Tag: Brad Keselowski

Brad Keselowski talks about winning first race with RFK Racing at Darlington

Brad Keselowski talks about winning his first race with RFK Racing at Darlington Raceway. Find out what Keselowski had to say!

[autotag]Brad Keselowski[/autotag] entered Darlington Raceway with a 110-race winless streak after coming up short several times since joining RFK Racing. Keselowski almost saw that streak snapped at Talladega Superspeedway, but a bad block by Michael McDowell ruined his chances. Fast forward to May 12, and the driver of the No. 6 car found luck on his side.

Keselowski won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington after Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick had issues with under 10 laps to go. It was a shocking development that ended the 2012 Cup Series champion’s winless streak. Following the event, Keselowski talked about winning his first race with RFK Racing.

“Yeah, it’s a heck of a ride,” Keselowski said. “So much has changed over the last three years from when I walked in the door, and I see just a group that keeps getting stronger. It’s tough because I feel like there’s been a lot of two step forwards, one steps back, and you keep doing those and you keep doing those. Everybody kind of looks at it like, we just took these two steps forward, why are we taking another step back, and it leads to the next gain.”

“We took a pretty big step back over the off-season. It was with a lot of intentionality in a couple critical categories. We paid for that dearly to start the year and kind of lost some performance. But it was in the name of being able to do this right here: Win races honest and be competitive, and the two steps forward are just now being realized.”

Keselowski needed a little bit of luck to fall his way, but the No. 6 car was the fastest car at the end of the race either way. In fact, the No. 6 car was the fastest at the end of the Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, too. Keselowski and RFK Racing can finally take a deep breath after winning a race, but the best has yet to come.

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Keselowski finally finds victory lane once again at Darlington

A combination of stubbornness and patience paid off handsomely for Brad Keselowski on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, where the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford ended a 110-race winless streak with victory in the Goodyear 400. …

A combination of stubbornness and patience paid off handsomely for Brad Keselowski on Sunday at Darlington Raceway, where the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford ended a 110-race winless streak with victory in the Goodyear 400.

Keselowski’s triumph, which came at the expense of hard-luck teammate Chris Buescher and pole winner Tyler Reddick, gave the Ford Dark Horse Mustang its first NASCAR Cup Series victory this season in 13 races and led to a heated exchange between Beuscher and Reddick on pit road after the fact.

It was also Keselowski’s first win as a principal in RFK Racing, his second at Darlington and the 36th of his career.

“What a heck of a day,” exulted Keselowski, who finished 1.214s ahead of runner-up Ty Gibbs. “It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win, your last win, this is a really special track. The history of NASCAR, it’s as tough as it gets, and that battle at the end with my teammate and Tyler Reddick, we just laid it all out on the line, it was freaking awesome.

“I thought it couldn’t get much better than Kansas. It did today. That was awesome. I’m so glad you guys got to see that (addressed to the fans). That was incredible. Thanks for being here.”

Keselowski was stubborn in the way he raced Reddick after the final restart on lap 261 of 293, aggressively staying beside the No. 45 Toyota and running him up the track in Turn 3.

For four straight laps, Keselowski and Reddick battled side-by-side, allowing Buescher to slip past into the lead at the start/finish line on lap 264. Reddick cleared Keselowski shortly thereafter and took off in pursuit of Buescher.

 

That’s when Keselowski exercised patience as stayed within striking distance, waiting for the drama that unfolded ahead of him.

On lap 284, Reddick’s ill-timed bid for the lead went awry, and his No. 45 Camry slid up the track into Buescher’s Ford, pinning it against the outside wall in Turn 4. Both cars were damaged and unable to maintain pace, and Keselowski charged into the lead on Lap 285.

 

Buescher, still smarting from last week’s loss to Kyle Larson at Kansas in the closest finish in Cup Series history (0.001s), confronted Reddick on pit road after the drivers climbed from their cars.

“We got wrecked,” Buescher said later. “That one’s clear as day. Don’t need any cameras to tell us. I don’t know what to say. We’ve raced really clean through the years, tried to be really respectful about it, and we get used up.

“It (Reddick’s move) is just something that you know is not going to work. I’m just really [angry] about it right now. We certainly had a chance to win another one. I’m proud to have that speed. Just huge congratulations to Brad and the No. 6 bunch on their win. That’s awesome, but I wanted it for our group right here.”

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Reddick took responsibility for the incident and punctuated his conversation with Buescher with the words “I know. I [screwed] up—I’m sorry.”

Reddick elaborated after he and Buescher separated.

“I completely understand where he is coming from,” Reddick said. “He was running the top, running his own race, running his own line to keep me at bay. I made a really aggressive move and was hoping I was going to clear him. When I realized I wasn’t going to, I tried to check up to not slide up into him, but, yeah, I wish I wouldn’t have done that.

“I completely understand why he is that mad. He did nothing wrong. Just trying to win the race, and to take myself out—that’s one thing—I can live with that, but just disappointed it played out the way that it did, and I took him out of the race as well.”

All but lost in the late-race drama was Gibbs’ career-best second-place finish. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota also finished second in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2 behind respective stage winners Kyle Larson and Reddick.

Josh Berry finished third in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, followed by Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley and Michael McDowell completed the top 10.

Hamlin led one lap during a cycle of green-flag pit stops in the final stage, extending his streak of consecutive races with at least one lap led to 17.

Larson (34th on Sunday after a late-race crash) leads the series standings by 30 points over Martin Truex Jr., who finished 25th after suffering alternator issues.

RESULTS

Brad Keselowski wins Cup Series race at Darlington, full results and race recap

Brad Keselowski wins the NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway. Check out the full results and race recap from Darlington!

The NASCAR Cup Series arrived at Darlington Raceway, and the racing was as intense as usual. Tyler Reddick won the first two stages and had a really fast car, but contact with Chris Buescher while fighting for the lead ended his chances. Then, Buescher had a tire go down, which ended his chances of redemption from Kansas Speedway. At the end of the day, it was a new face in victory lane.

[autotag]Brad Keselowski[/autotag] won the Goodyear 400 at Darlington for his first victory of the 2024 NASCAR season. Keselowski passed Buescher and Reddick as luck finally went his way. The RFK Racing driver broke a 110-race winless streak dating back to his days at Team Penske. Keselowski arguably had the best car at the end of the race at Darlington as well.

Keselowski has come up just short in agonizing fashion several times since joining RFK Racing, which makes this win even sweeter. It has almost been exactly three seasons worth of races for the driver of the No. 6 car to return to victory lane, and it came at one of the toughest race tracks on the NASCAR calendar.

Goodyear 400 finishing order:

  1. No. 6 Brad Keselowski
  2. No. 54 Ty Gibbs
  3. No. 4 Josh Berry
  4. No. 11 Denny Hamlin
  5. No. 14 Chase Briscoe
  6. No. 24 William Byron
  7. No. 23 Bubba Wallace
  8. No. 48 Alex Bowman
  9. No. 51 Justin Haley
  10. No. 34 Michael McDowell
  11. No. 1 Ross Chastain
  12. No. 9 Chase Elliott
  13. No. 20 Christopher Bell
  14. No. 10 Noah Gragson
  15. No. 38 Todd Gilliland
  16. No. 7 Corey LaJoie
  17. No. 41 Ryan Preece
  18. No. 15 Kaz Grala
  19. No. 43 Erik Jones
  20. No. 2 Austin Cindric
  21. No. 22 Joey Logano
  22. No. 21 Harrison Burton
  23. No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  24. No. 99 Daniel Suarez
  25. No. 19 Martin Truex Jr.
  26. No. 77 Carson Hocevar
  27. No. 8 Kyle Busch
  28. No. 3 Austin Dillon
  29. No. 16 Derek Kraus
  30. No. 17 Chris Buescher
  31. No. 42 John Hunter Nemechek
  32. No. 45 Tyler Reddick
  33. No. 31 Daniel Hemric
  34. No. 5 Kyle Larson
  35. No. 71 Zane Smith
  36. No. 12 Ryan Blaney

NASCAR takes Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr.’s cars to R&D Center after Dover

NASCAR has taken Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr.’s cars to the R&D Center after Dover Motor Speedway in April 2024.

The NASCAR Cup Series has finished its 11th race of the 2024 season, and it has been a successful April. Denny Hamlin won races at Dover Motor Speedway as a driver and at Talladega Superspeedway as a co-owner. Meanwhile, Hendrick Motorsports claimed two wins at Martinsville Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. Now, NASCAR is taking a look at some cars after April.

NASCAR announced that it will be taking [autotag]Chase Elliott[/autotag] and [autotag]Martin Truex Jr.[/autotag]’s cars back to the R&D Center this week after the race at Dover. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with Elliott or Truex, but the sport just wants to have a more intense inspection process. Usually, this procedure doesn’t result in penalties unless NASCAR finds something wrong.

Truex is coming off a third-place finish, while Elliott ended his day in fifth-place at Dover. April is now over, and NASCAR heads back to Kansas Speedway for the AdventHealth 400. Elliott and Truex likely won’t have any penalties before the race, but they will find out more on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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Brad Keselowski discusses near NASCAR victory at Texas in 2024

Brad Keselowski discusses coming up short of his first NASCAR victory in over 100 races at Texas. Find out what Keselowski had to say!

[autotag]Brad Keselowski[/autotag] received a timely caution and came down pit road for fresh tires late in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Then, Keselowski drove through the top 10 spots up to third place but could never reach the front row on a restart. In the end, the RFK Racing driver finished in second place behind Chase Elliott, who snapped his 42-race winless streak.

Following the event, Keselowski talked about his then third-place finish before NASCAR reversed the decision. The driver of the No. 6 car was disappointed in coming up short but still happy to turn around what could have been a tough day.

“I’m not sure we finished third. I have to see the replay from NASCAR on that first before I’m going to concede that,” Keselowski said. “We didn’t have a ton of speed. Honestly, I’m more frustrated than anything because I feel like we have a great team and we don’t have the speed to go with it. We’re doing all we can do to overcome that.”

“The driver in me is frustrated because I feel like these are races I’m good enough to win, and we don’t have the speed to do it. Only reason I am mad as hell is it’s my fault for not making the cars faster. Still proud of the team that we have, the pit stops, strategy, execution to put ourselves in position to get a finish we probably didn’t deserve but earned with some kind of never-give-up spirit.”

Keselowski is nearing his first NASCAR victory in over 100 races, and it won’t be shocking when he finally gets a win for RFK Racing. The 2012 Cup Series champion has come close but hasn’t gotten over the hump yet. Keselowski will look to change his luck at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, as it represents one of his best race tracks.

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2024 Cook Out 400 odds, picks and predictions

The best bets for Sunday’s 2024 Cook Out 400 from Martinsville Speedway, with NASCAR expert picks and predictions.

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The NASCAR Cup Series moves to Martinsville Speedway Sunday for the 2024 Cook Out 400. The green flag is scheduled to drop approximately at 3 p.m. ET (FS1). Let’s analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s lines around the 2024 Cook Out 400 odds, and make our expert NASCAR picks and predictions.

2024 Cook Out 400: What you need to know

  • Penske Racing’s Ryan Blaney has a win, 8 top-5 finishes and 10 top-10 runs with 522 laps and a circuit-best 9.0 Average-Finish Position (AFP) in 16 career Cup starts at Martinsville
  • Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who won on the short track at Richmond last Saturday, leads all active drivers with 5 wins at Martinsville in 36 career Cup starts while posting 10.1 AFP
  • Penske’s Joey Logano has a win, 11 top-5 finishes and 18 top-10 runs with 1,123 laps led while posting a 10.9 AFP in 30 career Cup runs at the Paper Clip
  • JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. has won 3 Cup races at Martinsville, while turning in a 15.9 AFP in 36 starts with 1,063 laps led and 2 DNFs
  • Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch has racked up 2 wins, 17 top-5 finishes and 1,429 laps led with a 12.8 AFP in 37 Cup starts at Martinsville
  • JGR’s Christopher Bell doesn’t have as long of a history at Martinsville as his counterparts, but he has a win and 3 top-10 finishes with a 13.9 AFP in 8 Cup starts
  • Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman has a win at Martinsville in 15 Cup starts, but he has struggled over the years with a 19.6 AFP and just the single top-5 run and 4 top-10 finishes
  • Cup regular Michael McDowell has never finished higher than 14th in 26 Cup starts at Martinsville, posting a dismal 28.4 AFP
  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has 3 top-10 finishes in 22 Cup starts, but he has never led a lap at Martinsville, while posting a poor 24.0 AFP
  • Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez has managed a poor 22.9 AFP in 14 Cup starts with just 2 top-10 finishes and 7 laps led

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2024 Cook Out 400 – Expert pick

Odds provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated Saturday at 8:04 p.m. ET.

MARTIN TRUEX JR. (+700) ran well at times at Richmond last weekend, and he is a much better value than his teammate Hamlin (+350). The Chesterfield, Va., native, who won at Richmond last week thanks to a great pit stop by his crew, will be hard-pressed to go back-to-back.

Truex has run well in recent seasons at Martinsville, posting a win and 3 top-5 finishes in his past 6 starts with a 10.3 AFP, which is 5th-best among all active drivers. His last win was the spring race in 2021.

As for Martinsville, don’t worry so much about starting position, which is important at a lot of tracks, including last week in Richmond. The past 3 winners have started 11th or higher, with 2 of the 3 winners going off 19th and 20th.

2024 Cook Out 400 – Contender

BRAD KESELOWSKI (+2000) has struggled in his time at RFK Racing, but he could have a breakthrough at Martinville.

The short track program for RFK Racing has been better than the intermediate and road course programs. Keselowski was 3rd at Bristol, and 8th last week at Richmond. Plus, he was 4th at the flat track in Phoenix, which runs like a short track. He should have some success at Martinsville, and a KESELOWSKI TOP-10 FINISH (-135) isn’t priced out of line, if you can’t trust him for the outright win.

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Brad Keselowski pushes for more NASCAR Cup Series practice sessions

Brad Keselowski pushes for more NASCAR Cup Series practice sessions. Find out what the RFK Racing had to say about the lack of practice!

NASCAR decreased its practice sessions after the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world in 2020. For a while, the sport didn’t even have practice or qualifying. Then, NASCAR introduced a new format where two groups have 20 minutes of practice a piece. However, one NASCAR team owner believes the reason behind the lack of practices is irrelevant.

RFK Racing co-owner and driver [autotag]Brad Keselowski[/autotag] discussed the financial impact of NASCAR’s limited practice throughout the season at a media availability on Tuesday, according to Racing America. Based on Keselowski’s comments, it is confusing why the sport continues to have 20-minute practice sessions.

“I haven’t seen how we’ve saved any money getting rid of practice, not from a team perspective,” Keselowski said. “Maybe there were some savings other places in the industry that I’m not aware of, but there hasn’t been a significant cost savings. We’ve reallocated in a lot of way to other demands, and its hard for me to understand the value proposition today to not have practice.”

Keselowski also said that he is more comfortable with practice and advocates for increasing time on the track each weekend. This isn’t the first time the RFK Racing co-owner has spoken out about this topic. Keselowski believes NASCAR should increase the amount of practice, but it’s uncertain whether that is under consideration.

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‘Raw speed’ the missing piece in Keselowski’s quest for victory

Brad Keselowski continues to believe his RFK Racing team is one step away from returning to NASCAR Cup series victory lane. “Just need a little bit more raw speed,” Keselowski said. “We need to show up at racetracks and be a threat for the pole, run …

Brad Keselowski continues to believe his RFK Racing team is one step away from returning to NASCAR Cup series victory lane.

“Just need a little bit more raw speed,” Keselowski said. “We need to show up at racetracks and be a threat for the pole, run the fastest lap in the race. Do those types of things. We’ve done that … at Bristol, we haven’t done that enough at other places. That’s what we’re looking for.”

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Keselowski’s winless streak is now 103 races old, dating back to the spring of 2021 at Talladega Superspeedway. The victory was his last with Team Penske before joining forces with Jack Roush as driver and co-owner. Keselowski has yet to win driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, but he’s been to victory lane four times as co-owner of Chris Buescher’s No. 17.

Entering the first road course race of the season at Circuit of the Americas (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET, Fox), Keselowski, who has not yet won on a road course in the Cup Series, is 13th in the championship standings and Buescher is 14th. Buescher has three top-10 finishes to Keselowski’s pair.

“I thought at Phoenix our teams looked really similar,” Keselowski said of the gap between the two teams. “Atlanta, we looked pretty similar. Daytona, we looked pretty similar. We didn’t look very similar at Las Vegas; I thought the 17 was stronger than the 6 car was there.

“Those things come and go for various reasons, there’s not one thing on any given week. You want the crew chiefs to have a little bit of freedom to do what they want to do with their engineers and try different things, and when that gets too far apart for too long, you try to rein it back in, and there’s an ebb and flow to that. But for the most part, I feel like we’re pretty close.”

The winless streak is not something Keselowski has concerned himself with as he’s worked to integrate himself and help carry RFK Racing forward. But Keselowski also doesn’t mind being asked how close he feels to winning or what the team is missing.

“No, no, no,” he said. “It’s the right question to ask. It’s the question we ask of ourselves.”

Fortunately, Keselowski and his group is much closer to making that happen than they were in their first year together.

“Oh yeah, we’re way closer than we were 24 months ago,” Keselowski said. “But that’s not good enough.”

NASCAR takes Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski’s cars to R&D Center after Phoenix

NASCAR has taken Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski’s cars to the R&D Center after Phoenix Raceway in 2024.

The NASCAR Cup Series has finished its fourth race of the 2024 season, and it has been a successful start. The Daytona 500 and race at Atlanta Motor Speedway featured thrilling superspeedway finishes. Then, Las Vegas Motor Speedway had another good finish, while Christopher Bell dominated at Phoenix Raceway. Following the “West Coast Swing,” NASCAR is now looking at some cars.

NASCAR announced that it will be taking [autotag]Kyle Larson[/autotag] and [autotag]Brad Keselowski[/autotag]’s cars back to the R&D Center this week after the race at Phoenix. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with Larson or Keselowski, but the sport just wants to have a more intense inspection process. Usually, this procedure doesn’t result in penalties unless NASCAR finds something wrong.

Keselowski is coming off a fourth-place finish, while Larson ended his day in 14th place at Phoenix. The “West Coast Swing” is now over, and NASCAR heads back to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500. Larson and Keselowski likely won’t have any penalties before the race, but they will find out more on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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Keselowski feeling ready to make a move on Atlanta high banks

The configuration of Atlanta Motor Speedway doesn’t matter to Brad Keselowski because success has been a constant. Keselowski led the spring race at Atlanta on the final lap last year in one of the strongest showings of the season for the No. 6 RFK …

The configuration of Atlanta Motor Speedway doesn’t matter to Brad Keselowski because success has been a constant.

Keselowski led the spring race at Atlanta on the final lap last year in one of the strongest showings of the season for the No. 6 RFK Racing team, even though he ended up bested by former teammate Joey Logano and finished second. The performance, however, gives Keselowski and his group a good notebook for approaching Sunday’s race (3pm ET, Fox).

“I like the track,” Keselowski said. “I feel good here. I feel like we understand what we need out of our car and yeah, I feel like we can win come Sunday. It’s a good track for us, but nothing is given to you — you have to go earn it. Just because you ran well last year, everybody is working on their stuff in order to get better, so I don’t take it for granted. I do feel like it’s a track that, even before it was reconfigured, suited me well and continues to do so.”

The former Cup Series champion hasn’t won yet driving the car he owns. Keselowski became a co-owner of RFK Racing in 2022, and his last Cup Series victory was in the spring of 2021 while driving for Team Penske (Talladega Superspeedway).

Sunday will be Keselowski’s 100th start since that victory. It’s not a streak – or drought – he’s concerned about.

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“I’m not paying any attention to it, honestly,” Keselowski said. “What matters to me is I would rather be fast every week and contending for wins than fall…into a race win and say, ‘Oh streak’s over.’ I want to be fast. I want to be contending and in the hunt.

“We did that last week and I’m proud of that, and I think we have a good shot to do that this week. That’s what matters to me.”

It’s the longest stretch Keselowski has gone without a victory in his Cup Series career. He scored at least one win each season from 2011 through 2021.

“I never was not hungry,” Keselowski said of getting back to victory lane. “I don’t know how to get any hungrier.”

A breakthrough win wouldn’t come as a surprise at Atlanta. Whereas a year ago, Atlanta and other superspeedway racetracks were opportunity races for the team, their progression has made them weekly contenders.

“I do feel that we can win anywhere,” Keselowski said. “I would have liked to have more speed in qualifying than what we showed, but I feel confident that we’ve got a lot of great pieces, a lot of maturity in our team, and I could see us winning tomorrow and being a threat all day long.”

Keselowski qualified 24th for the Ambetter 400.