Dale Earnhardt Jr. says Brad Keselowski has ‘awesome talent’ but ‘terrible confidence’ and a lot to learn

By Kenny Bruce

Friday, March 19, 2010

Brad Keselowski gets ready for NASCAR Sprint cup practice at Bristol.

LaDon George
NASCAR Illuustrated

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- StumbleUpon
15 Comments

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he hasn’t had any lengthy discussions with former teammate Brad Keselowski in the aftermath of the Penske Racing driver’s scary crash at Atlanta Motor Speedway March 7.

Not about the accident, or the ensuing feud between the former JR Motorsports driver and Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards.

It was contact from Edwards that caused Keselowski’s Dodge to flip during the closing laps of the Kobalt Tools 500.

“That wreck scared the [crap] out of me,” Earnhardt Jr. said after his qualifying run Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. “Knowing Brad as good as I do … you don’t like seeing guys involved in terrible accidents. I was just glad he was OK.”

Keselowski won six times during a two-plus year stint with JR Motorsports, the company founded by Earnhardt Jr., giving the 35-year-old Earnhardt Jr. a unique perspective of the young driver.

His description? “Brad has an awesome amount of talent and a terrible amount of confidence,” he said.

“I never tried to tell Brad what to do when he drove our cars,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “There’s no point in me trying to tell him now. He’s going to have plenty of advice from everyone else it seems like.

“Everybody that comes in this sport as a rookie has a lot … to learn. Nobody comes in here and is David Pearson right off the bat. Or Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty. They might have the raw skill to be compared to those drivers but they don’t have the experience and the understanding or the driver etiquette or whatever.

“Brad doesn’t need to tame himself down or anything. But everybody has lessons to learn, and that’s obvious.”

Keselowski is running his first full season in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. He finished third in the Nationwide Series point standings in 2008 and 2009, and although he only ran 15 Cup races last season, he scored his first win in that series at Talladega Superspeedway.

It was there that contact between himself and Edwards resulted in Edwards’ Ford spinning and coming off the race track. Subsequent contact with Ryan Newman’s car caused Edwards car to slam into the catch fence along the front grandstands.

“A lot of people can’t measure their own potential, and I think he really has a good hold on what kind of talent he has,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He’s just overzealous to prove it and be there and to run up front every week. … It’ll all be OK. He’ll learn a lot of lessons in his rookie season … and he’ll probably be glad to tell you guys all about it at the end of the season. I’m sure that his tune will be slightly different than it is right now. But that’s just human nature.”

Every driver goes through similar situations as they adapt to a new series, but each one handles it differently, Earnhardt Jr. said. Keselowski’s situation isn’t that different from his own, or from any other driver’s through the years.

“I went to Daytona … I wasn’t a rookie, I had already won the [Nationwide] championship the year before in 1998,” Earnhardt Jr. said of his own wake-up moment. “I went to Daytona in ’99 and I was like, ‘I’m the champ.’ I went out and practiced and there were some cars coming off pit road and I tried to go three wide and I wrecked Dick Trickle, Jeff Burton and about eight other guys. They all came to my garage stall after the wreck and were like, ‘Get your … head out of your [butt].’

“Me and my daddy had some moments in my rookie year, little hand gestures and such that he would give me when I was out there being an idiot.

“You learn. You think you know everything, you think you’ve got everything figured out. … It’s a good attitude to have. It’s refreshing the way Brad is. But he’ll learn that you don’t have everything figured out and that you [have] a lot to learn [as a rookie]. Even if you learn it on you own, he’s still got some things to learn.

“It’s all about maturity. It’s not about talent, raw talent; it’s all about just growing up in the world.”