by Lee Spencer

Keselowski, who is currently third in the Nationwide Series point standings, is enjoying the final year of his current contract at JR Motorsports. The 25-year-old Rochester Hills, Mich. native met with Hendrick to talk about his Sprint Cup options for next season.

"They've got a great program and they got me to where I'm at," Keselowski said. "They also can help me going forward."

Keselowski won his first career Sprint Cup race at Talladega in April driving for Phoenix Racing and his third NNS race at Dover last month. He currently leads the NNS tour among drivers not competing full-time in Cup — although he will drive the No. 09 Chevrolet for James Finch this weekend.

While there are currently no Cup vacancies in house at Hendrick Motorsports, there could be other opportunities with Stewart-Haas Racing, Phoenix Racing or with his current employer JR Motorsports — all of which receive technical support in chassis and engines from Hendrick — until a seat opens at HMS. Although Keselowski never assumed the No. 5 Chevrolet would be available to him before Mark Martin's decision to continue racing, there has been speculation in the garage that he would be considered a strong candidate down the road.

When it comes to specifics, Keselowski carefully guards his words: "The more I talk about it, the more it hurts my chances," he said. "It's like killing it."

Keselowski admits there are a lot of pieces that are out of his control, with sponsorship being "the biggest piece."

Hendrick admitted at Michigan that the company had re-signed Kellogg's and Carquest for next season, but sources intimated that the support is nowhere near what it had been in the past. Hendrick would lock in his four primary drivers before securing sponsorship for an outside car. However, Keselowski appeals to the 20-something market which is a sector that is not satisfied with any of the current HMS racers.

More from Lee Spencer at the track: Nationwide Series doubles the fun | Regan Smith gets second chance at Loudon

Passing with flying colors

With eight wins to their credit this season, Hendrick Motorsports-powered cars have dominated the Sprint Cup landscape despite NASCAR placing a moratorium on testing.

Three-time defending Sprint Cup Series champ Jimmie Johnson, who is currently third in the point standings, feels the effort Hendrick put into its homework has enabled the company to build a technological advantage over the field. Had the organization not been able to test during his title run last year, Johnson admits, "it would have been a long time before we would have recovered."

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"We tested 26 times last year to get it right and to be competitive for the Chase," Johnson said."If last year happened to us this year, we would just be stunned. We'd be struggling to find what we needed to catch up.

"This year we've done a good job, but next year there's no telling what will happen."

Johnson would prefer to have the garage chasing him and his HMS teammates. Although the Race to the Chase starts this weekend — the final 10-race stretch until the start of NASCAR's playoffs — don't expect Johnson to change his winning strategy.

"Last year we had to overcome a lot of bonus points for the Chase, so my feeling on the bonus points and the importance of them has kind of gone down some," said Johnson, who has already amassed 20 bonus points this year. "I think as we get closer to the Chase, people will start taking more risks and focus on those opportunities."

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