Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

Our series of NASCAR driver interviews continues this week with 2012 Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, a Team Penske driver whose three wins this season are tied for the most in the series.

Q: When you're on a long green-flag run and not racing around anyone, what do you think about?

A: Sounds like a question my girlfriend (Paige White) would ask me. Every once in awhile, she'll look over at me and go, "What are you thinking?" (Laughs)

It reminds me of this cartoon — you know one of those meme cartoons (SomeEcards) you see on Twitter every once in awhile? I remember seeing one that was like: "What a woman is thinking" and the caption is all filled up with tons of writing. And then it's like: "What a guy is thinking" and there's just a blank square. (Laughs)

So when you ask that question and are like, "Brad, what are you thinking when you're in the car?" (Shrugs) I don't think of anything. I'm really just thinking about what's in front of me and what I'm doing. Every once in awhile, you'll have moments where you tie in what you need in the future to be faster.

After a race is over, quite often I don't remember most of the race. You hear athletes talk about being in the zone all the time. Well when you've reached the zone, whatever it is, the recorder in your brain that remembers things turns off. So I know when I've reached a good spot mentally because I can't remember what just happened.

You always hear about guys like Ayrton Senna, who talked about driving a race car being an experience similar to a spiritual experience. When I think about that, I can relate to it. I think of it as an experience where you just feel so connected to your car that nothing else matters.

I feel so connected to everything I'm touching that the car feels like me. Any damage to the car that happens feels to me like I touched a hot stove. That connection runs so deep for me when I'm really in the zone, I feel like other things cease to exist. The ability to think through things and go through things when I'm really connected is not there unless somebody snaps me out of it — like if somebody talks on the radio.

I think that's why a lot of times drivers don't like it when someone talks on the radio unnecessarily, because it can snap you out of it much like someone going like this (snaps fingers toward interviewer's face) at you.

I don't know if that really answered your question, but there are a lot of long green-flag runs where I don't think about anything.

Q: Fans often come up to you and want to discuss a moment or race from your career. Which one comes up the most?

A: It always amazes me, because going back to the last question, a lot of times I don't remember those moments until they say something.

One I get a lot is the incidents I had with Carl Edwards and when I called Kyle Busch an ass at Bristol. That was pretty memorable.

Q: If someone paid you $5 million to design a new racetrack and gave you an unlimited budget, what kind of track would you build?

A: When I was in seventh or eighth grade, that was when the huge track-building boom was going on in NASCAR. And I loved it. I loved that they were always building new tracks, and there was this dialogue across the sport of what makes this place unique and why it's so much bigger and better.

I remember Roger (Penske) built California (now Auto Club Speedway), and there was a train behind it. I thought that was so cool you could take the train there. And at Texas (Motor Speedway), they built huge condos and suites.

So when that era was coming about, I used to get bored in class, take a blank white sheet of paper while the teacher was talking and draw different racetracks. I bet I did 100 different tracks — not just the layout as it pertains to the racing surface, but, "Let's put the grandstands here" or "Let's put the tunnel there" or "The suites go there."

Every time I did one, I'd get done with it and go, "Eh, it's missing this." So I'd try to go design another one. That made me build an appreciation for how hard it is to build a perfect racetrack.

The one thing you can never build at a racetrack is history. That's the lesson from Indianapolis (Motor Speedway), right? If you were building a brand-new Indianapolis today, I'm sure you could do a lot of things better, but you could never recreate the legacy. And that's one of the most valuable things.

But if you're looking for the more direct answer about what I'd build, I'd build Iowa (Speedway). I'd make a few small changes to it – I'd probably screw something else up in the process — but make it very similar to Iowa.

Q: If you had a day off to do anything in the world you wanted — but you were not allowed to race — what would you do?

A: Well, we get those days, right? Off-weekends. As a race car driver, you travel a lot. Most people associate travel with vacation. I think when you're in the (racing) industry, you start to associate being home with vacation. It's a staycation.

So I'd probably stay home, watch a really good movie and maybe go eat a really great dinner at a restaurant. And I'd spend some time with family and friends making really loud noises. I like loud noises, whether it's fireworks or shooting. I'm attracted to loud noises.

Do you ever get any noise complaints?

I've had the cops come over once, but only after I was done. So that was OK. But generally, no.

I get a few text messages a year like, "Hey, was that explosion you?" Usually they're from Dale (Earnhardt Jr.)'s girlfriend (Amy Reimann) or Dale's sister, Kelley (Earnhardt Miller, both of whom are Keselowski's neighbors). I'm like, "Yeah, it was me. Don't worry about it." I just like loud noises!

Q: You get to have a lot of cool experiences away from racing through your job as a NASCAR driver. What's one that sticks out?

A: There have been a lot of cool ones, but not one that sticks out to me. Meeting the president was one, because that's really big regardless of your politics — though that's difficult for most people to accept. I'd bet if most people had the opportunity to meet the president, they wouldn't actually turn it down because of their respective politics — although they talk a big game and say they would.

But I can't think of one person I met who really just floored me. I remember the first time I met Roger (Penske). That was a pretty good experience. I remember the first time I met Dale (Earnhardt Jr.). Those are people you respect, but I can't remember one where I was like, "Wow!" I guess I've been taught all my life not to worship people.

Q: When you go home after a bad day at the track, do you vent to someone about it or just keep it to yourself?

A: I'd probably say no, but the people around me would probably say sometimes yes and sometimes no. It depends on how the bad day happened.

Was the bad day like, "Hey, you backed it in the wall" or "Hey, somebody wrecked you?" It depends on whether it's related to something that was in my control.

Usually, if it's something I've done, I'll just reflect and think about it. If it's something related to an action by someone else, I'm more likely to vent and talk to people about it.

Q: If you had kids someday and they were running around the garage, what driver would you point to as a good role model for your children?

A: I'd probably never do that. I was raised my entire life to not worship other people. I'd let them figure it out on their own if they wanted to go down that path.

Although I might say, "See the way that guy gets around the corner? That's how you should drive the racetrack." But not, "Hey, see the way he carries himself? That's how you should behave." Nah. Never.

Q: When you stand around with other drivers and tell old racing stories, what's one of your favorites to tell either about something that happened to yourself or someone else?

A: I remember this one time when I was just two or three years into racing, and I was racing a Late Model car at this track in Michigan called Owosso Speedway. There was this guy there who was kinda good — I wouldn't say he was great, but he always had a good car — and he was just tough to race around.

No matter what you did, he was always like, "You ran me off the racetrack!" And it was like, "No, I didn't." He kind of annoyed me in that way, but he was older and I was young, so you had to be respectful and tiptoe around it. But this guy was a stickler — really nice car — he would get upset if a scratch was put on his car.

One night we were racing and I qualified first and he qualified second. At the tracks I grew up racing, they always had inverts — so if you won the pole, you might start eighth, 10th, 12th. So we ended up starting seventh or eighth.

I passed him early in the race, and then that guy was getting passed by someone else. But the car passing him got loose, hit him and spun him out. I was thinking to myself, "God, I'm so glad that wasn't me who did that — and now I don't have to deal with him for the rest of the race."

Each track has its own rules, and this track had this subjective rule — the promoter's discretion — and they put both cars in the back for being involved in the incident. That's their right.

Well at this track, they didn't have a backstretch wall. So to enter the track, you'd literally drive over a mound on the high side of Turns 1 and 2 where the wall ended. And that was where the officials would stand, because they could control the access of the cars coming on the track.

If you wanted to talk to an official, that's where you would stop. So this guy pulled up there and stopped to argue to get his spot back. He maybe had a case, maybe didn't. Whatever. But anyway, they told him to get in the back because they were restarting the race, and he threw a fit, an absolute fit.

He got out of his car — keep in mind, this is right at the top of the track in the middle of the corner — and he wants to fight the officials. We're still pacing under yellow, so we can see all this.

As drivers, it's just like you on the highway — we rubberneck. It's like, "What's going on?" We had no radios in the car, so I didn't know what happened — but one lap I passed him at the top of the track and he's arguing, and I come around for the next lap and his car is gone.

I figured he got back in the car, pulled off the track, whatever. But all the sudden, I started to see all these tow trucks and ambulances pull over to the corner.

Well, what happened was he parked his car on the top of the track, and it sat there and sat there and sat there while this guy fought with the official. Eventually, gravity took over. The car started rolling down the the hill into the infield -— slowly, slowly, then faster, faster and BOOM! It destroyed itself on the one light pole on the inside of the track! (Laughs)

I went back and watched the video after the race, and it's not good quality, but you can sense the energy from the crowd. At first they're like, "What's this clown doing? Let's just go back racing." Then you can feel the atmosphere start to shift as the car starts rolling. Like punching someone on the shoulder.

You can hear the fans going, "Oh…Oh! OHHHHH!" and then you can see it rolling, and the track workers try to run after it and when it hits the pole, the whole crowd just goes, "GAHHHHHH!!!" They erupted! Even the crowd was like, "Yeah! This is awesome!" (Laughs hysterically)

It just destroyed this car, and it was this perfect lesson in racing karma. I'll never forget that.

Q: What's a TV show you're really into right now?

A: I like Veep. Sometimes I feel like Veep could be very close to the lifestyle I have.

How so?

Just similar quirkiness and weird stuff that always happens. How your words always get spun. How you always feel like no matter what you do, someone is going to be mad. So you get into a situation where you try to say as little as possible, and then people are mad because you do too little. It's the whole "can't win" feeling.

Q: What's the last movie you saw — either at home or in the theater — and was it any good?

A: I watched Admission at home. It was good; it has Tina Fey in it, and Paul Rudd was in it, too. I really like Tina Fey; I like her style.

Q: If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self — something you know now that you didn't know then — what would it be?

A: Nothing.

Why not?

I'm afraid I'd screw it up. I was reading this Stephen King book — 11/22/63 — and the premise was time travel. This guy goes back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination, but when he comes back, there's been a nuclear holocaust and all these things. He's like, "How did this happen?" Well in the book, the civil rights movement ends up failing and all these things lead to another.

So when people ask if I could go back and change anything, I just think, "No, I'd probably screw it up. It's the way it's supposed to be." I wouldn't want to ever risk it. I'm happy with where I'm at now. There's always the little things of, "Man, I wish I wouldn't have bought this," but I can't say that would impact my life in any fashion.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Reed Sorenson, and he wanted to know: If racing hadn't worked out for you, what do you think you would be doing?

A: I don't have a good answer for that. I don't know, man. It kind of goes back to the last question. It's kind of the way everything is supposed to be. I can't imagine a situation where it wasn't, and I try not to look back.

Certainly, there are opportunities where it could have gone other ways. I imagine I'd be involved in the sport somehow if I didn't make it as a driver. If I didn't make it in racing, period? I would have probably done something with the military.

Q: And do you have a question for the next person?

A: What is the best thing about NASCAR? Everybody talks about what the struggles are. So what do we do right? What's the best thing about it?

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