2012 Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski currently sits ninth on the Cup Series points table with his playoff spot secured. The ongoing season has been a decent run from him and by far his best outing for RFK Racing. Though there are plenty of reasons to celebrate his performances one cannot ignore how unlucky he has been, particularly in crown jewel races.
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His No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse ended up in a wreck as it attempted to take the lead in the season-opening Daytona 500. He was second to Christopher Bell and was quickly catching up when the Coca-Cola 600 was called, citing humidity.
Sunday’s Brickyard 400 was the latest in this line of misfortunes. Keselowski was in the lead with two laps to go in the race when Kyle Busch wrecked. He ran out of fuel coming to the subsequent restart and was forced to go to the pits for refuelling.
Kyle Larson took his spot on the front line and went on to win the race while he rolled his car past the finish line in 21st place. All these situations of “could’ve been” have left the driver puzzled as well. However, he hasn’t lost the hope of adding a jewel to his crown just yet.
A season of what ifs… all part of the game.
We can still check a big box this fall https://t.co/QHuSEb901k
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) July 22, 2024
He responded to a tweet on X that expressed bewilderment at the bad luck he was having, “A season of what ifs… all part of the game. We can still check a big box this fall.” On the brighter side, he does have ten top-10 finishes and seven top-5 finishes along with his victory in Darlington. Four more races remain in the regular season and the final among them will be the Southern 500.
Keselowski aims for RFK Racing to make it to the Championship 4
The driver’s first victory in the Southern 500 came back in 2018. He won the Brickyard 400 that same year and also won a Coca-Cola 600 in 2020. Adding another crown jewel to his wall will naturally be something he aspires for. But he has an even greater purpose running him right now. As the captain of RFK Racing, Keselowski has turned the team’s fortune around greatly.
The Roush name is back at the top of the leaderboards again, thanks to him. He told motorsport.com in Indianapolis, “I feel like we’re a lot more prepared for the playoffs than we were last year. And I think we’ll have a better playoff run than we did last year. I think we realistically have a shot at getting both cars in that Round of 8 and one of the cars in the championship round.”
A slight hiccup in his optimism is Chris Buescher not qualifying for the playoffs yet. The No. 17 driver hasn’t won a race yet and is looking to qualify on points. Hopes are that he comes out on top of this dangerous game that’s being played. The duo will get a slight two-week breather before returning to fulfill their respective regular season goals, beginning at Richmond.
