Associated Press

Brad Keselowski will drive a full Cup schedule next season as a result of his decision to join Penske Racing.

Penske Racing's signing of Brad Keselowski continues the team's drive to hire young talent, but the decision to join wasn't easy for Keselowski, who relied on advice from his boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., to make the move.

Penske Racing announced Tuesday that the 25-year-old Keselowski will drive for its Cup and Nationwide teams beginning next year. He replaces David Stremme in Cup.

Tim Cindric, president of Penske Racing, said the team had signed Keselowski to a multi-year deal, leading to questions of if Keselowski will indeed stay at Penske rather than return to Hendrick Motorsports after next year.

Car owner Rick Hendrick, who tried to put together a deal to keep Keselowski in the Hendrick fold, said at Bristol that "wherever [Keselowski] goes, he'll always be close enough for me to get him and bring him back. Make sure all the other car owners know I said that."

Keselowski said he intends to "build a home" at Penske Racing. Keselowski also said that Earnhardt, his car owner in the Nationwide series, encouraged him to make this move.

"He brought up one of the good points that stuck with me when I made this decision," Keselowski said, "... and that was when you have the opportunity to grow and to take on new challenges and you're capable of conquering those challenges, you need to take it."

Keselowski ranks third in the Nationwide series standings and has three victories this season. He scored his first career Cup win in April by holding off Carl Edwards to win in what was only Keselowski's fifth start in that series at the time.

Keselowski's arrival sets Penske's Cup lineup for next year with Kurt Busch (age 31), Sam Hornish Jr. (30) and Keselowski (25). Penske's Nationwide program expands next year to have Keselowski and Justin Allgaier (23). Penske also has 19-year-old Parker Kligerman, who is second in the ARCA points standings, and last month signed 18-year-old Dakoda Armstrong, who will race full-time in ARCA next year.

"Last year, we decided that we really needed to build some guys for the future to where we've got a solid group coming forward," Cindric said. "We're trying to make sure we build for the future, but the main thing is to make sure we're competitive at the highest level."

End of streak

Erik Darnell will replace Bobby Labonte in seven of the next 12 races, including Sunday at Atlanta.

The move was made because Hall of Fame Racing had no sponsorship for some of those races and Darnell, a Roush Fenway Racing development driver, has sponsorship.

Lost among the move is that it ends Labonte's streak of 568 consecutive starts -- second-longest among active drivers. Only Jeff Gordon at 569 consecutive starts has a longer stretch among active drivers. Ricky Rudd owns the all-time record of 788 consecutive starts.

Labonte, who ranked eighth on the all-time consecutive start streak, had not missed a Cup start since moving to the circuit full-time in 1993.

Chase race

Two races remain until the Chase field is set. Only Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have clinched spots. To clinch a spot this weekend at Atlanta, a driver must leave with at least a 196-point lead on the driver in 13th-place in the points. Kyle Busch is in 13th in points, yet trails seventh-place Ryan Newman by only 84 points.

Four wide

ZMax Dragway officials announced that for the first time in NHRA history Top Fuel and Funny Cars will run four-wide on the Concord, N.C., track's four lanes in an exhibition event before the event finals of the Carolinas Nationals on Sept. 20. That's about 28,000 horsepower unleashed at once.

Pit stops

Attempting to again end speculation, Richard Childress Racing issued its second news release in the last month that Kevin Harvick and Shell will return to the team for next season. ... Nine Grand-Am Road Racing teams will test the road courses at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday to see which would be best for a possible future race there.