Brad Keselowski is a calm and collected individual today. It is not unfair to say that age and experience are what have made him so. Even as early as ten years ago, it was a common sight to see him pick fights with other drivers regularly over the silliest of matters. The roots of this character can be traced back to his childhood days in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
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Brad was the youngest of the five children in the Keselowski household. Despite being a skinny little kid, he never thought twice about getting into trouble. He tells YouTube channel Stapleton42 during a short trip back home,
“Honestly, I did things I probably shouldn’t have done. I was a fairly mischievous kid. We always got in trouble which is probably the reason why racing was really good for me.”
His strong interest in motorsports came as a blessing since it led to him spending a lot of time sim racing. This kept him out of trouble, but only so much. He still went to the principal’s office a lot owing to his strong Napoleon complex — a condition attributed to the overly aggressive behavior of physically small people.
He says, “I had a really short temper as a kid. If someone picked on a friend of mine or something like that, I had a little bit… Like I said I was kind of a runt. I had a little bit of a Napoleon complex as a kid. So, I probably picked fights I shouldn’t have picked. I didn’t care if I won or lost.” It is easy to see why he picked all those issues with the likes of Jeff Gordon later.
How Kay and Robert Keselowski prevented him from getting into trouble
Being the little firecracker that he was, his parents had no choice but to use his one true love against him. He narrates, “I got in fights and I kind of grew out of that phase by force cuz my parents were pretty much like, ‘If you get a detention or suspension one more time you’re not going to get to go to the racetrack.’ Alright. They knew the leverage point.”
He managed to not do things that would affect his race time thanks to the threat. However, it was only a temporary solution. His aggressiveness latched on to his back well into his professional career. 2014, in particular, was a year where it peaked. He got into feuds with Gordon, Matt Kenseth, and other drivers for whatever reason and earned extreme wrath from the fandom.
It was only in his 30s did he learn to pull himself back from landing unnecessary shots. He is highly respected in NASCAR circles today and is successfully leading RFK Racing toward a path of certain glory.
