“Falls Like a House of Cards”: Brad Keselowski’s Mantra to Save a Struggling NASCAR Team

Richard Childress Racing (RCR) has been dealing with multiple issues this season. The latest in that long line is the retirement of Andy Petree, the team’s former long-term competition executive. As the team’s ownership continues looking for ways to put its cars back in the victory lane, RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski spoke to the press in Nashville about the key factors that make a race team work.

He believes that the display that is on every Sunday at the track is a combination of the ownership structure, the resources the team can afford, and the competency of the people in its system. The 2012 champion said, “You take out any one of those pieces and it falls like a house of cards. I can’t speak to any one team. As to what their struggles may or may not be inside of that kind of triangle but certainly that’s what I value.”

Keselowski is currently in his third year at the helm of RFK Racing. The driver/co-owner has played a huge role in revitalizing the team’s chances of success in the Cup Series and making it a contender once again. Noteworthily, he also collected his first win in the team’s #6 Ford Mustang earlier this year at Darlington. With everything that he has done, he is quite a reliable authority to comment on the matter.

Richard Childress Racing hopes to fix racing product and get back to winning ways

The biggest part of RCR’s troubles is the downfall of Kyle Busch in 2024. The driver has now gone 39 races without a win and marked his third DNF in four weeks last Sunday at New Hampshire. As he continues leading the line of struggles for his team, the new competition executive, Keith Rodden has a solution.

He said on SiriusXM, “We know that we can put a winning product out there. We were able to win three races with Kyle last year on #8 and we also had a few times in a position to win on the #3, and it just didn’t happen. We have the right people. We need to be able to get the drivers consistent cars that they can go out there and show their talent with.”

Hopes are that Petree’s replacement Rodden can at least temporarily stop the bleeding in his interim role.