Brad Keselowski drives the #6 Ford Mustang in NASCAR’s top-most division and co-owns the team he races for. Given the number of driver-owners in the sport, this may not seem extraordinary from an average racer’s perspective. However, considering the challenges Keselowski faced while growing up, his achievements are a big deal.
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Recently, the RFK Racing co-owner returned to his roots in Rochester Hills, Michigan, the cradle of the Keselowski family’s racing heritage. Before rising to prominence as a champion in the sport, he was raised in a working-class family in suburban Detroit. While his father and uncle were both stock car racers, the 40-year-old’s road to success was anything but smooth.
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He recently shared candid memories of his early challenges, including his daily trek to school as he reminisced on his childhood, saying, “My house growing up was all the way down here and one block over to the left, and the bus stop was at the end of the road.”
“And if you look it’s technically uphill both ways. It was literally a one-mile walk in the snow uphill both ways. And I really want to record this if my kids ever watch this one day and I tell them that,” he added.
Despite his father being a known figure in the racing world and owning a garage, Keselowski faced his own set of hurdles coming up in the world of stock car racing. Being of rather a slim and slender build, his father doubted his potential in racing. As a result, he bought Brad a SIM Racing game, which he would play for hours in their basement.
Throughout his adolescence, Keselowski also put in shifts at his father’s garage, doing everything from sweeping and mopping the floors to mowing the grass. His hands-on involvement in racing began earnestly in 2000 when he started racing stock cars in the Factory Stock division.
Keselowski explains why his venture into racing was unconventional
The RFK Racing co-owner pointed out that in Michigan, where he grew up, most kids lean towards basketball rather than racing. However, Keselowski humorously recalled, “I was looking at the basketball hoop and remembering how I always sucked at basketball. There’s plenty of YouTube videos to remind me of that.”
He found it ironic that Michigan, despite being the hub of major automobile manufacturers, is not typically recognized as a racing stronghold.
Instead, it’s more of a stick-and-ball state. Keselowski even made a comment that if anyone talks to people in Michigan about sports, they’re likely to be fans of the Detroit Lions, Pistons, Tigers, or Red Wings.
As the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion, with 549 starts and 36 wins over 17 years, Keselowski’s decision to pursue a career in racing certainly seems to have paid off, incising a departure from the typical sports path followed in his home state.
