Well, it's official......

I just checked today on NASCAR.com and Brad is leaving JR Motorsports for Penske Racing next year. The first one, I think, is more to reasure fans that there are no hard feeling between Junebug and Brad. As to who will be taking Brad's place, there are still rumors that Kelly Bires will be in the 88 next year, but as usual, I won't post anything until those rumors are confirmed as true or false.

Earnhardt's advice helped Keselowski join Penske

Brad Keselowski will admit, it was the hardest decision he's ever had to make. But having the blessing of Dale Earnhardt Jr. made it a little easier.

Keselowski, the sought-after NASCAR phenom who won a Sprint Cup race at Talladega earlier this season in a part-time car, has signed a multi-year contract to compete for Penske Racing, beginning in 2010.

The deal puts Keselowski in Roger Penske's No. 12 Sprint Cup car, where he will replace current driver David Stremme, as well as in a new, full-time Nationwide Series ride where he will compete as a teammate to Justin Allgaier.

"I want to be the guy that comes to Penske Racing and gets them their first NASCAR championship. I want to be that guy," Keselowski said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. "For everything that's been accomplished here, that's the one thing that's missing, and I want to be the guy that gets it done."

And yet, the decision to take the Penske offer was far from a simple one for Keselowski, who's been tied to Earnhardt's JR Motorsports Nationwide team -- and, by extension, Rick Hendrick's juggernaut Cup Series operation -- for most of his career at NASCAR's national levels. Keselowski talked with Hendrick about potentially finding a place at Hendrick Motorsports, something that would allow him to continue to compete for JR Motorsports, but eventually became impossible given the four-car limit NASCAR has placed on organizations in its premier division.

Penske's courtship of Keselowski, a fellow Michigander, was no secret. But after Keselowski's stock rose following his victory at Talladega in April, Hendrick asked for a few months to try to find a place for him. Given his existing relationship with the Hendrick camp, Keselowski obliged, and said Penske fully understood. Within the last month, though, it became clear that Hendrick wouldn't have room, and Keselowski accepted the Penske offer.

"He worked as hard as he could," Keselowski said of Hendrick. "He told me something that I thought was pretty interesting, that he worked much harder on my deal than he ever had to work on Jimmie [Johnson's] or Jeff [Gordon's] or any of them trying to find a way to keep me in the camp. It became obvious that it just wasn't in the cards. Too many things were going against us with the team limit and so forth, and this opportunity [with Penske] was sitting there."

Keselowski will replace Stremme, who hasn't finished better than 13th this season. Keselowski, a third-generation driver, has three Nationwide victories this year in addition to his Cup Series triumph. He is also currently third in Nationwide points driving for JR Motorsports, the Earnhardt-owned organization that gave him his big break when it hired Keselowski for what began as a three-race tryout in 2007. They've won five races together since.

"Without a doubt, the hardest part was leaving JR Motorsports," Keselowski said. "But what made it easier for me was to have Dale's blessing to do it. Without it, it would have been much harder to do. And Dale, make no mistake, was the catalyst for my career, the one who called me up and said he believed in me even though other people within his company didn't. He's the one who took the risk, financially and with his reputation, to put me in that car, and I'm eternally grateful to him for that."

In the end, it was Earnhardt who encouraged Keselowski to take the Penske opportunity. The two drivers recently had a conversation in which Earnhardt advised Keselowski to go where he had the opportunity to grow.

"He was actually one of the people who pushed me fairly hard to take this deal," Keselowski said. "As surprising as that might be to some of the people or the fans or the media, he brought up one of the good points that stuck with me when I made this decision, which was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life. And that was, when you have the opportunity to grow, and take on new challenge, and you're capable of conquering those challenges, you need to take it. You need to grow when you have the opportunity to grow, not only in your career but as a person. This is a great opportunity for me to grow."

And now, that the decision has finally been made?

"I feel like a lot of weight has been lifted off my shoulders," he said. "It's been a lot to carry around for the last couple of months. ... I feel a huge relief. I'm ready to dig my hands in deep in the dirt and get it going."