HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Kyle Busch will wrap up the Nationwide Series championship in Saturday's Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but the feud between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski has generated interest.
After the duo's latest dust-up in Phoenix last week, both drivers seem prepared to continue the battle in Saturday's season finale in South Florida.
"I can sit here and bash him for the next 20 seconds or so and give you all a bunch of sound bites and everything, but I'm just happy I signed up for next week's Nationwide race," Hamlin said last Saturday at PIR. "In turn there's a lot of guys that owe him, there's a lot of guys that have a lot of chips that they're going to cash in and I'm just going to be the first at the pay window."
While NASCAR sat down with Keselowski to discuss his sometimes aggressive driving style, Hamlin is content with handling things himself and not having the sanctioning body involved.
"Nah, nah I'll take care of him, it's no biggie," Hamlin said. "I got him. He'll learn the hard way. I run these races for fun and he's in it trying to get second in the points. He's going to run Sunday's and I'm racing for a Chase and he's racing to make sure he stays in his seat so I'm just going to do my job and if the opportunity arises I'm going to handle the situation the way I should and the way anybody else would."
Hamlin will be driving the CJM Racing No. 11 entry this weekend. Hamlin had two good runs in the No. 11 car at Watkins Glen and Michigan earlier in the 2009 season. In both races, he was a contender for the win until mechanical issues hampered his strong run.
Keselowski will make his final start for JR Motorsports before heading to the Cup Series full-time in 2010 for Penske Racing.
For the 21st consecutive week, Keselowski is ranked third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings, 60 points behind second place Carl Edwards. In 34 races this season, Keselowski and the No. 88 team have four wins, 22 top-fives, 28 top-10s and two pole awards.
"It has been an amazing year both for me and this No. 88 JR Motorsports team," he said. "I knew we had the potential and ability to get these four wins and top finishes all season, and it's been awesome to be able to actually do it. I can't thank everyone at JRM enough for all of the countless hours of hard work that's been put into this year.
"You can definitely tell that it's been a team effort all around. Even after I made my announcement a few months back that I would be moving on, nothing changed. Everyone continued to step up. We all wanted to get more wins and finish as well as possible at Homestead."
