By Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Every season, one of the ultimate allures of the Daytona 500 is that mega underdog story. It pops out from underneath the sea of top-dollar, first-class organizations and has a way of turning everyone’s heads toward the other side of the garage.
Even if just for a moment, the Team Penske’s, Hendrick Motorsports’ and Joe Gibbs Racing’s aren’t the storyline.
For the 2011 edition of the Great American Race, that underdog story was Brian Keselowski, Sporting News called it Speedweeks’ feel-good story for 2011 while Bleacher Report put it as one of the great underdog stories in Daytona history.
Recognition of this sort doesn’t come from a driver who had an easy road. Keselowski, who, at age 29, had yet to become a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series winner like his younger brother Brad. In fact, he was yet to make his debut in the series and was struggling week-to-week with his family Xfinity Series team.
And throughout three Cup DNQs the previous year in 2010, Keselowski and the No. 92 Dodge worked nearly a year in advance in preparations for the 53rd annual 500-miler for 2011.
“I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance in hell of making it,” Keselowski told Kickin’ The Tires.
At the surface (and underneath the hood) this feeling was confirmed, as Keselowski qualified last of 48 cars for
“We were slow like I thought we were going to be because we couldn’t afford to put a lot of money into the car,” he said. “But it drove good. I came down here and did the test, a tire test since the track was just freshly paved. In that test, we all drafted like we would a normal draft. We didn’t tandem. And when we came back, we all tandemed and I hadn’t done that before. That was a whole new experience.”
Starting the second and final Gatorade Dual 150 24th out of 24 cars, Keselowski paired with fellow first-timer Steven Wallace. During what was the peak of the tandem era, this was enough to keep Keselowski on the lead lap through the opening half of the 60-lap race.
“Because I couldn’t afford all the trick parts everyone else could, reverse-skew housings, that made my car drive good,” he said. “So, when Brad started pushing me, I could go anywhere I wanted.”
Indeed, when brother Brad caught trouble on lap 41, it put him near Brian at the tail end of the field. Suddenly, something that wasn’t previously planned had come together by chance.
“It was a happy accident,” Brian said. “It was never really talked about or a thought. I had seen him just before the start of the race during driver intros and he gave me some tips, but he was like, ‘But well, you’re not really fast so good luck! [laughs]’
“When Brad has his issue when he spun out, it put both in the back of the pack together. He said, ‘Well screw it, here’s Brian, let’s go.’ He worked so well, so we stuck with it.”
Jumping just shy of the lead in the final 10 laps, Fox Sports (as well as most of the sport) caught onto the specialty of what was the Nos. 92 and 2 Dodges. Underdog, family, brotherly love, whatever it was, it was working. And it was fast.
“There were plenty of opportunities for him not to work with me,” he said. “It actually benefited him too because he was a 10th- to 12th-place car until he hooked up with me. All of a sudden, we’re running for the lead.”
Crossing the checkered flag fifth, Keselowski was more than safe to make his Cup Series debut in the Daytona 500. Discount Tire jumped aboard the hood of the No. 92, father Bob was overcome with emotion and Keselowski was set into Row 6 for the epic season opener.
But the troubles weren’t over just yet.
“Ultimately, we banked on going home on Thursday. We didn’t have hotel rooms or nothing [laughs],” he said. “It was just three or four of us, mostly family, and we all had to find places to stay.
“We did everything we could to stay. They don’t just give you a big bag of cash when you make the race. If you don’t have the money, you’re not going to be in good shape and that’s where I was.”
Eventually, Keselowski and crew stayed at a house owned by their truck driver’s sister, keeping them around for the biggest Sunday of their lives.
Now eight years removed, Keselowski remembers prerace like no other.
“It’s such a spectacle when they bring everyone down on pit road for the start of the race,” he said. “I had never been in a Cup race until that time. Wow, what a big program they put on.”
Unfortunately for Keselowski, the Big One collected multiple cars in Turn 4 on the 28th circuit, tagging his No. 92 into the wall and out of the race, finishing 41st.
But don’t expect to hear Keselowski complain about this early wreck.
“Honestly when I think back, I don’t really remember the accident. I much don’t even care,” he said. “The car was a write-off, it junked everything. Obviously, we couldn’t afford that usually, but I didn’t buy the car for very much money anyway. It did more than make itself up making the 500. That’s Daytona racing. Sometimes, you get caught up in someone else’s mess.
“I remember almost every step of that way. I often think about when I had Brad pushing me, us sucking up the draft, almost taking the lead, how all that went. It was pretty neat for me. We got to race with good cars, at the time Jeff Gordon in a Hendrick car, Jeff Burton in the No. 31, Clint Bowyer the No. 33. Making the race was the biggest deal.”
Since that day, Keselowski raced twice more in Cup at Richmond and Watkins Glen in 2013, with one Gander Outdoors Truck Series start, three Xfinity and eight ARCA starts between 2011 and 2016.
And with brother Brad making his 10th Daytona 500 start in 2019, he hopes to see him score his first victory on Sunday afternoon.
“Brad has a fast car,” he said. “He always runs well at the plate races. Probably a little better at Talladega, but the 500 is a tough race for him, he has always struggled a bit in the 500 getting caught up in people’s stuff. If he can try to avoid that stuff and get there to the end of the race, he has as good, if not better, shot than anyone.
“He’s one hell of a drafter, he has been ever since we played video games drafting Daytona.”
Now, don’t think Keselowski’s mind is only focused on the sidelines nowadays. The competitive drive to hit the cockpit has yet to fade. However, Keselowski is more focused on staying financially stable from here on out.
“I don’t want to be [done racing] by any means, but I also don’t want to go broke. I’ve done that plenty enough in my life,” he said. “When I started my own Xfinity deal when I was 27 years old, I didn’t have a lot to worry about losing. I didn’t have a house, vehicle. Now I do and I’d like to keep that.
“I don’t ultimately want to be done but I also don’t want to be broke anymore. I paid off all my debts after I made the 500 and I was really happy about that. I told myself I would never do that to myself again. There were two years I ran Xfinity and just ran myself into the ground. When I paid my debts off, I refused to do that again.”
Keselowski has been found on the other side of the pit wall as of late. The now-37-year-old has taken up crew chiefing, holding the spot in Xfinity and Trucks for Premium Motorsport and MBM Motorsports.
For Thursday night’s Duel, Keselowski will crew chief his first Cup Series race for driver Joey Gase and the No. 66 Toyota.
“Hopefully, if we’re here Sunday, we get a chance to at least see the end of it,” he said.