NASCAR Cup Series

Who inspires you: Keselowski similar to some of the sport's best

Published Nov. 4, 2014 10:30 a.m. ET

Darrell Waltrip

I know that all everybody wants to talk about was the fight after the race Sunday evening at Texas Motor Speedway. I think we can't overlook some of the things that happened during the race and simply focus on the fight on pit road. When he was in the Media Center after all the pit road turmoil, Brad Keselowski referenced a quote from Ayrton Senna, which I think speaks volumes about Brad. The quote was, "If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver."

Brad told the media he was no Dale Earnhardt or Ayrton Senna but that he gets inspiration from that quote and from those drivers. If you stop and think about it, he's right. When we all started out we had those idols. They were the drivers we wanted to be like. It's no different than kids idolizing NFL, MLB or NBA stars.

When I came into NASCAR, I got my inspiration from a lot of drivers but mostly Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and particulary David Pearson. When I came up, Richard was The King and as I've always said "if you want to be the King -- then you have to beat the King" -- so that's what I set out to do.

I wanted to be as tenacious and tough like Cale. I wanted to be as knowledgeable and smart as Bobby. I wanted to be as smooth and calculating a driver as David was. I tried to apply the things I saw them do and mold it into my driving style. My goal was to take all the things that made each one of them great and wrap it into one dynamic package.

You see that progression throughout the history of our sport. When Dale came along he wanted to be better than me. In 1993 when Jeff Gordon came along he wanted to be better than Dale. After Jeff came his teammate Jimmie Johnson who wanted to prove to everyone that he was better than Jeff. Now we have young Brad Keselowski making the same statement. He wants to be the best and that means beating Jimmie Johnson. Once again, it's history replaying itself. Jimmie has six championships. Brad wants to top that so to be the King he has to beat the King.

Brad is a throwback old-school driver. I raced against his dad and his uncle. That family is blue-collar, hardcore, pull yourself up by your boot straps kind of racers. That's what Brad is really about. If you listen to Brad you've heard him say there are those that would like to run someone like him out of the sport. He's the farthest thing from politically correct. He lays it on the line and goes for it every lap. You can see it in his driving style as recently as Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Trust me, I know first-hand what it's like to be an outsider coming into this sport. There was an establishment that I wasn't a part of. I had to fight that establishment. Did I ruffle feathers? You betcha I did. For whatever reason, the camera loved me and I loved it. Combine that with my God-given ability to talk and I used that all to my advantage both on and off the track.

At best Brad and crew chief Paul Wolfe had a 12th-place car Sunday but they made the right strategy calls to put that No. 2 car out front and in clean air. All of a sudden Brad became someone the other 42 drivers had to beat. Remember, Jimmie Johnson led 191 of 341 laps. Teammate Jeff Gordon led 49 laps but now all of sudden Brad's a player in that race out front leading 22 laps. Brad was out there on older tires doing things with his car that everyone thought wouldn't work, but Brad made it work.

That kid is a fighter and I don't mean that in the literal sense. He needed a win to move onto this third round so what's he do? He goes out and wins a race. This kid has no sense of give-up in him. He won the championship two years ago. Then he got embarrassed last year and never got the chance to defend his title because they didn't even make the Chase. He got knocked down but he got right back up and has been even stronger this year.

Just look at what his accomplished this year. Brad has six wins so far which is the most of any driver in 2014. In 34 races this year he's also put together 18 top 10s and 15 top 10s. That's the stuff of championships. The kid is a throwback to Cale by being so tenacious. He latches on and never let's go. He's got the determination of Dale and Bobby Allison that second is never ever good enough. He's a smart, calculating driver like David Pearson and I were.

I like this kid. Does he do bonehead things at times? You betcha. We all have. I challenge you to go back through the history of NASCAR and show me one successful driver that has never made a bad decision on the track. You won't be able to. We're human which means we're all victim at times of our own emotions that get out of control at times. Again I go back to Ayrton Senna who once said, "When you are fitted into a racing car and you race to win. Second or third place is not enough." That's how Brad Keselowski is wired up.

What happened at Texas is a product of what this new Chase format has created. Don't tell me how we used to do it any more because we don't do it that way any more. Don't tell me how we used to race because we aren't racing that way any more. This new Chase format has entered us into a whole new world. Every week those Chase drivers see their chances for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Championship either get stronger or slip further away.

There's a lot of pressure on these drivers like never before in our sport. The reality is some can handle it and some can't. For the life of me I don't understand Sunday why Jeff started on the outside row on that last restart. Seeing Jeff do that I said to myself "he's just made a big mistake because it is not going to work." Naturally I didn't know what was going to happen but I just had this feeling something was going to happen. No one came over the radio either when he said he was going to take the outside line to tell him that it hadn't worked all night so why are you doing that.

That last restart obviously cost Jeff dearly. He got body slammed by Brad, he ends up with a cut tire, in the wall and a 29th-place finish, again even after leading the second most laps of any driver. It was Jeff's race to lose and picking the wrong restart lane did him in. It dropped him three spots in the Chase to that fourth and final transfer spot as we enter the last race of this this round this weekend at Phoenix.

He was frustrated, angry and mad obviously. It was his race to lose and they blew it. Plan and simple, they blew it. When you are in that state of mind you want to blame somebody. You don't want to focus on what you did. You laser-lock on what you think someone did to you. I've been there. I know what that feels like. So I feel for Jeff. He still has an opportunity to win his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup championship but he's going to have to drive a really smart race Sunday at Phoenix to guarantee himself a spot in the final four at Homestead.

I mean if you look at the standings, every single driver of the eight remaining Chase teams are going to have to run nearly a perfect race and hope others stumble. That goes back to what I was saying earlier about some can handle the pressure better than others. Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano are tied for first place in the Chase points but from them to Kevin Harvick who is at the bottom in eighth, you are only talking 18 points. That's 18 positions on the race track.

I know the drivers don't like this Chase format, but I believe NASCAR has hit a home run with it. What we are seeing on the track and on TV is extraordinary. Viewers at this time of year who only focus on football are turning over and seeing what's going on at our races because it is so exciting. So hats off to NASCAR for this new format and how it is playing out.

I don't condone fighting but at the same time I'm glad they did it outside of their race cars. I just hope NASCAR doesn't come down too hard on these boys. Let these boys be boys. NASCAR said "Boys have at it" and so they are. Some fists were thrown and feelings hurt but that's about it, so I hope NASCAR doesn't overreact.

Hopefully they'll remember that pivotal moment in our sport in 1979 with the fight at Daytona. Here's hoping they remember how it inspired our sport at the time!

VIDEO: Did Jeff Gordon land a jab on Brad Keselowski?