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 But that doesn't mean the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion
doesn't want fans and fellow drivers to like him.
"I want to be able to win races and win championships, and that's
the priority in my life and my number one goal," Keselowski said
Tuesday afternoon during a media day gathering at the NASCAR Hall of
Fame featuring the eight drivers who advanced to the Chase's
Eliminator Round on Sunday at Talladega.
"To do that, sometimes with this current setting, you're going to
have to ruffle some feathers, and not everybody's going to like you,
whether that's teams, drivers or fans. I'm comfortable with that, or
as comfortable as you can be."
That doesn't mean that Keselowski is oblivious to boos and catcalls
at driver introductions. At Talladega, a week after run-ins on the
track and in the garage with Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin at
Charlotte, Keselowski heard more than his share.
"They don't feel good, but over time, I've grown OK with it, so it
just becomes part of it," Keselowski said. "I'm happy that they're
making noise. What hurts most is when I went out there, and nobody
made noise.
"That's when you don't even feel relevant. In some ways, it's fuel
for the fire to race even harder and continue the path that I'm on,
because I know that will turn over time."
Perhaps no driver in the history of the sport inspired such strong
emotions on both sides of the equation as did the late Dale
Earnhardt. On the strength of his season-saving victory at Talladega
on Sunday, Keselowski has evoked comparisons in a number of quarters
to the seven-time series champion.
"There's only one of those," Keselowski demurred when asked about
similarities to Earnhardt. "I would say that racing in some ways is
like music, that you can be influenced as a band by another band,
and certainly there are some influences there -- but I'm not that
band.
"It's flattering, with all the success that he had, but I'm not that
band. I'm just trying to do things my own way, the best way I know
how."
SIGH OF RELIEF FOR NEWMAN
Ryan Newman said he didn't lose sleep over the possibility of being
penalized for a ride-height violation at Talladega on Sunday, but
that doesn't mean the driver of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing
Chevrolet wasn't worried.
In post-race inspection, NASCAR deemed Newman's fifth-place car was
roughly an eighth of an inch too low in the rear on both sides.
NASCAR took the No. 31 Chevrolet to its Research and Development
Center in Concord, N.C., where officials determined the infraction
had resulted from race damage and therefore would incur no penalty.
Newman believes the damage occurred with two laps left in the race.
"I think it was getting slammed from behind on the last restart," he
said. "I'm getting going, and I can't remember ... I spent as much
time looking in the mirror as I did out the windshield the last
couple of laps, but I think it was the 20 (Matt Kenseth) that drove
me really hard.
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"It actually wrinkled the rear quarter panels, which shows that the
body's moved and the rear bumper was knocked in. I never looked at
the car after the race. I didn't expect there to be any issues, so I
didn't analyze exactly what happened."
When Newman learned his car was too low, however, he was
understandably concerned.
"I didn't lose any sleep over it -- don't get me wrong," Newman
said. "But I was concerned about it, mostly from the fact of, if for
instance we don't make it to the next championship round, I want
those points.
"I want to be the guy that can say he finished fifth because of our
average, not because of our penalty."
ARE ISSUES BETWEEN LOGANO AND PATRICK RESOLVED?
On Oct. 11 at Charlotte, contact from Joey Logano's Ford turned the
No. 10 Chevrolet of Danica Patrick and ruined her night.
Patrick's immediate instinct was to get revenge, but she realized
that wrecking Logano at Charlotte would have no impact on his run
for the championship because Logano had won on the previous weekend
at Kansas and was guaranteed a spot in the Chase's Eliminator Round.
Martinsville, site of Sunday's Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500, is
another matter. With points reset, and with the remaining eight
Chase drivers entering the race on equal footing, revenge could be
devastating.
That's why Logano has taken measures to ensure Martinsville won't
become a payback track.
"We've actually talked about it since then, and I feel like we've
come to a good conclusion of what happened there," Logano said.
"That's in the past. That's in the mirror, and we'll move forward."
From Logano's point of view, the hatchet is buried, but the driver
of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford still has to hope that Patrick
doesn't decide to bury it in his back.
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