Brad Keselowski is having a dismal start to the NASCAR Cup Series season—or so it seems to those on the outside looking in.
The driver of the No. 6 Ford Mustang and co-owner of RFK Racing has a slightly different perspective.
“We haven’t [had] a lot of results lately, and that’s been terribly frustrating, but there’s a lot of bright spots,” Keselowski said this week on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio during the program RFK Racing hosts on the channel. “We just haven’t found our potential. Our potential, I feel like, with the [No.] 6 team is higher than it’s been since I’ve been here at RFK. The cars are faster, I feel like we’ve found different chemistry, but we haven’t been able to put all the pieces together.
“And some of it has been misfortune, and other pieces have been totally in our control. We have to clean all that up and get results.”
The results tell one side of the story: Keselowski has no top-10 finishes through the first eight races. He’s earned just two top-20 finishes. Sitting 31st in the championship standings entering Bristol Motor Speedway (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, FS1), his average finish is 26.1.
“What I like about our team — put my rose-colored glasses on — is that I think we have the opportunity to win more than we were able to over the last three years,” Keselowski said. “I think we have more speed, and I think executing that hasn’t come for us so far. But I think when it does click, we’ll be better off than we’ve been before.”
There have been weekends Keselowski and his team have run better than they’ve finished. The loop data statistics show that in six of eight races, Keselowski had an average running position during the race that was better than where he ultimately finished.
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Darlington Raceway was one that turned sideways after starting off with promise. Keselowski finished the first stage in sixth position after starting 20th, but early in the second stage, after a round of green flag pit stops, the lug nut came off the right rear of Keselowski’s car and sent him sideways through Turn 4. Fortunately, the wheel didn’t come off, but he had to limp to pit road.
“I’m sweating not being fast in qualifying; I need to find qualifying pace,” Keselowski did admit. “That probably bothers me more than anything because, generally, your execution improves, particularly in Cup, when your qualifying improves. It’s easier to execute when you start closer to the front.”
The metric doesn’t help his cause, especially with the qualifying draw, which can affect a driver’s qualifying results. The metric score is a weighted combination of the owner’s finish and the owner’s points position. It is easy for a team to be fighting from behind with a snowball of poor results going into the metric score, and trying to improve that bit by bit.
Keselowski firmly believes results are what the team is chasing. Fortunately, he’s been pleased with the speed and feel of his cars.
“I think with maturity, and certainly age is a part of that, you learn what things to worry about and what things not to worry about,” he said. “If we had a season where we had less speed, where we’re running 10th or 15th in the races, and we were getting fifth to 10th place finishes but weren’t fast enough to earn those, I would probably be more concerned than what I am now. We have faster cars but are getting horrendous finishes out of them because you know that execution is something you can find more easily than perhaps just overall potential and raw speed. I feel pretty confident in that.
“So I guess I’m maybe less worried than some people think I should be because I feel like this team can click at any minute, and when it does, it can rattle off wins, top fives, top 10s, and the consistency that we need to be a legitimate contender.”
