Brad Keselowski understood that driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr. was huge for his NASCAR career. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, Kevin Harvick asked Keselowski about how he joined Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports while competing in the Xfinity Series full-time.
“I feel like I was really lucky,” Keselowski said. “I was competing in the [Xfinity Series] with a really backmarker team. At that time, this was circa ”06/’07, you go to a race and there would be 25-30 Cup drivers in it. …At that point, just making the show was a pretty good deal if you were not a Cup-affiliated team or driver. I started just making the shows. Now I would run like 35th or 40th, but I was making the show. I have a practice session where I would be in the top five and enough to like people would notice it.
“…And it was enough to get some attention.Michael Waltrip wanted to put me in his Xfinity car, this would have been the summer of ’07. It didn’t come together for a number of reasons. Ultimately, probably my biggest break was when Ted Musgrave got suspended after a Truck race in Milwaukee. I filled in for him in Memphis in a Truck race. I ran really well, sat on the pole, led a lot of laps, had a shot to win. It just felt like all these different things came together.”
Brad Keselowski talks getting the call from Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Keselowski went on to reveal when Earnhardt called him. “I was on an airplane flying back from Memphis, flying commercial. I was living in the Detroit area, and I landed in Detroit. I turned my phone on and I had a voicemail from Dale Earnhardt Jr.,” he said. “I remember thinking this is the coolest thing ever.
“I didn’t get to talk to him that day because the way my flight was he was racing by then. I think I talked to him on a Monday or Tuesday after. Next thing I knew I was flying up to North Carolina and my world just flipped.”
Keselowskidrove for JR Motorsports during the second half of the 2007 season and then finished third in the Xfinity Series standings with the team in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, Keselowski joined Team Penske and won an Xfinity Series and Cup Series championship with the team. He currently drives for RFK Racing and won his first race with the team earlier this year.
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