Brad Keselowski: Cup driver in training

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on Friday that he would consider taking his JR Motorsports team to the Sprint Cup Series level for next season.

It appears he's already got the driver that's got the routine down pat.

Earnhardt's Nationwide Series driver Brad Keselowski apparently is under the impression that you don't have to accomplish much of anything to be treated like royalty in one of NASCAR's top series. In 46 career Nationwide starts, Keselowski has exactly zero wins and an average finish of worse than 24th.

That's not stopping him from acting like a big-time driver with big-time credentials.

"The problem I run into with Brad Keselowski is that he watches and sees how I act and thinks that’s how he can act," Earnhardt said. "But I’ve earned the ability or the right to be a little bit of jerk every once in a while and the thinks he can come in right off the bat and be one. And so I have to tell him, man, you can’t be like that you know, you got to earn it."

It seems the 24-year-old driver who has only 9 top-10 finishes in his Nationwide career doesn't like being told by his crew chief how the race is going to play out. And he doesn't like having setups determined for him.

Oh yeah -- and pity PR rep Annette Randall, because he doesn't like to carry his own firesuit, either. That kind of stuff is beneath him.

"People ain’t going to like you just coming in, 7 months into the deal, and you’re complaining all the time," Earnhardt. "You’ve got to suck it up for a little while. It’s no fun. But after about four or five years, you can start kind of being more demanding and calling your shots a whole lot more and saying ‘no’ a whole lot more often.

"But he wants a PR person that’ll carry his uniform around for him and things like that right now, and he’s got to wait a couple of years before he gets that."

Earnhardt, though, has thought about taking the team to the Cup level in 2009 -- with or without Keselowski.

"If the right opportunity comes along with the right sponsorship and driver, we’d love to do it," Earnhardt said. "And it would cost the same amount of money to do that as it is to run the Nationwide Series. It’s harder to get sponsorships (for the Nationwide Series). And the COT program is going to be too expensive for me to justify creating a whole new program with COT stuff, so I’d just as soon go into the Cup Series or get out of the Nationwide Series altogether."

It could be a cool, calculated move by Earnhardt to air his driver's dirty laundry for the media. Comments like his about Keselowski are certain to be blown up and run in print around the country, and maybe -- just maybe -- Earnhardt is hoping they will help to curb any attitude adjustment the youngster might need if he is going to move up with JR Motorsports.

After all, if there's one thing Earnhardt's good at, it's being himself. Just a good, ol' regular joe in NASCAR clothing.

Keselowski would do well to be the same -- whether he's got to carry that clothing himself or not.