Brad Keselowski is ready for his 16th appearance in the Daytona 500 this coming weekend. Despite only securing the best starting position of P34 after the qualifiers and Duels, his intentions to win the prestigious race remain undiminished. Keselowski once remarked that he would willingly forsake video games if it meant capturing another Cup championship, yet for him, winning the 500 race surpasses even that ambition, as per his recent interview.
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Ahead of the main event, when asked what he is queried about more often — winning the Daytona 500 or the second championship — Keselowski replied, “Well, this time of year, the first! The former (Daytona 500) rather than the latter, which is normal.”
The 2012 Cup champion drew an analogy to familial expectations, explaining, “When you get married, the first thing everybody asks is when you’re going to have a kid, and then when you have the first kid, you’re like, ‘People are going to stop asking me that.’ Then people ask me, ‘When are you having another kid?’ So, it’s always onto the next thing, and I understand that.”
During his tenure at Team Penske, Keselowski consistently secured top-10 finishes in the driver standings, although he only reached the Championship 4 twice post-2012, specifically in 2017 and 2020. But when it comes to his most notable performances at Daytona — they came in 2014 and 2013, where he finished the 500 race in P3 and P4 respectively.
In last season’s Daytona 500, starting from P16, Keselowski displayed glimpses of speed. On lap 192, he and Joey Logano were maneuvering on the outside, attempting to overtake Chastain for the lead. As Chastain executed an aggressive block, Keselowski maintained his position behind him, while Logano opted to stay on the outside.
The race escalated when Alex Bowman’s overly aggressive push caused William Byron to collide with Keselowski on the inside, triggering him to spin out in front of the pack. The incident brought out the fourth caution of the evening and the first for an accident since Lap 5. The resulting wreck involved 23 cars, including notable names like Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, and Keselowski himself, relegating the RFK Racing driver to a P33 finish.
Why is winning the Daytona 500 special for Keselowski?
Keselowski is not the only Cup Champion without a Daytona 500 victory — drivers like Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. also yearn to add this prestigious win to their portfolios. Interestingly, despite retiring from the NASCAR Cup Series last season, Truex is returning specifically as an open driver in this season’s Daytona 500, seizing another opportunity to claim the elusive title. Keselowski, however, holds a somewhat mystical view of the race, believing that winning the 500 is a matter of fate.
He explained, “All you can really do is put yourself in a position and hope you’re chosen. You can go back and watch the end of races and people win this race and you kind of scratch your head and go, ‘How did they win this race?’ There wasn’t a move that won it for them. It just fell in their lap, and that part gets super frustrating… I feel like there’s a divine power in it.”
With his teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece starting well ahead of him at P6 and P27 respectively, it will be intriguing to see how Keselowski maneuvers through the pack, aiming to capture his first Daytona 500 victory on the track filled with 40 other drivers.
