Keselowski to race an Indy car? "Right now I’m just peeking"

Keselowski spent two hours on Wednesday testing the IndyCar ride of fellow Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud at Road America. He received rave reviews from Team Penske President Tim Cindric and almost immediately speculation began on his future plans in open-wheel racing.

The Indy 500/Coke 600 double

“We were probably two or two-and-a-half seconds off – which on big track like that is terrible. I felt like if I tested all day, though, I could get there,” Keslowski said Friday at Iowa Speedway, where he is competing in Sunday’s Xfinity Series race. “And I only ran two hours – it was my first time.”

Asked if he could see himself attempting the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 double in the future, Keslowski remained coy: “I wouldn’t say yes or no. I would just say, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

Keselowski said Cup driver Kurt Busch’s recent appearance in the Indy 500 – finishing sixth in the 2014 event despite no prior IndyCar experience – would give anyone the incentive to find out what was possible.

Where the test came from

The idea of the test came just over a month ago when team owner Roger Penske asked Keselowski if he seriously would like to test with one of the IndyCar teams. He said he had “no hesitation” in accepting the invitation.

“It was a great opportunity. I don’t know where it’s going to go. It’s one of those things, you open a door and see what’s on the other side. And you don’t know if you’re going to walk through that door, or just take a peek in,” Keselowski said.

“Right now I’m just peeking – that’s kind of where I’m at. Once you look through it you want to go further. I think the key thing for me is I have great opportunity now at the Cup level and I have no intentions of quitting my day job.”

Test preparation  

Still, Keselowski made the most of the time before the test preparing himself for whatever he might find.

He spent hours on simulators and also gained 20 pounds in weight in anticipation of the greater upper body strength required by open wheel drivers.

“It’s never quite like the simulator stuff, I can tell you that. I thought it went really well. It obviously took a little while to get up to speed. We had two hours and I felt like in the end I started to catch on,” he said.

Asked if he was involved in any on-track incidents, he said: “I definitely used a few curbs up. I slid sideways one time, I was going into a corner and I got in really deep – and I was like, ‘This feels really good’- and my head pad came off. I couldn’t see, it caught my head and the wind catches your head and just jammed it down. So, I just locked the brakes up and stopped right there where I was.”