Penske: Keselowski has my '100 percent support'

Roger Penske gave Keselowski a vote of confidence less than 24 hours after a frantic finish touched off a post-race brawl in the Lone Star State. The Team Penske driver finished third in the AAA Texas 500 to keep his title hopes alive in the first year of the new-look Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, but his on-track methods angered Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, who both initiated physical contact with the championship contender on pit road.

Monday, Penske backed his driver.

"The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has provided great excitement and intense competition," Penske said in a statement released by the team. "Brad Keselowski is a champion who competes to win in every race, which is what I expect of him. While the actions by others following the race in Texas were unfortunate, Brad has my 100 percent support as we now move on to Phoenix for the next stage of the NASCAR championship."

The 77-year-old racing magnate's remarks substantiated those of Keselowski in his post-race media availability.

"A lot of my strength personally comes from my team, whether that's the guys who work on the team or my boss, Roger Penske," Keselowski said Sunday night. "If Roger Penske came up to me tomorrow and said, 'Brad, you drove that race wrong, you shouldn't have done what you did,' it would affect me. But the management team at Penske tells me to drive the way I did and tells me there's nothing to be ashamed of and continues to support me. And they're my boss. My boss isn't the other drivers in the field. My boss is them.

"As long as they're on my side, I feel strong and I feel proud and encouraged to continue."

Keselowski dove to the inside of Gordon's car during a restart in a green-white-checkered finish in the late stages Sunday, and the two cars made contact. Gordon took the worst of it, cutting down a tire and spinning out to spiral to a 29th-place finish, worst among the title-eligible Chase drivers.

Gordon parked alongside Keselowski's car after the cool-down lap as the crews of both teams engaged in a bitter shouting match. The fracas intensified after Harvick scooted Keselowski closer to Gordon's reach, and both crews became more active in the scrum.

It's the second such incident involving Keselowski in this year's Chase. At Charlotte in October, Keselowski's No. 2 Ford came in contact with three other cars on the cool-down lap, and rival Matt Kenseth physically confronted him in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series garage.

The eight remaining Chase drivers -- Keselowski, Gordon, Harvick and Kenseth included -- tackle this Sunday's Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Phoenix International Raceway. The finale to the Chase's Eliminator Round will whittle the championship-eligible field from eight drivers to four.

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