Brad Keselowski shares vision for NASCAR's future

Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Stroll through the compound where NASCAR's traveling circus lives, and it's easy to find Brad Keselowski's abode.

Just look for the motor home that doesn't resemble anyone else's.

At the end of a row inside the Sprint Cup drivers' gated community at Daytona International Speedway sits living quarters that could be disguised as a delivery truck.

"It's about $2.25 million for one of those brand-new Prevosts, and resale value is maybe $800,000 to $1 million," Keselowski, 29, says about his peers' motor homes. "That's ridiculous. They break down all the time."

So with the help of assistant Bill Cole, Keselowski built his home for about a third of the price but with a more spacious interior thanks to two pullout slides. The weekend he debuted his more reliable model last summer, he won at Kentucky Speedway.

It was further validation for the unconventional mind of the most iconoclastic NASCAR champion in recent memory.

"Every time I do something different, I'm more successful," says Keselowski, who was the first driver to tweet during a race a year ago when the Daytona 500 was stopped by a jet dryer inferno. "I know I'm doing something right when people look at me and go, 'You're (screwed) up.' "

Butting heads has been a modus operandi since Keselowski broke into NASCAR's premier series full-time in 2010, warring with veterans such as Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. He earned respect in qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup the past two seasons and becoming the eighth-youngest champion in history in 2012. Yet some drivers have dubbed him "Craze-lowski" because of his outspoken manner.

Whether it be about sponsors, the schedule, social media or Danica Patrick ("I don't think, 'Oh there's that girl.' I think, 'Oh, there's that 30th-place driver.' "), Keselowski seems to always have something to say.

"I think we all sit back and chuckle at times at some of the things he says and does," five-time champion Jimmie Johnson says. "He is a great guy. He has the best of intentions for our sport, for his sponsor, for his team. He just needs to mature a little."

"I can always be wiser, if that's what he means," Keselowski says when told of Johnson's comments. "I can always make better decisions. Obviously, I'm mature enough to win a championship, so I can't be too far off."

But it's not all bluster for the youngest of five raised by a Rochester Hills, Mich., racing family with bedrock Midwestern values and blue-collar work ethic. In his champion's speech last year, Keselowski struck themes of humility, piety and unity in pledging to help move the sport in a positive direction as it wrestles with relevance and recapturing a younger, hipper audience amid sagging TV ratings and attendance.

"I might not be that guy, but that doesn't mean I can't step up to the plate and try to swing the bat," he says. "It doesn't mean I'll be successful. You're trying to take a crack at a Randy Johnson fastball in his prime. It's a tough sell.

"But someone has to step up to the plate first. Until that happens, this sport isn't living up to its potential, and I think it has a very high potential. We've got a great story to tell."

USA TODAY Sports asked the reigning Sprint Cup king to tell his. In a wide-ranging interview in that unlikeliest of motor homes, Keselowski shared his idyllic vision of NASCAR .

It's the world according to Keselowski. "It's a different place," he says with a laugh.

Here it is in the champ's words.

Overall vision

"The problem I see in the sport is that there are multiple entities that have to work together for us to be successful.

We have sponsors — partners, or whatever the hell you want to call them — tracks, the sanctioning body and the teams. Those are our four groups, and how well they cooperate dictates what we have as a product for our fans. And our fans create everything.

You combine that with the shift in all spectator sports to a TV-dominated world . For the longest time, NASCAR had twice the amount of people at the game than the NFL did, but we don't even have 50% of their TV viewership. What's happened is that TV has become more popular and attendance at the track or any sporting facility has dwindled with the exception of major events — Super Bowls, Daytona 500s, World Series."

"We haven't adapted as a sport to that. But why haven't we adapted?

When Bill France Jr. was in charge of NASCAR, he had control of all these pieces and wasn't at the mercy of the TV world. He had control of the tracks and NASCAR, which is now divided in two with Lesa (France Kennedy, president of International Speedway Corp. that controls 12 tracks) and (NASCAR Chairman) Brian (France). France Jr. had relationships with the sponsors, drivers and teams. Now we don't have that. Those three other pieces are segregated. Those three pieces need to get together. And until all three of those can unite, we're a house divided, and we're making bad decisions that are affecting how to generate revenue for the sport.

In today's sports world, you have to be very powerful in drawing people to TV, and we're not TV-friendly. That's one of the key areas for success. Part of that is we're not delivering a product. And we're fighting the tracks. We have to be up on the wheel a little more and looking for what's in front of us, and when we see it, we have to be able to react on it. And in order to be able to react on it, we need to be united."

Digital and social media

Without a doubt, all tracks should have Wi-Fi. That's so obvious, you don't even think it has to be said. But it does, and it goes back to all the factions not pulling in the same direction.

"Three years ago, a track tried to put in Wi-Fi and was told no because of the Sprint (title sponsorship) agreement. Someone needs to step in at that point and say, 'I'm sorry, we're putting Wi-Fi in.' We can't miss out on these things. The speedway had funding in place from the government to do it, and we said no? Are you kidding me?

I know I'm considered a social media leader because I'm active on Twitter, but it's much larger than Twitter. It's about technology, because that is what's driving my generation. Being able to text your friend and say, 'Hey, I'm at the hot dog stand, do you want a hot dog?' while they're in your seat, and you're in a line that took 30 minutes, you need to have service to do that.

The fact I can go to a race with a Verizon phone and not have service when the race starts is a major problem. What needs to be done to fix that is you need to allow other carriers to come in with their boosters and whatnot, and that's not happening. That's not acceptable.

You can't tell a fan that doesn't have service, 'We're working on it.' They bought their ticket already. That money they spent was for "worked," not "working." We have to open our eyes to the big picture. That's our sport's challenge. Can we do that?

I really don't know many people my age that do anything on Facebook. I hear from my older sisters, older brothers and that's it. I don't know anyone in their 20s really into Facebook other than a fan page. It's not our generation. And unless you have an app that can do video, it's really not worth anything because you can find all that information online. So I'm excited about the NASCAR app because it has video capabilities, and that's inside access. But again that's "working" instead of a "work." Those types of projects are gold, but we've got to get them done.

Instagram has really taken off. I don't see that being the path forward for the future. I think that's a fad. I think that'll go away, and five or 10 years from now, it'll be like, "You still have an Instagram account?" It'll be like MySpace. So you can take photos like they're from the 1970s. Big deal.

I really think Twitter will be here a long time because it can serve multiple uses. It's more than social media. I use it more as a news service than anything else. I don't know if I necessarily consider that to be social media. There is some social media in the sense of following a celebrity, but if you follow USA TODAY, that's a little different. I see it as being able to serve multiple roles and personally catered to you, and that's going to make it sustainable for extended periods of time. But I don't see that in any other social media service."

Competition

"The reality is no matter what we do with all these things, if we don't have an on-track product, it's worth nothing. And we've got to work really hard on that.

The new (Gen 6) car is a big step forward . It's part of the solution. It doesn't matter what you do, there will never be a whole season of last-lap passes for the win. It's not realistic.

The big thing we need is to a convey a spirit of cooperation, unity and happiness so when we don't have the last-lap pass for the win, everyone can still say, 'Wow, that was engaging and enjoyable, and I'm glad I was there for it.' "

Business model

"We have to change the business model to move away from team sponsors because the way it's set up now encourages us to harm each other. And by doing that, we're hurting the sport.

I feel bad for NASCAR because it's not their fault. But what NASCAR needs to do is somehow wean ourselves off our sponsors and make the sport more affordable to where you can basically race off the purse.

For example, now you have NASCAR, who can approach Miller Lite and say, 'Hey, why don't you take $5 million of that funding off the No. 2 car and put it on to be the official NASCAR partner?' Whoever works at NASCAR who signs that deal gets a 10% cut and says, 'Yes. Nailed it.'

Then there's the tracks, who have that same thing with the fans. They'll kill a sponsor and say, 'We can't let them do a press announcement, because they're not the official track sponsor.' And then there's the team side, which says, 'Hey, when you get out of the car, make sure you thank everyone of your sponsors. This one twice. And name the CEO when you do, because if you don't, they might not re-sign, and if they don't re-sign, we don't have any revenue because we don't get enough from the other factions.'

All those pieces keep stacking up against each other, and we have to change. It's just a matter of when. It'll either be in the next two to five years, or in 10 to 15 when the sport is really run down. But you cannot have a sustainable business model that encourages all the parties in it to fight each other. And that's where we're at. And we're really paying for it."

Schedule

"We have too many races (36) at too many tracks. We're at too many tracks repeatedly. I can't name the races because I'll be a bad guy if I do, but we need to cut out several tracks that have two races, and we need to go to a couple other tracks.

We need to go to Iowa. We need to go to build a track in Toronto or Vancouver. I don't really care about New York.

In order to do so, we can't add these races. We have to remove them from those tracks that have two and don't really deserve it."

Fan experience

"You have two factions of fans: Those that just barely make it to the racetrack financially. Their expectations are to have the cheapest price possible. Much like a low-fare airline.

Then you have the guy who makes $80,000 a year, can afford to go to a race and bring his family, and his expectation is to have a great experience.

Those conflict with each other because they end up sharing the same experience. So now you somehow have to split the cost between what their expectations are. It's easy for me to stand up and be a hero and say, 'Ticket prices should be lower.' Yeah, everybody wins then.

But on behalf of the track owners, that would not be a fair thing to say, because when a track brings in Charlie Daniels or Journey or whatever band, it's because they're trying to improve the experience and add ticket value. The biggest thing we need to do is raise the value proposition of the sport."

Diversity

"There's no reason why someone from a multicultural background can't make it in this sport.

There are limiting factors for everybody. At this level, I don't see bigotry. If there was a Latino or African-American driver that could run as well as Jeff Gordon now, he'd be here running. Team owners don't care. And (drivers) don't care.

When Danica (Patrick) gets in the car, I don't think, 'Oh there's that girl.' I think, 'Oh, there's that 30th-place driver.' That's the reality of it. People who talk to me about Danica and say, 'Man, you need to give her more of a chance.' No, you need to give her less of a chance. You need to treat her equally and think about those who never came even close to getting the opportunity she had."

Entertainment

"You can't tell someone how to sing the national anthem. No different than The Ed Sullivan Show, and they tried to tell The Doors not to get high and the Rolling Stones not to dance so provocatively. Same with Elvis. They're artists. Let them be artists.

Cross-promotion is big for us and everybody. NASCAR is working really hard on the cross-promotion with the Hollywood types and the film industry. There's been some progress, but it wouldn't hurt to dedicate more resources without a doubt."

Personal

"It's everybody's responsibility to carry the sport whether they're a champion or not.

I feel I've taken that responsibility as much as I was allowed to last year, and some people have told me along the way — a lot of people — they wish I'd be quieter and that I hadn't earned the right to speak. But I never listened to that.

I've always done as much as I wanted to do and could manage. I'm sure there will be more demands going forward, and I think I'm capable to handling it smoothly. That doesn't mean I've got it figured out. It just means I've been working on it.

The key thing for me in anything I do is having enough self-awareness to know when you can have fun and put on the clown suit, and when you've got to put on the business suit. When you win the championship and are enjoying those moments with your team that are once-in-a-lifetime experiences, have fun, man. Enjoy it. Those are going to blow right by you, and I might not ever have that experience again.

I don't plan on that happening, but it might not. I'm going to enjoy what I can when I have the opportunity to enjoy it. That doesn't mean I'm not self-aware enough to know there are situations where you need to be buttoned up. I'm constantly learning what those situations are."