Brad Keselowski a wildly new champion for NASCAR

• New champion could give NASCAR an image makeover built around series' social media platform
• Driver tweets photo from cockpit, says he wants to date a celebrity
• Four-time champion Jeff Gordon says Keselowski will mature quickly

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- With the first Generation Y champion of its premier series, NASCAR is getting an image makeover unlike many seen during its 64-year history.

The new ambassador of a sport born of bootleggers and Southern-fried culture feels as comfortable with a smartphone as a steering wheel in his hand. He challenges authority with conviction and bares his soul to 334,000 (and counting) followers on Twitter on a daily basis.

The face of NASCAR is about to change.

So how will being the Sprint Cup champion change Brad Keselowski?

"I don't know, but I'm going to meet some cool people," he said. "I've always wanted to date a celebrity. Just throwing that out there. That'd be really cool, don't you think?"

So which one?

"Do I have to pick one?" he asked, pausing to smile as the interview room filled with laughter. "Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Not a Kardashian."

Keselowski delivered his first championship and the first for team owner Roger Penske in relatively unspectacular fashion Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway with his worst finish of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. But everything that followed his 15th-place result in the Ford EcoBoost 400 was an advertisement for the appealing impact the goofy yet digitally savvy and loquacious upstart could have on helping rebuild a fan base that has dwindled in recent years.

NASCAR has a five-year plan aimed at hooking a younger demographic with a heavier emphasis on technology and cutting-edge cultural touchstones, and Keselowski seems to live right in its sweet spot while also being uniquely qualified and eager to deliver its message as the eighth-youngest champion in Cup history. He needed 125 starts to win his first title — the fewest in 17 years, since Jeff Gordon won the first of four championships in 1995.

"He's someone who wants to take (an ambassador's role) and wants to be that," Gordon said. "And because of that, he'll put a lot of effort into it. He's entertaining. You never know what you're going to get with Brad."

Just consider his championship celebration Sunday.

Keselowski admitted to being slightly inebriated on national television, tweeted a photo from inside the cockpit within minutes of stopping his No. 2 Dodge and quoted Winston Churchill in victory lane.

"Expect the unexpected," Keselowski said. "That's my MO, right?"

After the driver bounded into the interview room still lugging a giant champagne bottle, team owner Roger Penske's first question to his driver was, "Did you bring your tweeter? That's all I want to know."

But it was a live appearance on ESPN that really had Penske smiling. Swigging a glass filled with his primary sponsor's product, Keselowski riled an enthusiastic crowd of fans.

"Make some noise," he screamed. "You're on SportsCenter."

"I saw him as a great driver, a good tactician," Penske said. "I didn't realize he was commercially viable."

In some ways, Keselowski already is becoming a transcendent marketing property. He received an inspirational voicemail the night before his big moment from Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. Former NFL star Chad Johnson and 1991 Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard attended the race to cheer for Keselowski.

Fellow Michigan native Kid Rock, who played a prerace concert and was the celebrity pace car driver, said "the young gun going up against the proven champion" had created an atmosphere of electricity unlike any he'd seen at a NASCAR race.

"I don't know if Brad can sing," Kid Rock said, "but maybe I'll cut a record, and he can tweet about it."

That might put Keselowski on TMZ as quickly as dating a Hollywood socialite or a hit-making diva would.

But chances are, NASCAR's new face also will become a more refined one, too.

"He'll just mature to a whole other level because of being in this position and carrying this responsibility," Gordon said. "Every champion I've ever seen win their first one, they always come out of it with a whole new perspective on past champions.

"It makes you grow up. If you're ready for it or not, it doesn't matter. It's there, and there's a lot to take in and really look at things a lot differently and recognize that responsibility you have. I think he'll do a very good job."