Why don’t people get it?

Brad Keselowski is just what the sport of NASCAR needs, and yet everyone—from fans to competitors to the media—question the kid, his style and his tactics. Even worse, the “H” word is used. Yeah, some “Hate” him.

Get over it, gang.

Unless someone or something kills him first, the kid’s here to stay; he’s here long-term and he’s gonna contend.

And all-in-all, that’s a great thing for the sport, even if you could argue that Carl Edwards tried to do just that—snuff his candle—last Sunday at Atlanta, when Edwards purposefully wrecked Keselowski at 190-plus.

But that topic’s been beaten to death, so let’s leave it alone. Supporting Keselowski, on the other hand, hasn’t been dealt with.

Obviously, a lot of people like Keselowski—and I’m not just talking about his family who, as most of you should know, drain motor oil when they’re cut.

Count team owner Roger Penske in that number, because he hired the 26-year-old to drive his No. 12 Penske Racing Dodges in the Cup and the Nationwide series. Roger’s no dope. He must’ve seen something positive, something he liked. Too bad the feeling’s not widely contagious.

A lot of people like Little K’s fire, his sass, his confidence, his fortitude—all attributes that are necessary in abundance to be a successful race car driver at the highest levels.

A lot of competitors don’t like him; and by inference a lot of fans don’t either because guess what? By his nature and his ability, that means Keselowski’s gonna wax their favorites.

Who could possibly like that? And I get that. But God help you folks—you’ve got to appreciate it. Just like with Jimmie Johnson, you’ve just got to tune in to see if “your guy” can be the one who’s gonna be the one to win this weekend.

A lot of cats in the garage despise Little K. You know why? Because they can’t they can’t take advantage of him—he won’t cut them a break.

They don’t like him because they have to work darn hard to beat him. He won’t roll over. He won’t turn the other cheek. They should be so lucky. They don’t like him because they want pawns, they want patsies—they want a boy they can use, abuse and discard.

Keselowski is none of the above. He’s gonna hold his ground. He’s gonna fight for what he deserves—and coming from nothing through a couple difficult years in the Nationwide Series to get to the point where he could prove his worthiness in JR Motorsports equipment—he’s earned it.

So if that makes him an outcast, there are a lot of people in and around the NASCAR garage to feel sorry for right about now.

Bear with me for a minute, because I don’t want to strain my memory too hard. I like the kid. I like his style. I’m not gonna ask a million questions.

And part of that comes from the fact that Keselowski’s not much of a crybaby. He doesn’t apologize for what he does, but he doesn’t much whine when he gets it back. He says “wait ‘til next time.” And as a fan who craves a little drama with their racing, you’ve just gotta love that—don’t you?

I am not and will not compare Little K to Dale Earnhardt on any level, at any time. But I’ll never forget the day, in my opinion of course, Big E gave away the 1989 Winston Cup championship when he made an ill-advised blocking move on Ricky Rudd at North Wilkesboro.

Rudd blew Earnhardt out of the way; unfortunately spun himself in the process and Geoff Bodine took advantage to win the race. I’ve cited this episode before but it remains one of the three best video clips in racing, ever, as Earnhardt wailed to a worldwide audience that NASCAR “ought to suspend the son of a bitch,” meaning Rudd, of course.

For what, for using a move Earnhardt had virtually patented? The point is, even the late, great Earnhardt himself was not immune to whining a bit. But neither he, nor Keselowski, was known for it like a few other top runners in the garage.

Keselowski is the kind of character NASCAR needs, as long as he’s strong enough to take what he dishes out when it comes back around.

What Edwards delivered Sunday wasn’t anything Keselowski has ever, in my memory, been responsible for. He’s raced hard, and God bless him for that—but he hasn’t gone out of his way to purely dump anyone out of pure spite.

Depending whom you choose to believe, Keselowski did nothing wrong on Lap 5 at Atlanta, when Edwards tried to occupy a space Keselowski was already in, and Keselowski tried to lift. But he wasn’t bound to do that and certainly not more than that, like lifting AND braking in the midst of traffic.

Keselowski didn’t flinch then, he told the truth when he left AMS’s care center and said the next move might result in injury or death and for that, don’t hate the boy.

We need to cherish his style, all the way around.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Edwards was in an early accident with Keselowski in Sunday’s race at Atlanta, and later returned to the track and deliberately wrecked Keselowski. The contact sent Keselowki’s car airborne, and NASCAR parked Edwards for the remainder of the race.

On Tuesday, he was placed on probation for three races.

“We are satisfied that NASCAR fairly considered all the circumstances in its decision to discipline Carl,” said Roush.

Roush said he looked forward to a NASCAR-called meeting next weekend at Bristol between the two drivers and Keselowski car owner Roger Penske.

“It is our hope to put this behind us at that time,” said Roush, who added the incident overlooked an otherwise good day in Atlanta for the Roush Fenway Racing team.

Seven months of negotiations have put NASCAR and its top teams in position to create the first NASCAR Properties, a trust that will serve as a centralized licensing agency for the sport.

The unnamed unit will operate as a one-stop shop for licensees, but a key difference from other previously established league-licensing divisions is that revenue will be distributed to the teams based on sales and not a revenue-share agreement.

The licensing body is being called a trust because one body—NASCAR Properties—will hold the rights and grant licenses on behalf of the teams. Participation by the teams will be voluntary, but the top teams such as JR Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush Fenway Racing are in, as are several others that own valuable rights, among them Dale Earnhardt Inc., which manages the late racing icon’s legacy business.

The teams have agreed to include only certain categories so far, like apparel. Which categories are in and which are out remains to be determined.

“There are so many different organizations with so many different issues that it takes a long time and it’s highly complex,” said Jeff Steiner, general manager of DEI. “But the nature of discussions are positive, and it’s moving forward with very good collaboration from the teams.

“This is going to be a much healthier model for licensees and retailers.”

In the past, teams managed their licensing rights in-house—each team operates as an independent contractor, separate from the sanctioning body. That model was considered cumbersome and confusing for licensees because they had to negotiate five different contracts to get the licensing rights to five different drivers. Rights to the NASCAR mark were a separate conversation as well.

But in the new trust, those team, driver and NASCAR marks will be available under the umbrella of NASCAR Properties, or whatever the trust is eventually called, thus the one-stop shopping model.

Team executives involved in the formation of the trust say it might take the rest of the spring to finalize the arrangement, but it’s been called “imminent” by multiple sources. Talks began on Sept. 24 at NASCAR’s offices in Charlotte and have continued with multiple meetings each month. All of the top teams have been represented, while Paul Brooks, NASCAR senior vice president, has mediated the negotiations.

The trust will be run by a board of industry licensing executives, although it has not been determined how many will serve or how long the terms will be. The board will consist mostly of team executives, although officials from NASCAR also could be considered.

Never before have NASCAR’s teams and the sanctioning body combined their rights into one entity, making the formation of a NASCAR Properties a first for the sport.

“It’s long overdue,” said Joe Mattes, the vice president of marketing and licensing at Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports. “Teams realize that we can’t continue on as independent contractors, at least in licensing. There has to be a set of standards that we all work by.”

The negotiations to unify the licensing rights were prompted by the financial troubles of Motorsports Authentics, the dominant licensee in the industry. MA, which has been on the verge of bankruptcy for the past year, owes millions of dollars to several teams. As part of the arrangement to create NASCAR Properties, teams will forgive MA for most of its debt.

Industry insiders say that even the most ardent opponents of MA have come to grips with losing that revenue. MA’s contracts with Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing guaranteed as much as $3 million a year, but MA has been paying only a third to a half of the guarantee to the teams.

MA’s die-cast car business will be spun off into a separate entity and will be managed by a third party, industry sources said. Revenue from the die-cast business will be shared among the teams as a way to satisfy part of MA’s debt. MA is expected to continue as a much leaner company that focuses strictly on trackside retail sales.

Two years ago, MA took in more than $200 million in annual revenue, but that number was cut in half in 2009 as the recession took a bite out of sales and business plummeted.

“Hopefully this licensing strategy works and this can become a testimonial for what can happen when teams pool their rights and work together,” Mattes said. “Some teams are already doing that in other areas, like engines and other equipment, so at least conceptually it’s a good thing.”

In celebration of its 55th year, Aaron’s, Inc. will sponsor PRISM Motorsports’ No. 55 with Michael Waltrip racing in the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 25.

Waltrip has made 760 career Cup starts and finished 18th in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 14 in his only start of 2010.

Waltrip has devoted more time to ownership of Michael Waltrip Racing this season, which fields Toyota’s for David Reutimann’s No. 00 and Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 56 entries. In addition, Waltrip’s time is spent as an analyst on Showtime’s Inside NASCAR and SPEED’s weekly talent show Fast Track to Fame as well as joining Phil Parsons as a television commentator during SPEED’s coverage of Truck Series races.

PRISM Motorsports will field the No. 55 for Waltrip and the No. 66 for Dave Blaney at Talladega. Since its inception in 2009, PRISM Motorsports has purchased race cars from Michael Waltrip Racing

MADRID(AP)—Months of anticipation and speculation finally will come to a close Sunday when the 2010 Formula One season gets under way and Michael Schumacher marks his return to racing at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The seven-time F1 champion headlines perhaps F1’s most competitive starting grid, coming out of three years of retirement to race for the newly formed Mercedes GP, which bought out last year’s constructors’ champion Brawn GP.

The 41-year-old Schumacher said he felt like “a child at Christmas” coming to Bahrain, where he’ll line up against defending champion Jenson Button, two-time champion Fernando Alonso, 2008 winner Lewis Hamilton and talented Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel.

“I love this fight,” Schumacher said. “It is because of this fight that I came back to Formula One.”

Two-time Bahrain champion Alonso and Ferrari are the preseason favorites as the Spanish driver looks reinvigorated following his move to the Italian team, which also welcomes Felipe Massa back for the first time since he sustained life-threatening injuries in a crash at the Hungarian GP in July.

“It’s a very important moment for us after a horrible year. It was also a difficult moment for me with the accident. I’m concentrated, I’m ready 100 percent,” said Massa, a two-time winner in Bahrain. “This is a fresh start for me. For all.”

Massa said McLaren’s design was “strange,” but with the past two champions in its lineup the British team is among the favorites. Button partners Hamilton, and the former Brawn driver is savoring the No. 1 tag on his car.

“It’s a responsibility and an honor, but it’s something I’m going to enjoy for as long as I can. I don’t want to lose that number from my car,” Button said. “There are a number of teams and drivers who appear to be in the hunt, and, as with the start of every new season, it will be fascinating to see who emerges as the team to beat.”

McLaren’s rear wing is under scrutiny after Red Bull expressed doubts over its design, with the British team confident it conforms to regulations and governing body FIA set to check it at Friday’s opening practice.

Schumacher took over Button’s seat as Mercedes’ Silver Arrows return to the track for the first time in 55 years. Fellow German Nico Rosberg also makes his Mercedes debut.

Schumacher’s experience could pay dividends as refueling is now banned, meaning teams will only pit to change tires. Also, the top-10 qualifiers on Saturday will not be able to swap tires before the start on Sunday, while the rest of the field can.

“You will have less sets of tires available than last year, which makes it harder to do what you need to do for setting up the car perfectly,” said Schumacher, whose win here in 2004 is among his record 91. “But driving is always about adapting to new circumstance, and this is one of my strong points.”

Fellow German Vettel will be looking to make a mark as Red Bull is expected to be in the title mix a year after it was Brawn’s closest challenger.

“You can’t underestimate the opposition, but expectations are high at Red Bull now,” team principal Christian Horner said. “We just want to get the most we can out of every weekend.”

Vettel and teammate Mark Webber make Red Bull one of three teams with the same drivers as last year. Toro Rosso and Force India are the others.

Williams, Force India and Sauber are also expected to be in the points and have even been tabbed to surprise at a track that has been changed to 49 laps instead of the usual 57. The desert layout features a new, longer configuration with eight additional corners making it the second longest race on the 19-track circuit after Spa in Belgium.

“We will have good racing there, I think, and all I want is to fight because this is what I missed most,” said Sauber driver Pedro De la Rosa of Spain, who is taking the grid for the first time since 2006.

Renault, meanwhile, is hoping just to reach the final qualifying session with Robert Kubica leading the French team.

Three new teams will be on the track as Malaysian-backed Lotus returns for the first time since 1994, while Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing Team also will debut in the 12-team, 24-car field.

HRT-F1 was the only team not to test and only announced last week that Karun Chandhok would partner Bruno Senna, the nephew of three-time champion Ayrton Senna.

Several of the leading teams have criticized the decision to allow so many new teams in, especially as they are well off the pace.

“I am under no illusions about what we’re in for,” Chandhok said. “At the end of the day, we will be a new team with two rookies and no testing at all, so the first few races will be very hard indeed.

“If we can finish the first race that would be an achievement,” the Indian driver said.

“That’s kind of the elephant in the room,” he says with a mischievous grin, wearing a race suit with the word “ExtenZe” around his neck, across his chest and back, and down the sides of both legs.

All giggling aside, the sponsorship deal for the No. 37 car shows how teams must look beyond conventional sponsors in these tough economic times. This is a sport that requires more than just a fast car and a talented driver; someone’s got to be willing to foot the bill with a lot of zeros on the check.

Which brings us to Conway, a 30-year-old, college-educated rookie who knew he’d need more than just a heavy right foot to break into the Sprint Cup series.

Like anyone who’s had trouble sleeping, he’d seen one of those bawdy ExtenZe infomercials sandwiched between pitches for stay-at-home jobs that will turn you into an instant millionaire and video collections for long-ago television shows.

Hmmm, he thought, wonder if ExtenZe would be willing to sponsor a stock car?

“If you look back a few years ago, there was no such thing as an energy drink. Red Bull kind of created that category, much the same way ExtenZe has done for the male enhancement category,” said Conway, who majored in marketing at UNC Charlotte.

“It’s the heart of America,” said Robert Wilhovsky, the company’s director of motorsports marketing. “You reach a real loyal, passionate customer base that sticks with you. They appreciate and understand your involvement in their sport, their way of life, and it resonates well with them. They, in turn, thank you at the counter.”

Conway, however, has had a tough time as a Cup rookie. He wasn’t approved to race in the season-opening Daytona 500 because of a lack of superspeedway experience, and he hasn’t finished higher than 31st in his three starts. The team needs to be in the top 35 to maintain its automatic spot in the field after the next event at Bristol; Conway is 40th.

Although he said there was some resistance at first from NASCAR officials it didn’t take much of a selling job. After all, the series once had a car sponsored by Viagra.

“If you look back historically, particularly in the last 10 years, NASCAR has attracted a broad spectrum of sponsors,” said Ramsey Poston, the series’ managing director of corporate communications. “We’ve seen more sponsors coming into the sport, which is encouraging.”

Especially at a time when many teams have folded or merged because of a lack of sponsorship dollars. NASCAR, like every other major sport, has felt the sting of the economic downturn, though Poston said some recent deals indicate the worst is over.

To pay the bills, teams have been forced to look beyond the base of beer companies, home improvement stores and package delivery services.

For last weekend’s race at Atlanta, Greg Biffle was sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau in the first of a three-race, $1.2 million package.

“Get those Census forms in,” Biffle quipped. “If you don’t send your form back, I’m going to be at your doorstep.”

Although it might be difficult to tell from the potpourri of logos at a NASCAR track, Poston said there are standards when it comes to approving sponsors.

First, the product must be legal.

“Absolutely, there are limits,” he said. “We have a lot of casinos that are title sponsors and car sponsors. But right now, the gray area is online gaming.”

There’s no such gray area with Conway’s sponsor. That hasn’t stopped the junior-high-level humor, so the company decided it was best to go along with the joke (in contrast to Viagra, which refused to make light of its product during its stint in NASCAR).

The team sells shirts on its Web site and from its merchandise trailer that turns up at the track each week.

“Everybody’s had a good time with it,” Conway said. “And everybody just wears us out for samples.”

Aaron’s Inc. will sponsor the No. 55 for Waltrip to enter in the April race. The car will be fielded by PRISM Motorsports.

Waltrip put aside his driving following the season-opening Daytona 500 to concentrate on running Michael Waltrip Racing.

He said at the time he’d like to still race in a few restrictor-plate events. All four of Waltrip’s career wins came at Talladega or Daytona.

Edwards was in an early accident with Keselowski in Sunday’s race at Atlanta, and later returned to the track and deliberately wrecked Keselowski. The contact sent Keselowki’s car airborne, and NASCAR parked Edwards for the remainder of the race.

On Tuesday, he was placed on probation for three races.

“We are satisfied that NASCAR fairly considered all the circumstances in its decision to discipline Carl,” said Roush.

Roush said he looked forward to a NASCAR-called meeting next weekend at Bristol between the two drivers and Keselowski car owner Roger Penske.

“It is our hope to put this behind us at that time,” said Roush, who added the incident overlooked an otherwise good day in Atlanta for the Roush Fenway Racing team.

MADRID(AP)—Spurred on by arrival of two-time champion Fernando Alonso, Ferrari goes into the Formula One season as the championship favorite with a bit of a chip on its shoulder following a disastrous 2009 campaign.

Last year was the worst showing for the Italian team since 1993 as it finished fourth in the constructors table with a single victory. Felipe Massa missed the second half of the season after sustaining life-threatening injuries in a crash at the Hungarian GP.

Ferrari has emerged from the doom and gloom of last season to rally behind the signing of Alonso. The Spaniard, meanwhile, is coming off three straight difficult seasons and has been re-energized by what he calls “the best car I’ve ever driven.”

“It’s unbelievable the feeling here, the passion of everybody,” Alonso said last month in Valencia, Spain, where a record 36,400 spectators came out to see his first spin in the iconic red car.

Alonso replaced Kimi Raikkonen, whose standoffish personality never enamored itself to the Tifosi even if the Finnish driver beat both Alonso and McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton to the 2007 title by one point.

Alonso will finally get the chance to duel with Hamilton in a worthy car, while old foe Michael Schumacher, defending champion Jenson Button of McLaren and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel are all expected to be at the front of the field, as is Massa.

“He’s definitely one of the best,” former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello told the Associated Press. “And when you first start at Ferrari it’s a dream team with all they can offer you – not only the car, but what they offer you outside too. With that he’s living a good moment, so I tip him and Massa (for the title).”

Ferrari is accustomed to excellence and team president Luca di Montezemolo is expecting a lot from his two drivers after last year’s woeful results.

“I haven’t forgotten the humiliation of the Abu Dhabi weekend,” di Montezemolo said in front of Alonso, Massa and 400 Ferrari employees. “But now we know that our efforts paid off, because we can look at the start of the season knowing that we have a reliable car and we’re ready to tackle our competitors.”

Last season was a disaster by Ferrari’s high standards.

Ferrari focused on 2010 earlier than usual since it was already out of the title fight by April’s Spanish Grand Prix, and then Massa’s replacement, Luca Badoer placed last in the two GPs he raced before Giancarlo Fisichella was signed. Fisichella remains as a reserve driver this season.

Ferrari concluded the preseason with more test miles than any other team and the fewest reliability problems.

“What we could see, and considering all the unknown factors in the testing, I think that we’ve shown that we can be competitive and are part of the top group in terms of pure performance,” team principal Stefano Domenicali said.

Alonso also struggled uncharacteristically last season.

The Spanish driver managed only one top-three finish with Renault, who guided him to back-to-back titles with in 2005-06. Those championships spurred his move to McLaren, where promising rookie Hamilton proved to be the biggest obstacle to a third straight title as the British driver was favored despite his inexperience.

“That helped me become a better driver,” Alonso said of his McLaren gap-year. “I’ve arrived with more maturity because of those experiences. I’m more relaxed, more at peace. I’m ready for any challenge.”

Massa cannot afford any mistakes following his early exit last season after a freak accident in Budapest led to skull surgery and the lengthy layoff. Raikkonen picked up the team’s sole win at Spa.

“I’ve never had problems with teammates in the past or present so I’m 100 percent sure that I will never have a problem with Fernando – we work well together and that’s important,” the Brazilian said. “We’re working very well in the right direction.”

There seems to be no doubting Ferrari is heading in the right direction, but one of the most competitive fields – which includes former Ferrari driver Schumacher – seems to be the biggest obstacle this season rather than internal affairs.

The 55-year-old team principal of Mercedes GP received the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. The honor recognizes not only last year’s F1 victory under the name of Brawn GP but also 30 years of service to the sport.

Brawn’s talents helped Jenson Button win his first F1 drivers title last season but the British driver has moved to McLaren.