“I Feel a Little Less in Control”: Brad Keselowski Feels Drivers Are Not in Complete Command of Their Results at Talladega

Fans will keep a close eye on Brad Keselowski in the upcoming race at Talladega Superspeedway. He holds an average finish of 15.0 across 32 starts here, including six wins, 12 top-five finishes, and 16 top-10s. However, despite such impressive credentials, predicting outcomes at Talladega is always a roll of the dice. Keselowski recently spoke about this unpredictability.

This year, Keselowski qualified P22 for the race, mirroring his starting position from last season. Back then, he clawed his way up to finish Stage 1 in P8, slipped to P23 by the end of Stage 2, and rallied once again to cross the finish line in P2. During the fall race at Talladega, he started P13 and again came home second. The results, much like the race itself, swung wildly.

Addressing the nature of superspeedway racing during the media session, Keselowski was asked whether he still felt he could pull off the breathtaking moves needed to win at Talladega.

The RFK Racing co-owner replied, “Yes and no. This car is more reliant on getting a physical push, where we went through an era where the cars were not quite as reliant on that.”

He further explained, “This car has shown time over time… that really it’s about the front two lanes and how they are able to get off of Turn Four and the physical contact between the cars. And how that all plays out is really dictated by the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-place cars, so I feel a little less in control.”

Keselowski pointed out that although last year the #6 team came up just shy of victory in both Talladega races, he felt they were in a position to win coming out of Turn Four in both events. However, the critical pushes he needed never materialized. He put himself in the best position to win, but the support behind didn’t fall into place.

He added that the dynamic today feels different compared to five or six years ago, when cars pushed each other more through air bubbles rather than through direct physical contact. The game has changed, and Brad Keselowski believes it will continue to evolve with future adjustments.

Keselowski on drivers’ mindset before Talladega

When asked to share his two cents on the mindset of drivers before they approach tracks like Talladega — where they can run a near-flawless race only to get caught in a wreck at the end — Keselowski said, “You have to, one, get over yourself and not allow your own ego to put you in a place where you get your feelings hurt.”

Keselowski admitted that his mindset on plate racing is simple: he accepts that half the time, wrecks are inevitable. Statistically, this is true. But his goal is to make sure that in races where he avoids wrecks, he positions himself to fight for the win.

The 41-year-old Michigan-born driver noted that the days that sting the most are not the ones where he crashes out, but the ones where he stays clean and still finishes outside the top 10. To Brad Keselowski, those are the true losses — surviving the chaos yet coming home empty-handed. In his view, the name of the game is to capitalize on the races where wrecks are avoided and turn them into top-10 finishes.

About the author

Neha Dwivedi

Neha Dwivedi is an experienced NASCAR Journalist at The SportsRush, having penned over 5500 articles on the sport to date. She was a seasoned writer long before she got into the world of NASCAR. Although she loves to see Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch win the races, she equally supports the emerging talents in the CARS Late Model and ARCA Menards Series.. For her work in NASCAR she has earned accolades from journalists like Susan Wade of The Athletic, as well as NASCAR drivers including Thad Moffit and Corey Lajoie. Her favorite moment from NASCAR was witnessing Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. win the championship trophies. Outside the racetrack world, Neha immerses herself in the literary world, exploring both fiction and non-fiction.

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