On Tuesday afternoon NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Brad Keselowski participated in a media function at WIX Filters headquarters in Gastonia, North Carolina. Keselowski leads Joey Logano by four races (7-3) in the overall WIX Filters Lap Leader standings in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He is third in the series championship standings, 132 points behind leader Clint Bowyer and 19 behind second-place Carl Edwards. The following is a transcript of his question-and-answer session.

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 88 NAVY CHEVROLET: HOW DID YOUR RELATIONSHIP DEVELOP WITH WIX FILTERS? “Relationships with actual car parts or manufactures are very important, I think, to NASCAR. They kind of go back more of the roots where you look at how NASCAR was founded, with gasoline companies supporting them. WIX is one of those companies that has survived, I think, the loss of a lot of the auto manufactures, a lot of the identification that there is between automobiles and racing. When you look at the COT car and how it doesn’t necessarily look like an actual street car and some of those things that have gone on over the process of last few decades, you know, it’s good to see that a company like WIX is still there and still supporting NASCAR in the true sense that I think everyone is used to.” WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO WIN THE WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD THIS SEASON? “I think Joey Logano is second with three so I’ve got a four-race lead. I guess I just need to keep up what I’m doing. That’d be cool. That’s a nice looking trophy. I don’t have many cool looking trophies like that [laughter]. Be nice to have some.” COMMENT ON WHO YOU THINK YOU’LL HAVE TO BEAT FOR THE NATIONWIDE SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP. “Looks like Carl’s going to be the guy to beat. We’ll see. They’ve really stepped it up over the last two or three weeks. That’s going to be tough. Carl and Clint are both really good drivers. I think we can do it. We’ve just got to put our heads down to it and really think about it, really work hard. I think we’re all equal, the Chevrolets and the Fords. It comes down to who executes the best. It’s going to come down to people, who makes the right decisions whether that’s in the car or out of the car. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO GO FOR TOP-10s OR TOP-FIVES? “Realistically I think we probably need to finish in the top-10. We need to average about an eighth-place finish or better through the rest of the year to do it so whatever that takes. If that means you win one week and finish 13th the next, I’m not going to say that I need to finish in the top-10 every week. Basically, we need to average an eighth-place finish or so and I think we can do it.” WOULD YOU LIKE TO STAY IN THE NATIONWIDE SERIES FOR ANOTHER YEAR? “I went home to Michigan Sunday and Monday and thought about that a lot. I want to say yeah, I want to stay in the Nationwide Series. I’m going to run full-time in the Nationwide Series next year. I think it’s the right move. They Sprint Cup Series is so tough. I look at Dale and Dale stayed for two years and I think it worked out for him. There’s other drivers that I guess could be counterpoint to that but I like the group of guys that I’ve got and I couldn’t leave ‘em behind, I couldn’t do it. I feel strongly about that. The sponsor situation, which I think we’re going to be okay with our team. I’m confident we’re going to be okay but if I didn’t stay for a whole year maybe we wouldn’t. I feel like I owe it Dale, I owe it to JR Motorsports.” DO YOU THINK JOEY LOGANO WOULD BE TAKING A RISK IF HE MOVES UP TO CUP NEXT YEAR? “He’s good, he’s really talented, he could probably make it. If there was one team you’d want to do it with that’d be it, the 20 team with Greg Zipadelli. There is a risk but it’s a small one. I think he’ll do good.” DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT BE COMPETING IN SOME SPRINT CUP RACES? “We have some numbers on that. We’re just not ready to tell you that.” YOU ARE A MICHIGAN NATIVE. COMMENT ON THE DETROIT ECNONOMY. YOU SEEM VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THAT. “Well, it’s very obvious, like I said, when I go home and I travel down a road that used to have traffic jams every day and there’s no traffic on it anymore. It’s like where did everybody go? The last one out turns the lights off. There’s nobody there. It’s kind of scary. It’s really scary. It’s not very cool. The economy is what it is. A few racers ain’t going to change it but what we can do to support American manufacturers we’re going to do.”

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