Bob Keselowski knows he should have gone south years ago. It would have been good for business, in his case, NASCAR Trucks series racing.

Most teams in the closely fought series are located in North Carolina or Tennessee, with a few in Ohio, Missouri and Nevada. But family came first with Keselowski, and he had no intention of leaving his mother, Roberta, who is 83 and lives in the Detroit suburb of Troy, Mich., or his family-operated race shop in Lake Orion, Mich., about 20 minutes away.

“It gets pretty difficult running NASCAR in Michigan,” said Keselowski, 54, an ARCA veteran and former NASCAR Trucks series driver.

“I looked at some buildings in the South, but I just had a hard time leaving. I’ve been in the Detroit area all my life. My mother lives a mile from me.”

Keselowski co-owns K Automotive Motorsports, which has been winning stock-car races around the Midwest for more than 40 years. He and his brother, Ron, took the business over from their late father, John, a short-track racer in his day. Ron ran a season in 1970 in the NASCAR Grand National Division, finishing fourth at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

Saturday, Keselowski will enter the No. 29 Ford F-150 in the Paramount Health Insurance 200 at MIS. Son Brad will be at the wheel, with Bob calling the shots as crew chief and Ron working as assistant crew chief.

Brad Keselowski, front, stands near his 2005 Ford racing truck with his family, clockwise from top left, Kathy Samborski, Kay Keselowski, Ginger Hoffman, Brian Keselowski and Bob Keselowski at the K Automotive Mototsports race shop. Brad will race the truck in the Paramount Health Insurance 200 NASCAR Trucks series race Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.

Also on hand will be Bob’s wife, Kay Keselowski, who co-owns the race truck and spots for the team, and their daughters Ginger, Kathy and Dawn.

“Family is more important than racing,” Bob Keselowski said Monday. “I wanted to keep the family together.”

Had Keselowski relocated to North Carolina, for example, he would have had better access to engine builders, fabricators, tracks and sponsors. Instead, he is doing the best he can here, which is pretty good, nevertheless.

Brad, 21, is a NASCAR Trucks sophomore. He currently is 19th in points, just behind Bill Lester and ahead of well-financed drivers like Todd Kluever, Robert Huffman, Brendan Gaughan and Chase Montgomery.

“We’d like to be doing a whole lot better, but we’ve been on a tight budget, and we’ve had to be conservative,” said Bob Keselowski, who posted the team’s first truck victory at Richmond in 1997. “But Brad is keeping us alive in points.”

Brad Keselowski finished 20th Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. Dad thought it a solid effort.

“With what he’s had to work with, Brad did a pretty darn good job,” said Keselowski, an ARCA winner at Michigan. “Right now, Brad has 90 percent of what it takes. He’s got the right attitude, the personality and the respect of the other drivers.

“The other 10 percent is natural ability. Brad blew through everything I ever entered him in – quarter midgets, factory stock, limited late model, super late model. He’s constantly thinking out there on the racetrack. He can succeed in Trucks.”

Brad is looking for a strong finish at MIS this weekend.

“We came out of Texas reasonably unscathed, which is always a good thing in the Trucks series,” he said. “A top-15 spot would be good at Michigan, but as a driver, you’re always looking for something better. We are going to give it our A-effort.”

Bob Keselowski never reached great heights as a racer, although he did win the 1989 ARCA championship, and the ARCA race at MIS in 1992. His K Automotive NASCAR Trucks team has won 10 races, however, and notched 37 top-five finishes since 1995, with a third-place finish in points in 1999.

During a recent test at Atlanta, 2000 Nextel Cup champion Bobby Labonte thought he spotted Bob Keselowski in the pits.

He asked if it was, indeed, the Michigan team owner. The crewman nodded yes.

“That guy is a legend,” Labonte said.

What was Keselowski’s reaction?

“Coming from Bobby, that’s an honor. That means a lot.”