Can Keselowski Repeat With a Ford in 2013?

Before the ink is dry in the newspapers reporting Keselowski winning 2012 Championship, 2013 is the topic (Getty)

Bettors could have had Brad Keselowski at 20-to-1 to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship at the beginning of the season and 8-to-1 prior to the Chase.

For 2013, bettors might be able to find odds on him to repeat at a higher number than most defending champions just because of the changes that will be occurring at Penske Racing. It’s hard enough to repeat as champ -- unless you’re Jimmie Johnson, but it’s even harder to perform well for teams changing over manufacturers and engines.

Dodge took the championship and closed up their NASCAR program forcing Penske to operate with two Fords next season. They’ll run Roush-Yates engines, but the combination of a new style of car that debuts next season, and then the changes internally add to Keselowski’s difficulty of repeating.

Everyone will be in the same boat with the changes, but just like we saw with Hendrick Motorsports when the Car of Tomorrow debuted, they’ll have a huge edge early on with technology, testing and money over the rest of the teams.

Keselowski will be pressed with questions about next season when he’s in Las Vegas at the Wynn for the NASCAR award ceremonies. He’ll be doing an hour on the NASCAR Live radio program in the Wynn sports book at 4 pm.

We really should leave him alone with talk of next year and just let him enjoy his moment, but after two weeks, we'll all be needing a bad fix of NASCAR, and talk of the upcoming season will be welcomed.