Brad Keselowski is a Hendrick Motorsports driver! Yes, this was reality back in 2008 when Rick Hendrick offered Keselowski a contract to run part-time in 2010 and then a full-time schedule in 2011. However, this move never materialized, as Mr. H wanted another driver who was close to him to run in place of Keselowski. And this move certainly left the driver hanging despite having a contract to his name.

This was the story that the 2012 Cup Series champion himself shared via the Happy Hour podcast. At the time, Keselowski was competing in the Xfinity Series with JRM and was doing really well. As far as the driver was concerned, he had signed the contract but just didn’t want to announce it to break the rhythm of his team, who were competing for the championship. But what was the reason that persuaded Rick Hendrick to snub Keselowski, despite his good credentials as a race car driver?

Mr. H wanted Mark Martin to race for him instead of Brad Keselowski

Keselowski could’ve potentially secured his seat at HMS had he made the announcement official. But he didn’t want to halt the good run he was having with his Xfinity Series team. And despite having the contract in hand in 2008, he decided to sit on the contract and announce when the time was right.

“When you tell a team what the end is, they start to fragment really quickly, and I knew that at time. So I didn’t want that kind of out there because I knew my Xfinity team would fall apart. So just sit on this, and when the time is right, we’ll do an announcement, sometime in the middle to end of 2009, that was the plan.” Keselowski said.

However, he wasn’t able to shine the brightest in the cameo runs he had with the fifth team at HMS. Yes, he sort of gave an audition, and little did he know at the time that Mark Martin was also in the running for a seat at Hendrick Motorsports. A P38 at Vegas and a P23 at Texas certainly brought his stock down. Meanwhile, Martin, who was running a full schedule, registered a win at Phoenix, and this really shifted the scales in his balance.

Unfortunately, Rick Hendrick had made up his mind and decided to stick with Martin. Keselowski, during the show, further explained how Mr. H broke the disappointing news to him. “He says, I want to talk to you about something. I’m not going to move forward with your contract. Okay, this is a big 180; he’s like Mark Martin means a lot to me, and he’s running well and I think he wants to stay, and I’m going to give him every opportunity to stay. That means there’s no room here for you.”

As soon as this story came to light, a few fans started criticizing Mr. H over how he broke his promise despite the contract. But Brad Keselowski was having none of it and quickly cleared the air about foul play on Mr. H’s part.

Meanwhile Keselowski keeps the online trolls at bay

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It is hard to argue that Rick Hendrick has always been supportive of upcoming drivers and talents in NASCAR. And by all means, his call and intuition, as always, were accurate. That year, in 2009, Martin came close to winning his first-ever championship. But the NASCAR gods never smiled at him, and for the fifth time, he ended up in the runner-up position.

Although, back then, the missed opportunity to run at HMS pricked like a thorn for Keselowski, he would go on to achieve new heights in his NASCAR career. After departing from JRM, he joined Team Penske and won his first Xfinity Series championship. And he conquered NASCAR’s highest peak, winning the Cup Series in 2012.

Therefore, clearing any confusion and doubts surrounding the event, Keselowski took to his X account and wrote, “Mark M. and Rick H. didn’t screw anyone. I’m happy with how my career has turned out. This moment was just an unexpected turn that makes for a fun story of what-ifs. That’s all.”

To be fair, it was all perfect how it all turned out in the end. Because the fans surely wouldn’t want to miss the epic rivalry of Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski. Along with the high-voltage brawl between the two at Texas Motor Speedway in 2009.