Bumping heads

September 3, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Keselowski finds respect grudgingly

Associated Press

Brad Keselowski knows he doesn’t have that yellow rookie stripe on the back of his No. 12 Dodge anymore.

Just don’t blame him if he occasionally checks to make sure before he jumps behind the wheel for Roger Penske to race against the likes of Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and the other elite drivers on NASCAR’s Sprint Cup circuit.

While Gordon can wreck a bunch of cars with aggressive driving on the road course at Sonoma, the threatened retaliation never comes against the four-time Cup champion. Johnson can trigger a big crash at Talladega with a mistake, and all the defending four-time champ has to do is apologize and it’s all but forgotten.

Not so with Keselowski, a third-generation racer in his first full season at NASCAR’s top level, and he thinks he knows why.

“I haven’t got it all figured out, but there’s a little bit of a boys-only club going on there, and over time we all make our way into it if you just keep knocking on the door,” Keselowski said. “When you’re knocking on the door, it’s not a lot of fun and sometimes you get kicked back out of the house. I’m trying to make my way in it, and you’re not going to get in there by being a pushover.”

His father, the 1989 ARCA champion, sees his son’s treatment as a form of hazing.

“It seems like you’re a kid going to high school and you’ve got to take your initiations ... to make them happy,” Bob Keselowski said.

Keselowski has repeatedly made it clear he’s no pushover. His first knock on that imaginary door came at Talladega Superspeedway last year when he pushed Edwards toward the finish line and didn’t lift when Edwards tried to block his pass for the win. Edwards went airborne, upside down, sheet metal spewing in his wake as his car sailed into the safety fence in a scary crash, while Keselowski grabbed his first Cup victory in only his fifth start in NASCAR’s top series.

A feud was born.

After Keselowski collided again with Edwards early in the March race at Atlanta, Edwards retaliated by intentionally wrecking Keselowski, sending him airborne.

Now, they’re on probation for the remainder of the season because of a frightening accident on the last lap of a Nationwide race at Gateway International Raceway in mid-July. Edwards intentionally drove into the back of Keselowski on the last lap seconds after Keselowski had made contact in a pass for the lead. Edwards won the race, leaving Keselowski’s Dodge in tatters.