Brad Honored at NSCS Banquet

Brad Keselowski had hoped to be sitting at the champion’s table on the stage at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet.

But even though he didn’t quite make it to the table, he seemed to be near the center of it all, just as he was all season long.

It was an extraordinary season, which featured the new Chase Grid playoff format, which split the final 10 races into four rounds.

The new format created an incredible amount of tension and drama for the drivers and brought unmatched attention to the sport—and BK was right in the middle of the calamity all the way through the postseason.

While different, the new format was fairly simple: Four drivers were eliminated after each of the first three, three-race rounds, setting up a four-driver race for the Cup at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

However, at the Cup banquet, host Jay Mohr had a bit of a different explanation.

“You start with 16 drivers, after each round of races, four drivers are eliminated—and then one of those drivers has to fight Brad Keselowski,” Mohr joked.

The quip drew cheers and laughs from throughout the ballroom, including from Brad and his girlfriend Paige, as well as Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, who were involved in an incident with Brad at Texas Motor Speedway during the penultimate round of the Chase.

Hosting the banquet for the fifth time, Mohr unloaded on all of the top drivers in the sport and sent several jokes Brad’s way. However, he also took the time to pay the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford driver a big compliment.

“You have to love the emergence of Brad Keselowski as the man in the black hat,” he said. “You and I have always gotten along really well, but this year, you just sort of became the bad guy—the guy people love to hate, and I’m going to tell you a quote and I mean this from my heart.”

“Reggie Jackson, Brad, once said, ‘Fans don’t boo nobodies.’ Six wins, 17 top fives, you my friend are a big ol’ somebody.”

He also provided a hilarious new look at the fight between BK and Gordon, as well as Harvick.

While Harvick, as the Cup champion, was the man of the weekend, Brad came home with one major honor from Thursday’s NMPA Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon: The Coors Light Pole Award.

Kes won five poles in 36 Cup races, started inside the top 10 30 times, inside the top five 22 times and was on the front row for the start of 13 races.

Brad was also one of the top 10 vote-getters for NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the award for the 12th straight year. BK was joined in the top 10 by Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart and Josh Wise.

During the NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series banquet Nov. 17 in Doral, Fla., Brad Keselowski Racing driver Ryan Blaney was named the NCWTS Most Popular Driver. Blaney finished second in points to champion Matt Crafton while driving Brad’s No. 29 Cooper Standard Ford F-150.

On the same night, the Team Penske No. 22 Discount Tire/Hertz Ford Mustang team was honored for winning its second straight NNS owner’s points title.

RELATED LINKS

• Jay Mohr roasts absent Danica Patrick, others at Cup banquet (Fox Sports, Dec. 6, 2014)
• NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards 2014 (Jayski, Dec. 5, 2014)
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins most popular driver for 12^th straight year (USA Today, Dec. 5, 2014)
• Elliott, Crafton take center stage at banquet (NASCAR, Nov. 17, 2014)