Chicagoland Keselowski's big break one year ago

Who knew that a typical, 1.5-mile track could hold so much importance to Brad Keselowski?

Now second in the Nationwide Series standings, Keselowski made his debut in Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 Chevrolet one year ago at Chicagoland Speedway, the site of Friday night's Dollar General 300 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

At the time, Keselowski went from being out of work after Keith Coleman Racing shut down to, what seemed like overnight, auditioning for the sport's most popular driver. He left Chicago with a solid 14th-place finish and a few months later signed his full-time deal.

Fast facts

What	Dollar General 300
When	Green, 8:19 p.m. ET Friday
TV	ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 8 p.m. ET

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• By the Numbers: Chicagoland

"I've been very fortunate to get aligned with JR Motorsports and the Navy," Keselowski said. "We've made a lot of progress with the team. We've gotten stronger every week since."

Keselowski, 24, is 202 points behind Clint Bowyer on the strength of six top-five finishes and 11 top-10s through 19 races. He won his first race June 7 at Nashville and picked up his first pole two weeks later at Milwaukee.

"Our main focus is on winning now," Keselowski said. "I'm committed to driving the JR Motorsports car next year as well. I'm trying to focus on getting this car into Victory Lane and the championship.

"Clint is running great. He's not making any mistakes. He's had luck on his side. There have been a couple of races that we haven't. We need him to have some of the bad luck or breaks. We're still running competitively. Things are going great when you can be disappointed with a top-10 finish. We need to continue to win races and be top-five every week."

Racing hard is what got Keselowski the job. Racing smart is what's keeping it. But that hasn't stopped some of his competitors, such as Sprint Cup driver Denny Hamlin, from being critical of Keselowski for being so hungry.

"There is some etiquette involved," Keselowski said. "But," he added with a slight laugh, "Nationwide drivers have fewer opportunities. We share the series with them because they are running all of the races ... but we want to win just as bad."

The good news for Keselowski is that he has proved he can win. But most important, at least one Cup driver -- Earnhardt -- is happy. And to Keselowski, that's all that really matters.