Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

FORT WORTH — While going for the win in the most intense playoff format NASCAR has ever created, Driver A sees a hole for the lead and decides to split the two cars ahead.

Driver A has fresher tires and feels he can make it work. It's his only chance to win. So he zooms into the gap a split second before it closes, right when Driver B – who was certain there was no room for such a move – comes down the track. The cars touch, and Driver B gets a flat tire. Driver B's race is ruined and maybe his playoff hopes, too. He's furious, of course.

Was Driver A wrong? Is Driver B whining? Is it just racing?

The answer likely depends on how you feel about each driver's personality. If Driver A was Jimmie Johnson and Driver B was Kyle Busch, people would say the class-act Johnson was doing what it took to win and that Busch should shut his trap.

The same goes for Driver A as Jeff Gordon — the popular four-time champion racing hard for maybe his final chance at a title! -- and Driver B as Brad Keselowski — the scrappy loudmouth everyone wants to punch!

In reality, Driver A is actually Keselowski and Driver B is Gordon, which was partly why Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway had so much intrigue.

It's easy to assume Keselowski was at fault because he's always in the middle of controversy. But viewed objectively, Keselowski did nothing wrong at Texas. He did nothing wrong on the track and he did nothing wrong on pit road afterward, perhaps aside from letting others practice their boxing skills on his face.

Knowing a win might be his only shot to advance to the championship race under NASCAR's new playoff format, Keselowski saw a hole and went for it. It was an aggressive move and it resulted in misfortune for Gordon, a four-time champ who certainly had a right to be upset after his chances at a fifth title took a hit.

And Gordon isn't the only one with ill will toward the 2012 champion. Keselowski is probably the most disliked driver in the garage, both because of his racing style and his strong opinions that ruffle feathers in a sport filled with corporate-speak.

Keselowski drives harder than others would prefer under the gentlemen's code favored by series veterans who typically measure respect in letting faster cars pass and giving each other plenty of room to race cleanly.

He also doesn't look or sound like a star driver, and his peers have noticed. They treat him like a math geek who somehow made the varsity football team (note Kevin Harvick shoving him from behind toward the fight like a schoolyard bully).

"Someone should probably notify Brad you can't be 'Bad Brad' if you're a dweeb, and he is," Denny Hamlin said. "He's going to get beat up pretty bad one time. Maybe that will change him, maybe not. He'll take a punch."​

But given the same situation, other drivers might take the same opportunity Keselowski did. Just last week, Gordon said he would have roughed up teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the win at Martinsville Speedway had he gotten to the No. 88 car's back bumper.

If drivers don't try to fill a hole when racing for a win, how badly do they really want it?

It's Keselowski, though, and he's easy to dislike because he doesn't act like everyone else. Fans vociferously booed the mere image of his face on the big screen after the fight — even louder than the boos he heard in driver introductions before the race.

That reaction stings for a 30-year-old who has said he'd like to be NASCAR's most popular driver. But he's not willing to compromise his values — on the track or off — to appease fans or his peers.

The latter, of course, are more important. Other drivers can make winning a second championship nearly impossible if they so choose — they could put him in the wall or spin him out — and his list of enemies seems to grow by the week.

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Keselowski has angered veterans Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Hamlin, Gordon and Harvick all within the past month. Somehow, he'll have to survive at both Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway despite a posse of drivers who would delight in seeing him lose.

"Will those guys race me hard or harder than others? Absolutely, I'm certain they will," he said. "But that's just part of it. I can't fault them for that.

"I just feel like I have to go for the gap if it's there and I have to race the way I race or I won't even be in NASCAR. I'd rather have enemies in NASCAR than have friends and be sitting at home."

Keselowski is on his way to replacing Kyle Busch as NASCAR's biggest villain, which is a bit surprising for a personable and friendly Michigan kid who clawed his way up the ranks from humble beginnings.

But if being reviled is what it takes to win more championships, then Keselowski wouldn't have it any other way.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck