MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- If you're at all familiar with Brad Keselowski, his attitude on pit road Sunday at Martinsville Speedway was no surprise.

In his 35th Sprint Cup Series start for Penske Racing, Keselowski -- who on Saturday had scored his sixth Nationwide Series victory of the year in Roger Penske's No. 22 Dodge, thereby expanding his championship lead to 485 points -- gained his first Cup top-10 with his current team when he finished 10th in the Tums Fast Relief 500.

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It was a good solid day for us and we got a good finish out of it. We fought all day, lost our track position a couple times -- you know, I sped on pit road once [at Lap 112] and I had a couple other issues -- but we just never stopped fighting, man. And that's how you get there.

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-- BRAD KESELOWSKI

Keselowski just laughed when he was asked if he thought his first top-10 would come at Martinsville, even though he'd finished 12th here in his only previous start. His best finish in four Martinsville Truck Series races was 18th.

"Man, I think it every week, just like I feel like I'm going to get my first win with Penske, every week," Keselowski said. "You can't go into these races defeated before you get there.

"It could have come at the first race at Daytona and I would have believed it. It's just a matter of getting everything right and running a good race."

Keselowski had proven he could do it in Cup, winning at Talladega in 2009 for owner James Finch, and then getting two more top-10s in Finch's cars last year, along with a seventh-place finish at Darlington in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Keselowski, who jumped into Penske's No. 12 Cup Series Dodge at the end of 2009, was only 33rd in Martinsville's pre-qualifying practice Friday, but he was at the top of Saturday morning's first practice time sheet, following up with a credible 14th in final practice.

It translated to a 25th-place starting position, and Keselowski and crew chief Jay Guy worked for 400 laps to get to the top 10. But once he got there, Keselowski was a fixture for the final 100 laps, initially out-running Tony Stewart before Keselowski lost ninth to Carl Edwards, who eventually finished eighth.

"It was a good solid day for us and we got a good finish out of it," Keselowski said. "We fought all day, lost our track position a couple times -- you know, I sped on pit road once [at Lap 112] and I had a couple other issues -- but we just never stopped fighting, man. And that's how you get there.

"The last segment, after the last restart was probably the most critical because I was able to get some space on the cars behind me, get in a good spot and run. In the middle part of the race, we probably weren't that good, but at the start and at the end we were solid. Good pit stops and good restarts gave us good track position. Put it all together and you end up with a top-10."

It's something Keselowski has excelled at all season in the Nationwide Series, where he's accrued five pole positions, 23 top-five and 26 top-10 finishes in 32 races. Up to now, it hasn't transferred to the Cup program, but as Keselowski moves closer to clinching Penske's first NASCAR championship, Guy thinks Sunday's finish and that Nationwide momentum will pay dividends.

"Brad is such an accomplished race-car driver, so calculating, that it wouldn't surprise me anywhere we go that we could get a top-10, a top-five or a win," Guy said. "The way he approaches driving a race car -- he's a student of the game and a really smooth driver. It was a good all-around effort from everybody and Brad did a great job [Sunday]."

But the fact is it's taken Keselowski 35 races to get there. He has 15 finishes between 11th and 20th this season, but only four of those in the past 10 races.

"I sure didn't think it would take us this long [to get the first top-10] because we've had a lot of good runs this year," Guy said. "At Atlanta we were running in the top five and got wrecked and here [in the spring], we were running eighth at the last restart and got bounced back to [12th].

"So I felt like we had a decent [Martinsville] package and we came back with basically the same thing and tweaked on it all weekend long."

It's got Guy looking for more.

"All the guys have worked hard all year long, it's a shame it's taken this long to get a top-10," Guy said. "It's really good for Brad, it's good for Mr. Penske and for all the folks at Dodge that help support us and put this program together.

"Hopefully we can build some momentum and get the year finished-out on a strong note -- get some more top-10s and top-fives. I certainly believe in momentum. Tenth is great, from where we've been, but we're looking to get in the top five and contend with these guys on a weekly basis."

After finishing his final commuter weekend of the season, once again with an ever-present smile on his face, Keselowski agreed.

"It was a good weekend for us, winning the Nationwide [race] and getting a top-10 here [Sunday]," Keselowski said. "I'm happy, but now, I'm ready to go home."

• Video: Reutimann, Keselowski get together at Martinsville