Tråd: Johnson Vakler Igen, Og Keselowski Krydstogter Til Mesterskabet

Brad Keselowski (højre) accepterer Tillykke fra NASCAR CEO hjernen Frankrig headset Homestead efter Keselowski vandt synd første karriere Sprint Cup mesterskab.

Det kunne ikke have været en dramatisk, spændende færdig til sæsonen 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup-næppe - og heller ikke var slagsmål til mesterskabet.
Hvad kunne have været, og for nogle en meget forventede, duel mellem Brad Keselowski og Jimmie Johnson udviklet sig til virtuelle no-contest.
Johnson, der kom ind i Ford Ecoboost 400 headset Homestead søger sidde nutid karriere mesterskab, så hans håb gå op jeg røg, bogstaveligt talt, når hans Hendrick Chevrolet Motorsport da lidt brændt bagende.
Han trist ud de endelige 34 omgange af løbet og færdig 36^th.
Han var 20 point bag Keselowski når løbet begyndte, mænd, da det var overstået, og han faldt til tredje plads jeg klassementet, en position bag Clint Bowyer - der overhalede Johnson med hans runnerup slutte headsettet Homestead.
Keselowski undgå sådanne problemer. I stedet, han cruisede til en 15^th-plads slutter - som bragte ham titlen uanset hvad Johnson gjorde-for på vinde den første titel jeg karrieren
Han udrettede feat jeg 125 Sprint Cup starter, det andet kun til Jeff Gordon, der vandt sit første mesterskab jeg 93 starter.
Apropos Gordon, han gjorde race blot en spiselig for Hendrick ved at tage synd første sejr headset Homestead og 87^th jeg hans karriere, tredje headset NASCAR"S all-time listen.
Keselowski, 28, hævdede mesterskabet jeg kun hans tredje fuld sæson jeg Cup-konkurrence, som binder ham med Gordon, der vandt jeg 1995. Dale Earnhardt, tjente jeg sidde andet år, jeg 1980, et mesterskab hurtigere end nogen anden chauffør jeg NASCAR historie.
Hvis Homestead race var relativt drama, havde det mere end synd andel af interessant, hvis ikke fascinerende, replikker, sammen med nogle ironi.
Jeff Gordon, kan et kys fra hustru Ingrid, efter han vandt Ford Ecoboost 400 for sin første sejr headset Homestead og 87 gang i sin karriere.

For eksempel, bragte Keselowski veteran hold ejer Roger Penske, der har været en del af NASCAR jeg 23 år, hans første stock car championship.
Det synes svært at tro, på Penske har vundet 15 Indianapolis 500'erne og 23 mesterskaber jeg flere tidligere for motorsport.
Titlen var først for Penske og, måske, sidst for Dodge. Ironisk nok, fabrikanten meddelte denne tidligere sæson på det ville ende stiftelsens synd NASCAR deltagelse efter sæsonen 2012.
Dodge, når en gæv jeg konkurrencen, ikke havde vundet en titel siden 1975 da Richard Petty, langt huler marquee driver, vandt, hvad dengang var kendt som Winston Cup mesterskab.
Jeg da Dodge jeg ' 75, Smålige vandt 13 løb og havde 21 top-fem kører i 30 løb. Han vandt titlen af en kæmpestor 722 point foran Dave Marcis, der også kørte da Dodge.
Interessant, var Penske da NASCAR bilejer jeg 1975, selv om hans fuldtids deltagelse ikke ville begynde indtil for et par år bagefter.
Penske udleveret - af alle ting-da American Motors Matador, som Bobby Allison kørte til tre sejre.
Keselowski var jeg i 1975, ni år, før at blive født. Efter en spirende 17 Cup starter med fire forskellige hold ejere fra 2008-2009-hooked Keselowski vandt med James Finch jeg ' 09-driver fra Rochester Hills, Michigan, med Penske i 2010.
Keselowski vandt den landsdækkende Serie titel det år, som gav Penske hans første NASCAR titel nogen af art.
Og i 2011, Keselowski gav stærk meddelelse, ved hans stjerne var headset fremmarch med tre sejre og en femte plads jeg sidste punkt standings.
År Keselowski gjort godt headset denne meddelelse. Han vandt fem løb og blev nummer 1 i point for fem af de otte uger til gaarden.
Han steg ind i føringen efter ukarakteristiske ulykke ramte Johnson.
Efter sejre jeg træk jeg Martinsville og Texas styrtede Johnson headset Phoenix, som hjalp Keselowski indtaste Homestead med en tocifret punkt bly.
Sikkert der hjalp syndens årsag, mænd Keselowski følte ekstremt sikker headset han kunne trække den ud.
"Jeg følte godt om hvor vi kom ind i'dette løb, men du aldrig vide," Keselowski sagde. "Stadig jeg vidste vi kunne gøre det.
"Jeg har fået det bedste hold jeg og jeg øh racing nøgne så begejstret for på være en del af det. Oppefra og ned, Roger, Paul Wolfe (crew chief), Allé André, besætningen fyre og min familie, der så betyder meget.
"Jeg kunne ikke gøre uden det støtte fra alle headset holdet. De er derfor, jeg var så sikker headset, og de fortjener kreditten mere end jeg gør."
Johnson, der holdt en syv-punkts forspring Keselowski, indtil hans crash headset Phoenix kostede ham 13 punkt, kunne kun spekulerer headset, hvad kunne have været hvis da pit fejl (igen, ukarakteristisk for hans team) og mekaniske fejl havde ikke afgjort hans skæbne.
Som et resultat, Keselowski behov på afslutte kun 15^th på vinde titlen, der selvfølgelig, han gjorde.
"Sagde Jeg jeg indtast af personlige 15 er ikke en lay-up, og jeg helt sikkert selvklæbende skinke jeg holdning," sagde Johnson, der tæt headset slutningen af løbet, havde placeret sig for at gå, jeg spidsen af brændstof kilometertal strategi. "Han gjorde det virkelig interessant der jeg slutningen af denne ting.
"Svarets vi ikke kunne har haft fejlen på pit road og derefter gear jeg slutningen fiasko... Virkelig ikke fange præcis hvad der skete, men jeg ved, på an der var olie under bagsiden af Henriks.
"Så, og skuffende igen vi var der jeg lige og holdning lægge pres på, som vi skulle." Mænd jeg har meget på udføres af stolte jeg år og det gør denne race team, og jeg skal takke alle på Hendrick Motorsports. "
Selv om vinderen af et Homestead race bliver ofte mindre varsel end den nye mester, Gordon modtaget grund opmærksomhed for sin sejr fordi han vandt over Bowyer, hvem han bevidst ødelagt en uge tidligere jeg Phoenix.
Hændelsen fik et slagsmål mellem Bowyer og Gordon besætningerne og resulterede jeg bøder, tab af og prøvetid for Gordon.
"Jeg vidste, vi havde en stor racerbil går ind i løbet," sagde Gordon. "Til tider jeg syntes vi havde en vindende bil, men du ved hvad vi spillede headset strategi perfekt. 'dette er en fantastisk måde for os på at afslutte denne sæson.
"Sidste uge, de ting, som jeg beklager, og det jeg rodet op headset, men jeg tillod min vrede og mine følelser til at sætte mig i stand til at foretage et dårligt valg.
"Følte Jeg mig som på Clint skulle behandles, men det var ikke den rigtige truffet på gøre det helt sikkert ikke det rigtige tidspunkt. Og hvad jeg hader mest det øh ved ved andre fyre var med det involveret og det påvirkede deres dag. "
Bowyers andenplads internetadgang var hans 10^th blandt top har fem, som også omfatter tre sejre hvad jeg da været stjernernes første sæson med Michael Waltrip Racing.
Bowyer-nummer for at jeg championship løb, 39 point bag Keselowski og ét punkt sammen med flere tusinde dollars - foran Johnson.
Mange fans velkommen Keselowskis mesterskab af flere grunde: de var trætte af Johnson ' s championship dominans; de hadede synd personlighed, og i nogle tilfælde, foragtede sidde holder opfattede tilbøjelighed til bøjning regler.
Mænd der er også en fornemmelse af at Keselowski bragte et pust af frisk luft jeg NASCAR. Han er ny, han har udtalt, og har tydeligt vist racing talent. 'dette kunne godt være først af mange titler.
Keselowski sandsynligvis foretrækker på at tage det hele et skridt ad gangen, og med gud grund.
"Det er The forpligtelse, der har taget fra mig jordoverfladen ved komme c til hende," sagde Keselowski om sin vilje til på lykkes. "Jeg ved ikke hendes hvor øh måske, jeg vil top eller måske jeg falder.
"Jeg ønsker til be og det øh bedst hvad gør det så svært, men det gør det også så gemme og en sådan realisering. Når du har succes Danmarkskrønike du alle de andre fyre ikke ønsker på se grave være en succes.
"Til en vis grad være på er bedst da validering af alt, hvad du er gør og hvorfor deltage i en sport."

Attachment 3363Brad Keselowski (right) accepts congratulations from NASCAR CEO Brain France at Homestead after Keselowski won his first career Sprint Cup championship.

It might not have been a dramatic, exciting finish to the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season – hardly – and neither was the tussle for the championship.
What could have been, and for some a much anticipated, duel between Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson evolved into virtual no-contest.
Johnson, who came into the Ford Ecoboost 400 at Homestead seeking his sixth career championship, saw his hopes go up in smoke, literally, when his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet suffered a burnt rear end.
He sat out the final 34 laps of the race and finished 36^th.
He was 20 points behind Keselowski when the race began, but when it was over, he dropped to third place in the standings, one position behind Clint Bowyer – who overtook Johnson with his runnerup finish at Homestead.
Keselowski avoided any such problems. Instead, he cruised to a 15^th-place finish – which brought him the title regardless of what Johnson did – to win the first title of his career
He accomplished the feat in 125 Sprint Cup starts, second only to Jeff Gordon, who won his initial championship in 93 starts.
Speaking of Gordon, he made the race more palatable for Hendrick by taking his first victory at Homestead and the 87^th of his career, third on NASCAR’s all-time list.
Keselowski, 28, claimed the championship in only his third full season in Cup competition, which ties him with Gordon, who won in 1995. Dale Earnhardt, in his second year in 1980, earned a championship faster than any other driver in NASCAR history.
If the Homestead race was relatively devoid of drama, it had more than its share of interesting, if not fascinating, story lines, along with some irony.
Attachment 3364Jeff Gordon gets a kiss from wife Ingrid after he won the Ford Ecoboost 400 for his first win at Homestead and for the 87th time in his career.

For example, Keselowski brought veteran team owner Roger Penske, who has been part of NASCAR for 23 years, his first stock car championship.
It seems hard to believe, given that Penske has won 15 Indianapolis 500s and 23 championships in several forms of motorsports.
The title was the first for Penske and, perhaps, the last for Dodge. Ironically, the manufacturer announced earlier this season that it would end its NASCAR participation after the 2012 season.
Dodge, once a stalwart in competition, had not won a title since 1975 when Richard Petty, by far its marquee driver, won what was then known as the Winston Cup championship.
In a Dodge in ‘75, Petty won 13 races and had 21 top-five runs in 30 races. He won the title by a whopping 722 points ahead of Dave Marcis, who also drove a Dodge.
Interestingly, Penske was a NASCAR car owner in 1975, although his full-time participation wouldn’t begin until a few years afterward.
Penske fielded – of all things – an American Motors Matador, which Bobby Allison drove to three victories.
In 1975, Keselowski was nine years before being born. After a fledgling 17 Cup starts with four different team owners from 2008-2009 – Keselowski won with James Finch in ’09 – the driver from Rochester Hills, Mich., hooked up with Penske in 2010.
Keselowski won the Nationwide Series title that year which gave Penske his first NASCAR title of any kind.
And in 2011, Keselowski gave strong notice that his star was on the rise with three wins and a fifth place in the final point standings.
This year Keselowski made good on that notice. He won five races and was No. 1 in points for five of the eight weeks leading to Homestead.
He surged into the lead after uncharacteristic misfortunes struck Johnson.
After consecutive wins at Martinsville and Texas, Johnson crashed at Phoenix, which helped Keselowski enter Homestead with a double-digit points lead.
Certainly that helped his cause, but Keselowski felt supremely confident he could pull it off.
“I felt good about where we were coming into this race, but you never know,” Keselowski said. “Still I knew we could do it.
“I’ve got the best team in racing and I’m just so thrilled to be a part of it.From the top down, Roger, Paul Wolfe (crew chief), everybody else, the crew guys and my family, that means so much.
“I couldn’t do it without the support of everybody on the team. They are why I was so confident and they deserve the credit more than I do.”
Johnson, who held a seven-point lead over Keselowski until his crash at Phoenix cost him 13 points, could only wonder what might have been if a pit error (again, uncharacteristic for his team) and mechanical failure had not decided his fate.
As a result, Keselowski needed to finish only 15^th to win the title, which, of course, he did.
“I said at the beginning of the week 15th isn’t a lay‑up, and I certainly had him in position,” said Johnson, who, near the end of the race, had positioned himself to take the lead by fuel mileage strategy. “He made it really interesting there at the end of this thing.
“If we could have not had the mistake on pit road and then the gear failure at the end . . .Didn’t really catch exactly what happened but I know there was oil under the back of the car.
“So again, disappointing, and we were right there in position and putting pressure on like we needed to. “But I have a lot to be proud of this year and so does this race team, and I need to thank everybody at Hendrick Motorsports.”
Although the winner of a Homestead race often gets less notice than the new champion, Gordon received due attention for his victory because he won over Bowyer, whom he deliberately wrecked a week earlier in Phoenix.
That incident prompted a scuffle between the Bowyer and Gordon crews and resulted in fines, the loss of points and probation for Gordon.
“I knew we had a great race car going into the race,” Gordon said. “At times I didn’t think we had a winning car, but you know what, we played the strategy perfectly. This is a great way for us to end this season.
“Last week, the thing that I regret and the thing that I messed up on is that I allowed my anger and my emotions to put me in a position to make a bad choice.
“I felt like that Clint needed to be dealt with, but that wasn’t the right way to go about it, certainly not the right time.And what I hate most about it is that other guys were involved with it and it affected their day.”
Bowyer’s second-place run was his 10^th among the top five, which also includes three wins in what has been a stellar first season with Michael Waltrip Racing.
Bowyer finished second in the championship race, 39 points behind Keselowski and one point – along with several thousand dollars – ahead of Johnson.
Many fans welcome Keselowski’s championship for several reasons: They were tired of Johnson’s championship dominance; they disliked his personality and, in some cases, disdained his team’s perceived propensity for bending the rules.
But there is also the feeling that Keselowski brings a breath of fresh air into NASCAR. He’s new, he’s outspoken and has clearly displayed racing talent. This could well be the first of many titles.
Keselowski likely prefers to take it all a step at a time, and for good reason.
“It’s that commitment that’s taken me from ground level to get up to here,” Keselowski said of his determination to succeed. “I don’t know, maybe here is where I’ll top out or maybe I’ll fall down.
“I want to be the best and that’s what makes it so tough, but that’s what also makes it so great and such an accomplishment. When you do have success you know all those other guys don’t want to see you be successful.
“To to some extent, to be the best is a validation of everything you’re doing and why participate in a sport.”