Brad Keselowski has found himself in a slump that stretches even further than Kyle Busch’s current rough patch. While the comparison doesn’t lie in wins — Keselowski did notch a victory last year, unlike Busch — his trademark speed has been missing in action.
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This season, in particular, has been a dry spell. Despite narrowly missing the top ten with an 11th-place finish at Las Vegas, the 2012 Cup champion remains winless, without a single top-five, top-10, pole, or lap led so far.
Keselowski spoke about the poor run of form ahead of the upcoming race at Talladega, during a media session at the NASCAR Productions Facility.
Reflecting on the uphill battle his team faces, he stated, “It’s definitely a lot of scratching and clawing. Our company went through a lot of changes; my team went through a lot of changes.
“We haven’t recognized the step forward. Hopefully, soon we’ll recognize the two steps forward with all the changes we made, but we definitely took a step backward in the process.”
Although the numbers paint a grim picture, marking this as Keselowski’s slowest start since his 2010 rookie campaign, the 41-year-old remains optimistic. He emphasized that despite the rough patch, he sees signs of life in both the car’s performance and the efforts of his crew. According to him, the #6 team holds plenty of untapped potential.
Currently sitting 31st in the points standings, Keselowski lags well behind his teammates, Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece, who are holding steady in 12th and 14th, respectively. That gap suggests the team as a whole has the speed; it just hasn’t translated to results for the veteran driver from Michigan.
After nine races last season, Keselowski had already bagged three top-five finishes. This year, he hasn’t cracked the top-10 even once, a stark contrast that underscores how far the pendulum has swung.
Why the Talladega race could bring hope for Keselowski
Brad Keselowski enters Talladega with an impressive record, boasting an average finish of 15.0 at the superspeedway. Over 32 starts, he has claimed six wins, landed 12 top-five finishes, and cracked the top-10 16 times. In the Next Gen era, his average has seen a modest bump to 14.7 across six races. However, a win has eluded him at the track for the past three years, though he’s still managed to secure three top-five results during that span.
Speaking about the belief he places in his current crew, Keselowski remarked, “I got my internal optimist glasses on and I see the potential. The potential for this team is higher than any team I’ve had in the last four or five years. Just got to recognize it.
“There’s a lot of talent on it, a lot of fresh faces, and the mistakes that come with that, and we have to clean that up and recognize our potential,” he went on to say.
With the landscape at Talladega shifting in recent years, and fresh off a pair of runner-up finishes at the track last season, Keselowski has come to view the venue as a “thinking man’s race.” And while the early part of his season has been rocky, he believes that one well-executed run here could turn the tide.
