Brad Keselowski is currently going through the worst start of his NASCAR Cup season in the past 12 years. The last time he wasn’t able to bag a single top-5 or top-10 in the first six starts was back in 2011. While he concluded that season in P5 place after three wins, Brad’s this year’s performance with his #6 car has been lackluster, marked by two Did Not Finish (DNF) results and barely scraping together two top-20 finishes.
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Meanwhile, his teammates, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher, have shown much better results. Buescher, driving the #17 Ford, has already finished three races in the top 10 and one in the top 5, while Preece has managed to bag one top-10 and one top-5 finish, so far in the season.
The disparity recently caught the attention of Kevin Harvick, former NASCAR Cup driver and co-owner of RFK Racing, who expressed his concerns about Keselowski’s performance. Harvick remarked, “Well, I am a little bit concerned about Brad’s overall speed.”
Harvick remarked on the tenacity of the RFK Racing trio, emphasizing their knack for advancing through the pack during races. He specifically noted Buescher’s consistent ability to climb the leaderboard, a skill he has worked on over the years, and mentioned that Keselowski shares the same gritty approach.
However, the 2014 NASCAR Cup champion pointed out a big hurdle: starting from the back in a Next Gen car places drivers at a considerable disadvantage, an issue he believes Keselowski’s #6 team has been facing and must address.
He continued, stressing the need for improvement, “The overall speed of the #6 car, they had a crew chief change their team some this year obviously having to work through some of that but the speed definitely needs to increase because Brad is the leader obviously, he’s the owner he’s the leader and I feel like that needs to be the lead speed car as well.”
Keselowski is currently in a precarious position this season, with an average finish of 25 and an average starting position of 24.6. Meanwhile, his teammate Buescher is holding 9th in the driver standings, while Ryan Preece is at 16th.
The RFK Racing driver/owner is currently languishing at 30th, with his highest finish this season being 11th at Las Vegas. At this point last year, Keselowski had already secured two top-5 finishes, which is a downturn in his current performance.
