There are many fans hoping it will be Keselowski. After all, we all love to hate the bad guy, especially when he's at the top.
All quotes are taken from official NASCAR, team and manufacturer media releases unless otherwise stated.
Bob Margolis is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association and has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, the NHRA and Sports Cars for more than two decades as a writer, television producer and on-air talent.
On Twitter: @BobMargolis.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
