Brad Keselowski is a driver, NASCAR Cup team co-owner and has interests in other businesses, as well. But what is the Michigan native first and foremost?
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Since becoming a driver for and part-owner of Roush Fenway Racing (along with Jack Roush and John Henry) in 2022, Keselowski’s success behind the wheel has suffered dramatically. He’s become more known as Brad, the team owner than Brad, the driver.
Before Keselowski joined RFK, consider the positive facts:
- While driving for Team Penske, he earned his only Cup championship (and also Dodge’s last season in NASCAR) in 2012. He also finished second in 2020.
- He made the playoffs for 11 consecutive years with Team Penske.
- He also earned 34 Cup wins with Team Penske (and one other victory early in his career while driving part-time for Phoenix Racing).
- He unquestionably was Team Penske’s No. 1 driver, while Joey Logano was No. 2.
But since Keselowski moved to RFK in 2022, consider these disappointing facts:
- He’s won just once (last season at Darlington).
- He missed the playoffs in 2022, his first for RFK Racing (finishing a dismal 24th in the final standings), and while he returned to the playoffs the next two years, he wasn’t really much of a factor for the championship in 2023 (finishing eighth) or 2024 ( finishing 13th).
- Glaringly, Keselowski has slipped – at least statistically – to No. 2 in the RFK camp as a driver. Teammate Chris Buescher has five wins since 2022 and outperformed Keselowski in the standings in 2022 (finished 21st) and 2023 (finished seventh), before just barely missing the playoffs and finishing 17th last season.
As we head into race no. 11 of the 2025 season this weekend at Texas, Keselowski is off to arguably the worst season start of his Cup career.
He’s ranked 32nd, his two best finishes to date have been 11th and 15th, and he’s finished 20th or worse in seven races, including four finishes of 33rd or lower. And of those four lowest outings, three came to premature endings due to crashes.
On the flip side thus far in 2025, Buescher has one top-five and five top-10 finishes. He also sits a relatively lofty 13th in the standings, compared to Keselowski.
Even the new kid on the RFR block, Ryan Preece, has had a better season thus far with one top-five and three top-10s. Had it not been for a missing bolt in his spoiler after Sunday’s race at Talladega that led to his disqualification, Preece would have earned a career-best second place showing and would have left ‘Dega in 12th place instead of 18th in the standings.
So, look at the stats and what does it tell you? It’s not exactly like Keselowski has forgotten how to drive. He proved that with his win last year at one of the toughest tracks on the Cup circuit: Darlington Raceway.
Spreading himself too thin?
The real problem seems to be Brad Keselowski the driver is not meshing with Brad Keselowski the owner. He’s spreading himself too thin, trying to do too many things, wearing too many hats and has far too much responsibility for one person.
Even when he owned his own Truck Series team full-time from 2011 through 2017, during when he also started several other side businesses, it had zero impact on his driving prowess and success for Team Penske.
While the stats seem to be working against Keselowski since he became a co-owner of RFK, it’s hard to hold him totally to blame. After all, he was given an opportunity that is extremely rare in NASCAR: to become a co-owner of an existing team while also still driving.
Sure, Tony Stewart may have been the exception, winning his third Cup championship while a co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing. And Kyle Busch won two Cup championships while also owning Kyle Busch Motorsports. The late Dale Earnhardt was a winning driver-owner, but remember, he drove for Richard Childress while owning Dale Earnhardt Inc. (but never drove for it).
Ditto currently for Denny Hamlin, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing but co-owns 23XI Racing (although he has repeatedly said he will likely drive his final season in Cup for 23XI, whenever that will be).
Keselowski couldn’t pass up the opportunity
To put it bluntly, if Brad Keselowski had not taken the opportunity that Roush and Henry had given him, he might not ever have gotten a similar chance.
Sure, he could have waited until he finally retired as a Cup driver, but who is to say he would have been able to generate enough capital to start or even buy into his own team after hanging up his steering wheel for good?
The man nicknamed “Kes” turned 41-years-old in February. It’s sad – almost heartbreaking – to see how poorly he’s performed thus far this year.
His average starting position is 23.3 and his average finishing position is 26.1. Heck, he hasn’t led even one lap this season!
If he isn’t able to turn things around in the remaining 26 races of the season, and if he also misses the playoffs, “Bad Brad” (as he is also known) should take a long look in the mirror after this season.
He owes it to himself, his organization, his co-owners and his and RFK’s fans to face reality and realize he just can’t do both jobs at the same time anymore.
With the 83-year-old Roush and 75-year-old Henry likely to call it quits themselves soon, it’s much better for Keselowski to focus only on becoming a successful team owner than to continue remaining a mediocre driver and team owner.
