Brad Keselowski, the 2010 Nationwide series champion, was presented Tuesday with an honor from State Senator Jim Marleau of Oakland County's Lake Orion.


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Tuesday was a busy day for Rochester Hills, Michigan, native Brad Keselowski, who returned to his home state to promote the upcoming NASCAR season and collect a unique honor from the state Senate.

Keselowski, the 2010 Nationwide series champion, made a stop Tuesday at a lansing restaurant to help promote Michigan International Speedway's Season Kick Off event, and later was presented with an honor from State Senator Jim Marleau of Oakland County's Lake Orion.

Marleau presented Brad with a copy of state Senate Resolution 12, which recognizes Keselowski's on-track excellence, and his contributions to his home community and the state of Michigan.

At the MIS kickoff event, Keselowski said he's looking forward to returning to his home state's track in summer 2011.

“MIS is an unbelievable place,” Keselowski said. “I am fortunate to have won back-to-back Nationwide Series races at MIS and will look to defend that race win in June this year. However, we would also really like to win at MIS in the Sprint Cup Series. I love coming back to Michigan and helping out with these events any way I can.”

MIS president Roger Curtis provided an update to the physical improvements taking place at the Brooklyn track. He said nost of the three grandstands between turns 3 and 4 have been taken down, and that the pedestrian tunnel under the frontstretch of the track is being widened. Curtis mentioned other changes too, such as the moving of qualifying to Saturday in June, and the addition of the Great Lakes Wine Fest -- which is scheduled for May 21 at the track.

On a more personal note, Keselowski talked Tuesday about his new Checkered Flag Foundation, a group that supports military personnel, veterans, first-responders and others wounded in combat or in the line of duty.

Curtis said that the legislative honor given to Keselowski was well deserved.
“Brad is very deserving of this honor,” Curtis said. “He has become a very successful driver in NASCAR and has done a lot for his home state and given back in so many ways. It was nice to see our state government honor him today for those efforts and achievements.”

MIS schedule
The full lineup for MIS is as follows.Value pricing for the tickets ends on February 28.

Michigan International Speedway - 2011 Schedule
Saturday, May 21
Great Lakes Wine Fest

Friday, June 17
ARCA Racing Series RainEater Wiper Blades 200

Saturday, June 18
NASCAR Nationwide Series

Sunday, June 19
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400

Friday, Aug. 19
Meijer Pole Day

Saturday, Aug. 20
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series VFW 200

Sunday, Aug. 21
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Brian Keselowski will try Cup
In other Keselowski news, Brad's older brother Brian Keselowski will try to run the full Sprint Cup schedule in 2011 with his family-run K-Automotive team.

"I planned on running a full schedule, but so far, we haven't been able to put it all together. We're planning on doing Daytona, and we're going to wait and see from there. We might wait until after the first part of the season gets over with," said Keselowski. "It's going to depend on our money, and how much sponsorship we might be able to draw."

The move came because Keselowski decided taht he Nationwide rules this season made running in that series too costly to merit staying at that level.

"We decided that & it wasn't much more expensive to run the Sprint Cup Series. If we're going to spend that kind of money, we might as well go Cup racing. It's not going to be easy, but we want to race."

I wish him luck, because while the prize money may be better in Cup, it's also harder to qualify. If he can get into Daytona, that would be a great start to the season and move him toward his goal of racing Cup all year.

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