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<p>LONG POND &#8212; Brad Keselowski had to laugh at the PR-speak. When the announcement came Tuesday that he had agreed to a new deal to stay in the No. 2 car for Team Penske, the press release would reveal only that he would be there &#8220;well into the future.&#8221;</p><p>Just hearing the phrase again on Saturday made him grin.</p><p>&#8220; &#8216;Well into the future&#8217; means that some people hate when you say how many years,&#8221; the typically outspoken Keselowski joked. &#8220;I don&#8217;t particularly care, but they asked me not to. And because they pay the bills, I say, &#8216;Yes sir.&#8217; &#8221;</p><p>Probably a wise policy.</p><p>&#8220;I hope to be a race car driver at this level into my 40s, which is seven years from now,&#8221; Keselowski said. &#8220;I feel comfortable in saying that my contract is not for that long. So there&#8217;s no guarantee I&#8217;ll be at Penske the rest of my career. But hopefully when the next process comes up, I&#8217;ll have the opportunity to do so.&#8221;</p><p>It took some time for the two sides to hammer out the deal and make it official, but if it was any kind of a distraction this season, it hasn&#8217;t shown on the track. With two wins under his belt, Keselowski is a lock for the Chase and sits fourth in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup standings heading into Sunday&#8217;s Overton&#8217;s 400 at Pocono Raceway.</p><p>Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson each have three victories, but Keselowski has been as consistent as anyone on the circuit, recording a Cup-best 10 top-five finishes to go with 13 in the top 10.</p><p>Though it seemed likely Keselowski would remain with Penske, some questions arose as the summer moved along without a new deal. For his part, Keselowski was happy to have it done &#8212; not just for himself but for the job security of everyone on his team.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s certainly a good thing without a doubt &#8212; those (negotiations) are tough,&#8221; Keselowski said. &#8220;They never go as easily or as smoothly as you want them to go. The most important thing is that they&#8217;re done and we can look forward to a lot of stability.</p><p>&#8220;And that stability is important for a number of reasons. For me as a race car driver for a place to work and drive and pursue my passion. But more than that, there&#8217;s a place for 100 or so people who work on my team and 400 or so collectively at Team Penske who get to keep going and keep going. I&#8217;m happy for those guys.&#8221;</p><p>And many more jobs will be coming to Team Penske in the near future.</p><p>A day after Keselowski&#8217;s extension was announced, Penske revealed it would be adding a third car for 2018 as Ryan Blaney will join Keselowski and Joey Logano. Blaney earned his first career Cup victory last month at Pocono.</p><p>It will be the first time since 2010 that the team will field three cars.</p><p>&#8220;Hopefully it means more depth,&#8221; Keselowski said. &#8220;More ability to extend resources into engineering where you can make the car faster. The biggest battle we have now in motorsports is aerodynamics. Teams are pushing aerodynamics further and further in order to improve that.</p><p>&#8220;The more people you have, the more revenue you have, the more you can work in those areas with engineering tools or experiments to get better. &#8230; If it&#8217;s pulled off and executed in the right way, it should be a gain for everyone within Team Penske.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s a promising start to the team&#8217;s next phase as all three drivers are entering multi-year contracts.</p><p>Keselowski, who won a Cup championship in 2012, finished fifth in the June race at Pocono. That&#8217;s nothing new, as the 33-year-old now has seven top-five finishes in 15 career races at the track, including four in a row.</p><p>His lone victory there came in the second race back in 2011, his second season racing for Penske.</p><p>&#8220;In the time that Brad has driven for Team Penske, he has risen to the top echelon of stars in NASCAR,&#8221; co-owner Roger Penske said in a statement. &#8220;Brad and (crew chief Paul Wolfe) have established a terrific, winning combination and they are both real leaders within our team.</p><p>&#8220;More than just wins and championships, Brad is an important part of our relationship with Ford Performance and his work with Checkered Flag Foundation shows what kind of person he is away from the track. There is no question he continues to be a great fit for our organization.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Fresh off of signing a new contract, Brad Keselowski climbs into his car for practice for Sunday&#8217;s Overton&#8217;s 400 at Pocono Raceway. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_kes-pocono-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Fresh off of signing a new contract, Brad Keselowski climbs into his car for practice for Sunday&#8217;s Overton&#8217;s 400 at Pocono Raceway. </caption0><photoCredit0>Matt Slocum | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Brad Keselowski finds stability at Penske — and at Pocono