Brad Keselowski spent most of the day Wednesday on a race simulator preparing for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
The Rochester Hills, Mich., native was coming off a third-place finish and a controversial day at Pocono on Monday.
Keselowski, the Team Penske ace, will fly into the Irish Hills area Thursday and attempt to score his first-ever Cup victory at MIS over the weekend.
"How sweet would that be?" said Keselowski of the thought of winning Sunday at his home track. "It would be huge."
Keselowski is currently third in series points. He has two wins this season and has finished in the top 10 on nine occasions in 14 races.
Not a bad performance from the 2012 Sprint Cup champ, right?
"We’ve been good, we’ve been consistent, we’ve been strong, but we want more wins," said Keselowski, who drives the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford. "It would dramatically change everything if we won at Michigan on Sunday. We have so many seconds and thirds at the track. We just keep knocking at the door."
In his ninth season, Keselowski has tallied 19 Cup victories and 12 poles in 245 Cup starts.
He is enjoying his racing more than ever, he said.
"It’s great," said Keselowski, who grew up racing on short tracks across the state and at Toledo. "Driving for Penske is an honor."
On Sunday Keselowski and his fellow Cup drivers will run a newer low down force package at MIS.
NASCAR has designed it to slow the cars down and improve the racing, hoping for more passes and lead changes.
What is Keselowski expecting on the two-mile oval?
"We’ll find out," said Keselowski, 32, who became a dad for the first time last May with the birth of his daughter Scarlett. "It is supposed to promote side-by-side racing. Michigan will be another bite out of the apple in NASCAR’s experiment."
At Pocono on Monday, in a rain-delayed race, Keselowski was penalized for a body slam on his car by the team’s jack man during a pit stop.
NASCAR felt the hip check was a deliberate attempt by the crew to dent the side of the car and improve its aerodynamic performance and speed.
Keselowski was ordered into the pits, his crew instructed to repair the dent and he take a drive-through.
Fox Sports NASCAR analyst and former four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon called it cheating.
Keselowski’s thoughts a few days on?
"No doubt it was a hip check," said Keselowski. "I don’t think there was any performance advantage for us. But rules are rules. There was nothing to fix when I came in. We served the crime."
Mike Brudenell writes for the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network.
