Rivalry growing between Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski

Each has won races this season at the expense of the other. Both harbor realistic championship aspirations driving for high-caliber organizations with no shortage of resources. And maybe most noteworthy, the two have a layered back-story.

The ingredients seemingly combine for the genesis of what may be NASCAR’s next great rivalry, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski. But this wouldn’t be like the rivalries of yesteryear when Dale Earnhardt Sr. would maliciously crash Darrell Waltrip, or Cale Yarborough took to throwing punches with the Allison brothers.

No, this is the very definition of a friendly rivalry between two good friends. One who happens to be NASCAR’s most popular driver, while the other is a former Sprint Cup champion, who thanks to the benevolence of his current adversary got his big break in the sport.

Twice in 2014 Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski have gone head-to-head for the checkered flag in the final laps.

In March Keselowski went around Earnhardt on the final lap at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when the latter ran out of fuel. Earnhardt returned the favor by passing Keselowski with five laps remaining this past Sunday at Pocono Raceway. The two also squared off in the Daytona 500 with Earnhardt winning and Keselowski finishing fourth.

“There is a bit of a rivalry, whether either of us want to acknowledge it or not, between the two companies,” Keselowski said. “I think it’s sometimes been friendly and sometimes not been friendly. But that certainly puts us both in a unique position between a friendship and a competitor.”

Their relationship dates back to when Keselowski drove for Earnhardt in the Nationwide Series. It was Earnhardt who offered the then unknown Keselowski his first opportunity with a top-level team.

Provided with the chance to showcase his abilities, Keselowski reciprocated by giving Earnhardt some much needed stability after a revolving door of drivers failed to impress. In two full seasons Keselowski won six times and posted consecutive third-place points finishes.

Keselowski left JR Motorsports in 2010 to join Team Penske where he would win a Cup championship two years later. Since then Earnhardt and Keselowski’s relationship has evolved from boss/employee to its current bond of a strong friendship that just so happens to see the two as formidable challengers for the championship.

Although they are no longer on the same team and drive for competing manufacturers. the two remain close. In the aftermath of Pocono, Keselowski left a congratulatory beer for Earnhardt on his friend’s airplane. A gesture much appreciated as Earnhardt shared the act with his legion of Twitter followers.

And if he or Penske teammate Joey Logano can’t win, Keselowski is clear on who he wants to see celebrating in Victory Lane.

“I think he knows that if it’s not going to be me or my teammate there’s no one else I’d rather see win,” Keselowski said. “I think that’s something that he appreciates. I don’t know if he feels the same way.

While Earnhardt and Keselowski acknowledge there is a bit of a competition between themselves, the odds of that becoming more heated is suspect.

Unlike his father who thrived on making his competitors uncomfortable and would think nothing of using his front bumper to send a message, Earnhardt distances himself from engaging in any on-track theatrics.

Reserved and often soft-spoken, Earnhardt, almost to a fault, doesn’t make enemies on the track. Nor does he do anything off of it to create controversy, preferring to avoid engaging in the sort of feuds that his father seemed to relish instigating.

However, don’t take Earnhardt’s easygoing nature as a dismissal that he doesn’t enjoy racing against -- and beating -- Keselowski.

“We are good friends, and you hate to see a guy have to lose a race in a manner like that, but I’m excited that we won,” Earnhardt said Sunday. “I know that he would have definitely rather lost it to me than a few other guys out there that he’s not best of buddies with. ... As we race year after year, we become more competitors than we are friends, and that’s just the natural cycle of it.”

Beating his good friend also burns within Keselowski, who gets more out of receiving the upper hand over Earnhardt than he would someone who he doesn’t share a closeness.

As to whether he has an actual rivalry with Earnhardt, Keselowski wavers. By his definition a rivalry is more in line with the traditional sense -- Waltrip vs. Earnhardt, Yarborough vs. the Allisons.

But if by happenstance that competitiveness were to manifest into something with greater intensity, Keselowski wouldn’t object.

“I guess when I’ve always thought of rivalries, I’ve always thought of them as being unfriendly,” Keselowski said. “I wouldn’t mind racing Dale for a bunch of race wins and championships and that becoming a headline. That would be a lot of dang fun.

“I don’t know how that dynamic is going to grow or change. That’s a lesson in time, I guess. But I can’t wait to find out.”