"I went through there in the hospital and it damn near made me cry walking past all these other guys," Keselowski recalled. "At the time, I was 23. There were guys that looked like they weren’t going to make it and they were my age.

"I think that rattles you pretty hard, at least it did me."

Less than a year later, another experience with a close friend left Keselowski shaken once more, but a bit more certain of his eventual calling.

"I had a friend, a close friend, who I remember spending New Year’s with in 2009," Keselowski said. "He got deployed two weeks later, was in the Middle East … and he got blown up within the first month or two. He came back and when I saw him, that’s when I knew.

"All these things, it felt like kind of karma or the universe was pushing me this direction. I’d say that’s what got me to where I am. Once I started the events and spent time with these people, I could relate to them so well."

With a nudge from the universe, Keselowski launched the Checkered Flag Foundation in 2010 — a 501(c)(3) organization that helps support military personnel and hosts various events to raise funds and awareness.

•   •   •

His foundation was the reason Keselowski was standing in the middle of the upscale David Yurman jewelry store at SouthPark Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday night. Proceeds from the store’s sales that evening benefited Charlotte Bridge Home, a local foundation that supports veterans and helps former military personnel ease the transition between service and their return home.

"Tonight’s event is about, one, having fun; two, raising attention; and three, helping to raise funds in the process for Charlotte Bridge foundation, which is a foundation that’s dedicated in a very similar fashion (to the Checkered Flag Foundation) to help servicemen, servicewomen here locally in Charlotte … trying to find a home, trying to get back on their feet," Keselowski said, addressing the group on Tuesday night. "It’s a cause that we’re near and dear to as well, and we’re glad and proud to help support them."

The night’s guests included foundation members, friends, NASCAR personnel and several veterans. One of the attendees was Charlotte Bridge Home’s Veteran Outreach Specialist Tommy Rieman, a Silver Star and Purple Heart recipient who Keselowski refers to as a "general badass."

"The way (Keselowski) sets himself up above the other drivers by coming out and doing things like this, showing that he cares for veterans, he leads by example," said Rieman, whose military service was recognized by President George W. Bush during the 2007 State of the Union Address. "So every veteran appreciates him … You’ve just got to love a guy who puts on a NASCAR event at a fine jewelry store."

Rieman met Keselowski during one of the ride-alongs that the driver often gave to military personnel in the Checkered Flag Foundation’s infancy. Surrounded by spotless glass cases filled with sparkling gems, the pair engaged in a lengthy conversation on Tuesday as the night was winding down. Staying past the event’s scheduled hours while working the room, Keselowski seemed to know a little about each of the foundation’s members.

"He’s a veteran who was in the Vietnam Era," Keselowski said, pointing out the organization’s founder Thomas Norman with whom he had just exchanged goodbyes. "He was (U.S. Army) Special Forces and for some reason, he got ranked up so quickly they wouldn’t send him over because he was too important … Feels like to me that there’s some kind of feeling that maybe he needs to do something back. So he’s done all kinds of different things. He started this (foundation) here I would say four years ago — a lot of growth, right?"

With the fame, fortune and stature that arrives with being a professional athlete, Keselowski shares a similar feeling of wanting to give back.

"Sports in general is very decadent, it always has been," Keselowski said. "There’s something to be said for that, as an escape. But those that live in the escape, I always feel like, maybe have a greater responsibility to do something outside of it.

"I sit back and look at the Tom Brady situation from this weekend and how much noise that makes in the media landscape. Then you think of so many other significant things going on the world right now that get zero recognition. So in that sense, I feel like those of us that are fortunate enough to get that recognition — for good or bad — always have to spread it to other areas."

This weekend, Keselowski’s No. 29 Ford in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series featured Careers for Veterans on the hood in Friday night’s NC Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, in which he finished fifth. For Keselowski, it’s another way to raise awareness for the cause that speaks to him.  

"I read this really great quote — I think it’s from Kevin Spacey, the actor — about how fortunate he was to ride the elevator up to where he is and how important it is to send the elevator back down," Keselowski said. "And I thought that was really inspiring.

"I’m not curing cancer. I make a very good living doing something that’s decadent. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror every morning, especially as I get older, knowing that I rode the elevator to the top and didn’t send it back down with something so decadent as driving a car.

"I’m very fortunate to have rode the elevator up."