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No apologies from Brad Keselowski about his aggressive driving style

Brad Keselowski addresses the media after the end of fight-filled drama at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend.
(Sean Gardner / Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)
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After Jeff Gordon slammed his car into Clint Bowyer’s at a NASCAR race two years ago at Phoenix, sparking a fight between their crews in the garage, Brad Keselowski went to the media center and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade.

“I spent a whole week being bashed by a half-dozen drivers about racing hard at Texas [the prior week] and how I’m out of control and had a death wish and I see [expletive] like that,” Keselowski said of the brawl, adding that he was the victim of “a double standard.”

Two years later, Keselowski is back at Phoenix, and once again he’s under fire for racing aggressively the prior week in Texas, which led to a pit-road brawl involving Keselowski, Gordon and their crews.

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But this time, there was no subsequent rant by Keselowski, who was subdued as he spoke to reporters Friday at Phoenix International Raceway.

“I don’t think it’s really productive for me to get into the he-said, she-said because at the end of the day, we disagree,” he said of criticism from Gordon and other drivers. “I’m not looking to become what everyone else wants me to become, so I have not spent a lot of time on that rhetoric.”

As Keselowski tries to capture his second Sprint Cup Series title with two races left in the season — Sunday at Phoenix and next weekend in Florida — Keselowski’s aggressive driving style in his No. 2 Ford and the way he handles scrapes with other drivers is a central debate in big league stock car racing.

The debate also includes the question of whether Keselowski’s behavior violates some drivers code of respect or if he’s a NASCAR iconoclast, a throwback to the less-polite, fender-banging ways of NASCAR’s old school of drivers.

The 30-year-old Michigan native said his job is to “drive my car harder, stronger, faster than everybody out there,” a take-no-prisoners stance that led to his first championship in 2012 and six race wins this season, tops in the Cup series.

He’s also among the eight drivers still eligible in NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup title playoff, a field that will be cut to four after Sunday’s race, with the final four deciding the championship next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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Keselowski drives for longtime team owner Roger Penske, who has publicly defended Keselowski and suggested that other drivers’ gripes might partly reflect jealousy of Keselowski’s success.

That drew scoffs from other drivers. But ESPN analyst Rusty Wallace, a former Cup champion who once drove for Penske, said last week that “the way [Keselowski’s] been driving of late reminds me of Dale Earnhardt Sr.”

The late Earnhardt, a record seven-time champion, was known as “The Intimidator” for his ability to shove aside other cars to win.

But Gordon, a four-time champion, said even Earnhardt knew how to smoothe ruffled feathers after a race. “The first thing that he did was try to put his arm around you and say, ‘Hey man, I didn’t mean to do that, I really apologize,’ ” Gordon recalled. “While you didn’t necessarily believe him, it had an effect.”

Indeed, the main gripe against Keselowski lately seems less about his driving than the perception that he’s indifferent about seeking a truce after the drivers park their cars.

The brawl a week ago started when Keselowski made a daring move for the lead near the race’s end, a move that cut a tire on Gordon’s car and caused it to spin. Gordon, who had been gunning for the win, finished 29th instead.

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When an angry Gordon approached Keselowski after the race, Keselowski appeared unwilling to listen. Another driver, Kevin Harvick, then shoved Keselowski toward Gordon, igniting the melee.

“I have no problem with the way Brad races,” Harvick said, adding that it was Keselowski walking away from Gordon that “rubbed me the wrong way.”

Denny Hamlin, another title contender who’s on the pole for Sunday’s race, said last week that “there’s a lot of animosity” among drivers toward Keselowski in large part because Keselowski shows “no remorse” for how his driving affects others.

“Brad’s got his agenda, and he’s entitled to that,” Hamlin said. But on the track, “it’s tough to win a championship if nobody likes you.”

Keselowski grew up in a racing family: His father raced and owned a team, and the younger Keselowski drove for the team as well. But after his father fell ill in 2003, the team closed two years later, a crisis that Keselowski credits for much of his determination.

Keselowski got a big break in mid-2007 when JR Motorsports, a team co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., hired him to drive in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series. That led to his current ride with Penske in NASCAR’s elite Sprint Cup Series.

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But Hamlin, for one, is tired of hearing how Keselowski’s earlier troubles laid the foundation for Keselowski’s aggressive driving.

“You don’t have to run into people to be successful,” Hamlin said. “And when I hear Brad say that this is the only way a person like me can make it, what do you mean, like you? I had to get here just on hard work too. I didn’t have money behind me or anything else. I hate that statement.”

Regardless, Keselowski claims to pay little heed to what drivers or fans think of him.

After the Texas brawl, Keselowski said: “All this stuff that’s going on in the world, if your villain is me racing 100%, you’ve got it pretty good, and I don’t feel too bad for you.”

james.peltz@latimes.com

Twitter: @PeltzLATimes

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