Brad Keselowski blew off Elon Musk when he first bought a Tesla

Do you ever wonder what NASCAR drivers like Brad Keselowski drive around when they’re not on the track?

Turns out there are any number of cars that are a possibility. And Keselowski was one of the first people to put himself behind the wheel of a Tesla as an owner.

He shared the story of how he got his first Tesla — and blew off a chance to meet Elon Musk in the process — recently on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour.

“I didn’t own my first car until I was like 26 years old,” Keselowski said. “I bought one of the first Teslas. I got my first Cup contract in ’09. I had a friend who said, ‘Man, you ought to go check out this Tesla thing.’ I went to the California race in 2009. I went to one of the few Tesla dealerships, couldn’t have been any bigger than this room right here.”

From there, Keselowski’s interest started to grow. There’s something about Tesla, particularly in the early days, that just has a way of getting to you.

Keselowski was hooked pretty quickly, especially after a test drive.

“I walked in the door, test-drove one of their electric cars, like, ‘Oh, this is different. Whatever,'” he told Harvick. “And I had a manufactured car, so it wasn’t going to be my daily driver but I wanted to own a car. I test-drove the car, drove it back into the dealership and was like, ‘Yeah, I think I’ll buy one.’ I put a deposit down.”

That’s where things start to get interesting. Keselowski is in buy mode now, so the sales job has mostly been done already.

Still, the woman working the floor saw a chance to further drive home some brand loyalty by offering Keselowski a unique opportunity to meet the company’s head.

“The lady was at the door, and there might have been like five people working there. Nobody even knew who Tesla was at the time, right?” Keselowski said. “And the lady goes, ‘Oh yeah, the owner’s in the back, do you want to talk to him?’ And I’m like, no, just put the deposit down, ‘I’ve got to go get to this appearance I have for Hendrick.’ It was a Hendrick appearance. ‘Yeah but thanks, just let me know when it will be ready.’ Six months later it came in, it was January 2010. That’s one of my many Elon Musk stories, is I blew off meeting him to go to an appearance.”

Keselowski was quick to clarify he probably made the wrong decision there.

“That was a bad move, by the way,” he said. “I regret that one. Don’t do that one. No, no, that was a bad one.”

In any case, there you have it. Keselowski was one of the early owners of a Tesla, even if he passed up on the opportunity to meet with Elon Musk personally.