Keselowski officially to Penske in 2010

On Tuesday morning, Penske Racing announced one of the worst kept secrets of the 2009 Silly Season: Brad Keselowski will run the No. 12 Dodge in 2010, according to multiple sources.

Our View This appears to be a one-year deal while Mark Martin runs his final season with Hendrick Motorsports. Don't be surprised to see him land in the No. 5 in 2011 with the possibility that Justin Allgaier could graduate into Cup that same year.

More Cup newsbreakers

N'Wide: Logano leads Chicagoland practice 1

Joey Logano posted the fastest single lap in the first Nationwide Series practice, with a speed of 173.947 mph.

Our View: This session was dominated by Claim Jumpers, but Nationwide Regulars including Steve Wallace in fourth and Justin Allgaier in fifth.

Complete Results

N'Wide: Allgaier crashes in Milwaukee practice

Justin Allgaier has crashed hard in practice at the Milwaukee Mile and will be forced to roll out a backup car, according to a tweet from @NASCAR_NNS.

Our View: Allgaier was in fast equipment and his backup is likely to be just as strong, but as is nearly always the case in these situations, his odds have slipped slightly.

More Nationwide Newsbreakers

N'Wide: Kentucky lineup, with avg. start/fin

Qualification at Kentucky Speedway was about perfection. Joey Logano won last year's edition of this race from the pole and he's picking up where he left off. He'll lead the field to green with a lap of 174.865 mph and should be considered one of the favorites to win Saturday night.

The only other driver in his league was teammate Kyle Busch, who had the other car that broke the 174 mph mark. That gives Joe Gibbs Racing a perfect sweep of the front row and these two drivers will be each other's toughest competition.

The next four spots were all taken by rookies—which is as close to perfection as they are likely to find in their first year. Justin Allgaier qualified third, Michael Annett is fourth, Erik Darnell is fifth and Brendan Gaughan will start sixth.

Lineup, with average start/finish

Start	Driver	Avg. Fin	Avg. Start	Attempts
1	Joey Logano	1.00	1.00	2
2	Kyle Busch	14.67	5.00	4
3	Justin Allgaier		3.00	1
4	Michael Annett		4.00	1
5	Erik Darnell		5.00	1
6	Brendan Gaughan		6.00	1
7	Ricky Stenhouse Jr		7.00	1
8	Trevor Bayne		8.00	1
9	Brad Keselowski	4.00	11.00	2
10	Carl Edwards	22.50	9.40	5
11	Jason Leffler	19.25	16.20	5
12	Stephen Leicht	5.50	15.00	3
13	Steve Wallace	16.67	13.25	4
14	John Wes Townley		14.00	1
15	Scott Lagasse Jr		15.00	1
16	Jason Keller	16.57	11.63	8
17	Bobby Hamilton Jr	22.33	10.57	7
18	Burney Lamar	25.50	20.33	3
19	Kevin Hamlin	21.00	24.00	2
20	Kenny Wallace	23.33	23.71	7
21	Mike Bliss	12.75	14.40	5
22	Mark Green	23.50	28.00	5
23	Michael McDowell		23.00	1
24	Shelby Howard	27.00	21.50	2
25	Brandon Whitt		25.00	1
26	Chris Horn	38.33	37.25	4
27	Kevin Conway		27.00	1
28	Derrike Cope	31.00	31.50	2
29	Morgan Shepherd	42.25	32.60	5
30	Scott Wimmer	6.40	19.33	6
31	Johnny Chapman	36.00	34.00	2
32	Kenny Hendrick	26.33	33.75	4
33	Danny O'Quinn Jr	30.50	17.00	3
34	Brad Baker	18.00	38.50	2
35	Stanton Barrett	30.50	30.00	5
36	Ken Butler III		36.00	1
37	Eric McClure	34.33	38.25	4
38	Tony Raines	8.50	29.40	5
39	Chad Blount	22.00	30.50	2
40	Mike Harmon	38.67	34.50	4
41	Brian Keselowski	35.00	38.50	2
42	Kelly Bires	13.00	26.33	3
43	Justin Hobgood	38.00	32.00	2
DNQ	Jeff Green	31.00	2.00	1
DNQ	J C Stout
DNQ	Benny Gordon
DNQ	Blake Bjorkland
DNQ	Kevin Lepage	18.00	24.50	2
DNQ	Travis Kittleson

More Nationwide Newsbreakers

Penske may add 4th team

According to Jayski.com, Penske Racing South is considering adding a fourth Cup team with Justin Allgaier as a part time pilot.

Our View: With so many Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series, it's been a while since the Cup guys have seemed to have a developmental plan in place. Allgaier will be a good value in selected events—not because of his talent, but due to the strength of this organization.

Week 21 Unified Power Rankings

Jenson Button won the Spanish Grand Prix, which was his fourth Formula 1 victory in five starts, and by virtue of dominating that series, he remains firmly in control of the "highly-scientific" Unified Power Rankings.* What makes this more impressive still, is that he's doing so with a team that was not favored to run well at the start of the season because they are new to the series.

Teammate Rubens Barrichello finished second in last week's battle in Spain, which allowed him to pad his advantage over the remainder of the field. Barrichello was mildly upset that he was not allowed the opportunity to win after team strategy was altered mid-race that favored Button.

Meanwhile, the NASCAR boys continue to run strong and take up most of the remaining top-10 spots. Tony Stewart's third-place finish at Darlington was enough to keep him third on the Unified Power Rankings grid, while Jeff Gordon's fifth-place finish allowed him to leapfrog Kurt Busch into fourth.

The Indy Racing League has not yet run five races this season, which is the minimum required for inclusion to this list, so none of their drivers will be included until after the Indy 500.

Three drivers, Mark Webber, Mark Martin and Fernando Alonso jumped nine positions between last week and this week to become the biggest gainers.

Justin Allgaier's impressive fifth-place finish in the Nationwide Darlington race allowed him to leap onto the grid in 45th, which Nick Heidfeld scored a seventh in the Spanish Grand Prix to sneak into 50th.

Unified Power Rankings

Rank	Driver	Competition Points	Last week	+/-
1	Jenson Button	107.80	1	0
2	Rubens Barrichello	96.00	2	0
3	Tony Stewart	92.92	3	0
4	Jeff Gordon	90.82	5	1
5	Kurt Busch	89.55	4	-1
6	Denny Hamlin	82.50	7	1
7	Jason Leffler	82.20	10	3
8	Jimmie Johnson	81.73	12	4
9	Timo Glock	81.60	6	-3
10	Ryan Newman	81.38	13	3
11	Ron Hornaday Jr	80.80	9	-2
12	Jeff Burton	78.94	14	2
13	Kyle Busch	78.52	8	-5
14	Mark Webber	78.40	23	9
15	Carl Edwards	78.33	11	-4
16	Greg Biffle	77.40	16	0
17	Sebastian Vettel	77.20	24	7
18	Matt Kenseth	76.76	19	1
19	Juan Montoya	74.36	17	-2
20	Mark Martin	73.83	29	9
21	Fernando Alonso	73.80	30	9
22	Clint Bowyer	73.14	15	-7
23	Brad Keselowski	72.73	28	5
24	Brian Vickers	72.38	20	-4
25	Kevin Harvick	72.00	27	2
26	Dale Earnhardt Jr	71.80	21	-5
27	Matt Crafton	71.80	25	-2
28	David Reutimann	71.40	22	-6
29	Kasey Kahne	70.00	26	-3
30	Jason Keller	69.60	31	1
31	Joey Logano	69.50	34	3
32	Mike Skinner	67.33	36	4
33	David Ragan	67.00	32	-1
34	Johnny Benson Jr	67.00	37	3
35	Marcos Ambrose	66.18	33	-2
36	Lewis Hamilton	65.20	39	3
37	Nico Rosberg	65.20	40	3
38	Martin Truex Jr	64.73	45	7
39	Jarno Trulli	64.00	18	-21
40	Casey Mears	63.91	35	-5
41	Reed Sorenson	63.73	41	0
42	Scott Lagasse Jr	63.70	38	-4
43	Steve Wallace	63.60	43	0
44	Regan Smith	63.00	42	-2
45	Justin Allgaier	62.60	NR
46	Jamie McMurray	61.55	44	-2
47	Chad McCumbee	61.20	47	0
48	Brendan Gaughan	60.90	46	-2
49	A J Allmendinger	60.82	50	1
50	Nick Heidfeld	60.80	NR

The Unified Power Rankings are based on "percentage points." Starting with a 100 score for the winner of a Nationwide race, each subsequent position is decremented by a percentage that relates to the number of drivers in the field. In a 50-car field of potential qualifiers, the second-place driver receives 98 points, third-place gets 96 points, the 43rd-place driver gets 16 points (because he beat eight other driver to even get into the field) and so on until the last non-qualifier in 50th-place gets two points.

Only races run in the last three months count in this formula.

The Cup, IRL and Formula 1 series start at 110 points for a victory (since its so difficult to win one of these races) and then decrements 1/50th of 110 points for each subsequent position. It’s an unscientific way to determine who is the best in their series, while simultaneously trying to compare apples to oranges.

Previous Unified Power Rankings:

Week 20

Diamond Hill Plywood 200 Results

Kyle Busch dominated the Diamond Hill Plywood 200, but he was denied the victory in the closing laps because of a cut tire from debris from a Scott Lagasse Jr. / Joe Nemechek crash late in the event. The accident occurred with two laps remaining.

Matt Kenseth was chasing him down at the time, however, and they would have had a heck of a battle.

Finish	Start	Driver	Laps	Laps Led	Status
1	6	Matt Kenseth	153	4	Running
2	7	Jason Leffler	153		Running
3	3	Carl Edwards	153	5	Running
4	5	Erik Darnell	153		Running
5	16	Justin Allgaier	153		Running
6	2	Ryan Newman	153		Running
7	19	Mike Bliss	153		Running
8	9	Jeff Burton	153		Running
9	31	Scott Wimmer	153		Running
10	10	Brian Vickers	153		Running
11	8	Brad Keselowski	153		Running
12	4	Joey Logano	153		Running
13	24	Scott Speed	153		Running
14	14	Steve Wallace	153		Running
15	11	Jason Keller	153		Running
16	1	Kyle Busch	153	143	Running
17	23	Patrick Carpentier	153		Running
18	17	Kenny Wallace	153		Running
19	15	Brendan Gaughan	152		Running
20	21	Brian Scott	152		Running
21	18	Tony Raines	152	1	Running
22	13	Scott Lagasse Jr	152		Running
23	32	Jeff Green	151		Running
24	29	Brian Keselowski	151		Running
25	30	Brandon Whitt	150		Running
26	25	Kevin Hamlin	150		Running
27	28	Danny O'Quinn Jr	150		Running
28	27	Eric McClure	149		Running
29	20	Michael Annett	149		Running
30	26	Jeff Fuller	148		Running
31	33	Morgan Shepherd	148		Running
32	22	Joe Nemechek	142		Accident
33	12	Michael McDowell	140		Running
34	35	John Wes Townley	117		Throttle
35	37	Kevin Lepage	57		Accident
36	36	Kenny Hendrick	54		Accident
37	43	Mike Harmon	36		Brakes
38	38	Travis Kittleson	19		Overheating
39	40	Mark Green	17		Quit
40	39	Kertus Davis	15		Quit
41	41	Terry Cook	13		Quit
42	42	Johnny Chapman	12		Quit
43	34	Casey Atwood	11		Transmission

Nationwide regulars run strong at Darlington

A Cup veteran, Matt Kenseth may have won the Diamond Hill Plywood 200, but Nationwide Regulars acquitted themselves well. Jason Leffler finished second, rookie Erik Darnell was fourth, rookie Justin Allgaier was fifth, Mike Bliss was seventh and Scott Wimmer came home in 10th.

Our View: It's been quite some time before three Nationwide Regulars finished in the top five and since these drivers command a lower salary cap, fantasy owners got a lot of bang for their buck.