Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Brad Keselowski is the young, cocksure, Twitter-friendly new face of NASCAR.
Keselowski, the driver who made a name for himself by posting on Twitter during a red flag stop in theDaytona 500, put his name on the Sprint Cup trophy Sunday with a 15th-place finish in the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“It means the world; it really does,” Keselowski said ashe celebrated.
Keselowski brought a seemingly safe 20-point lead into the last race of the playoff and needed only to finish 15th or better to secure the title. But he still had to steel himselfagainst the nerves that have rattled others in his place, that and the sight of the five-time champion Jimmie Johnson on his bumper for a stretch on Sunday. Johnson was the only driver who could havecaught Keselowski’s No. 2 Blue Deuce Dodge for the title. And for a time late in the race, it appeared he just might.
But in the end, it was Johnson who relented, his racecar pushed into the garage with40 laps to go after smoke filled the cockpit. He didn’t return, finishing 36th in the race and third overall in the championship.
Jeff Gordon won the race, and Clint Bowyer, who was second, wound upsecond overall in points behind Keselowski. Bowyer never got close enough to deliver any retribution to Gordon, who deliberately wrecked Bowyer’s racecar a week ago, touching off a melee between theirteams. It was one of a few dramas that never played out on the season’s final day.
At 28, Keselowski became only the third driver in 28 years to capture the title while still in his 20s. Kurt Buschwas 26 when he won in 2004, and Gordon was in his 20s when he took the Cup in 1995, ’97 and ’98.
“It feels pretty good,” said Keselowski, who had already begun celebrating with a pitcher of hissponsor’s Miller Lite. “It feels really good. I can’t believe how everything just came together over the last — what’s it been, three years? And you know what? I feel like the best is yet to come. I...