Brad Keselowski: Crew Chief Paul Wolfe Rejected Me When We First Met

The pairing of Brad Keselowski and his Penske Racing crew chief Paul Wolfe have made for the hottest tandem in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series over the past few weeks, and that prompted Keselowski to recall the first time they met.

It was 2009 at Michigan International Speedway, and Keselowski had just decided to join Penske Racing. The driver knew he would need a Nationwide Series crew chief and had admired Wolfe’s work at CJM Racing from afar.

We’ll let Keselowski take the story from there:

I met him here two years ago for the first time. I made the decision that day that I was going to come to Penske and race. ... I had never met him before. I had just come back from Michigan football practice, and I texted him and said, ‘Hey man, why don’t you come over to my bus and I’ll talk to you?’

He walked into my bus and I told him, ‘Hey man, I’m going to move on. I’m going to do this deal at Penske. I’m going to have this Nationwide program and I’m really, really excited about it. I like what I see out of you – just watching you from a distance – and I think you should interview for the job and I think you’d be the leading candidate. I think you’d really enjoy it and I think things would go really well.’

And Paul – he’s real quiet – just sat there and listened to me the entire time. He didn’t say a word and when it was done, he looked at me straight in the face and said, ‘Nah, I don’t think so.’ And he walked out!

I’m like, ‘Damn! That was not how this was supposed to go!’

He explained it to me later on, about two months later. His team (CJM) kind of went under and he eventually took the job (at Penske). And I asked him, ‘Why did you say no? You didn’t even really listen to me!’

He told me he was very loyal to the team he had and he wasn’t just going to jump ship if he felt like that other team could make it.

I think that loyalty factor and some of the other personality traits he has, we share. Some traits we don’t share, but we have a lot of respect for each other. He builds fast race cars – which makes it a lot easier to get along with a crew chief, quite honestly. But he’s a great guy and I really enjoy working with him.