Rochester Hills Driver Keselowski Wins NASCAR's Championship

A NASCAR driver who grew up in Rochester Hills clinched the Sprint Cup championship Sunday in Florida.

Brad Keselowski finished ahead of five-time champion Jimmie Johnson to win the sport's coveted cup; it was his first championship.

The Cup is considered the season championship for the sport.

Keselowski, 28, finished fifth in the Sprint Cup race last year. From his Penske team Miller Lite Dodge Charger, Keselowski took to Twitter moments after the win, tweeting "We did it!" from his @keselowski account (he has more than 334,000 followers).

"Always, throughout my whole life I've been told I'm not big enough, not fast enough, not strong enough and I don't have what it takes," said Keselowski on stage after the race, according to a report on ESPN.com. "I've used that as a chip on my shoulder to carry me through my whole career. It took until this year for me to realize that that was right, man, they were right.

"I'm not big enough, fast enough, strong enough. No person is. Only a team can do that."

Keselowski comes from a racing family: his dad, Bob Keselowski, and his uncle, Ron Keselowski, were drivers. Brad Keselowski began racing at age 14. He is a Rochester High School alum.

Most national media reports of the win — including a story in the New York Times — mentioned Keselowski being from "Detroit."

But Kid Rock got it right.

The Detroit Free Press mentioned Keselowski in the same breath as Kid in a story Sunday. "Kid Rock and Brad Keselowski - two rebels from the Motor City," the story began. Kid reportedly performed a pre-race concert at the Florida track and stated "Rochester Hills - Brad's my man," the newspaper reported.