Storylines: Will Keselowski bring the noise? (Yahoo! Sports)
March 20, 2010
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The most intriguing moment at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday will come before the green flag drops on the Food City 500: How will the crowd of 160,000 react when Brad Keselowski’s name is announced during driver introductions?
It doesn’t matter if Keselowski is cheered or booed, as long as the fans are paying attention – something Dale Earnhardt Sr. told Jeff Gordon years ago.
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“In ’95, we came out, we were just strong right from the beginning and started being very competitive, winning races, and a threat for the championship. That’s when I really started to see, you know, the split between my fans and Earnhardt fans,” Gordon explained Tuesday. “Early on, I was like, ‘Hey, what’s [the boos] all about?’ But then I realized pretty quick. Earnhardt was probably one of the first ones to say, ‘I learned a long time ago, as long as they’re making noise …’ ”
Brad Keselowski has chosen Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down has his introduction song to the Food City 500.Getty
… Fans care.
There’s a good argument to be made that Gordon wouldn’t be as popular today if it weren’t for his perceived rivalry with Earnhardt. (The two were actually friendly off the track, even venturing into business together.) With Earnhardt, Gordon played an antagonist. Without him, Gordon would have been Jimmie Johnson – a slick, California boy turning fans off for doing nothing more than beating the pants off everyone else.
Keselowski has neither the charm of Earnhardt, the polish of Gordon nor the winning percentage of either needed for fans to really give a damn. But Sunday’s crowd reaction will be a test of how inspiring he potentially could be. In the wake of the scuttlebutt between him and Carl Edwards, Keselowski has stood firm, saying he’s not going to dial back his aggressive driving style. Apparently it wasn’t enough just to say it; he’s showing it, too, by choosing Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” as his intro song prior to Sunday’s race.
It’s a bold move, especially when the consensus amongst his peers is that he probably should back down, if only just a little.
“He’s got to stand up for what he feels is right for himself and his race team,” Johnson said Friday. “But you just don’t turn off a garage area as fast as he has for no reason. So he’s got to work on that in my eyes.”
This assumes that Keselowski cares how he’s perceived inside the Cup garage and that that’s more important than how he’s looked upon outside of it. Whether the drivers themselves want to admit it, fans do provide credibility. They should, because ultimately they’re the ones paying the freight.
This is why it matters how they receive Keselowski. Will they buy his defiance or pass it off as a disingenuous cry for attention? If it’s the former, and Keselowski is able to start winning races, then NASCAR might just have the antagonist the sport’s been desperately missing for almost a decade.
Here are three more storylines to watch for in Sunday’s Food City 500:
1. Are we witnessing the coming of age of Joey Logano?
By the end of 2009, it was apparent that it was only a matter of time before Joey Logano found his way to the front on a regular basis. But no one could have predicted that four races into the 2010 season, Logano would be the top-ranked Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Joey Logano collected the first pole of his career.Getty
The 19-year-old heads into Sunday’s race 14th in the standings – he’d be higher if he hadn’t gotten collected in an early accident two weeks ago at Atlanta – ahead of preseason darling Denny Hamlin (22nd) and the supposed driver of the future Kyle Busch (15th).
Both Hamlin and Busch have shrugged off their slow starts, pegging equipment issues as a scapegoat. Meanwhile, Logano keeps on trucking in the same equipment. He has the organization’s only top 10s of the season (two) and it’s only pole – claiming Sunday’s, the first of his career.
“Experience, that’s the biggest thing,” Logano said of his improvement from last year to now. “Coming to these places a few times, knowing what I want in the race car. Me and Zippy [Greg Zipadelli, crew chief] work great together. Those are the biggest things; that’s what really changed us around.”
Prior to the season, Logano said qualifying for the Chase was a realistic goal. Less than two months later, he’s proving that he wasn’t just flapping his gums. The question from here through September will be if he can maintain this pace and be one of the 12 drivers to race for a championship.
2. Will Jimmie Johnson achieve world dominance?
The last two unconquered quests for the four-time defending champion are winning on a road course and at Bristol Motor Speedway. As of late, he’s gotten closer to doing both, especially the latter.
In his last two Bristol appearances, Johnson has led 88 and 107 laps, while finishing third and eighth, respectively. Friday he qualified fourth. Saturday, he backed that up by clocking the fastest lap in both practices.
“There’s just a certain rhythm here that has not fit my style,” Johnson said. “I have continued to work on it. The last two races here I’ve felt very competitive. I seem to still struggle in qualifying, but I feel we can get that under control this year. But I feel much more confident in the race, and I feel that we do have a chance to win here.”
3. What’s going on with Kyle Busch?
He’s won the last two races at Bristol, so Kyle Busch should be the favorite, right?
Not in the slightest.
To find Busch on the speed charts this weekend you have to scroll down and then keep scrolling down some more, all the way to the bottom. He was 38th in Practice No. 1, 37th in Practice No. 2 and XX in Practice No. 3. He qualified 38th. All of this coming at a track where he’s finished in the top 10 in seven of the last eight races.
“We’re hoping for some magic to come back and hopefully get us back into victory lane,” Busch said earlier in the week.Clearly that hasn’t happened, and since when has Busch had to rely on “magic?”
To be fair, Busch isn’t having a terrible season so far. He’s 14th in the standings, just 14 points out of the top 12. That said, he’s yet to record a top 10 this season, has led just 37 laps – he’d led 139 at this point a year ago – and now is struggling mightily at what could be his best track. All of this sets up the obvious question: Did the team make the right decision late last season to part ways with crew chief Steve Addington?
So far, the answer is a resounding no.
Jay Hart is the NASCAR editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Jay a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
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