Brad Keselowski fought his way to his fourth top five finish of 2023. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
LOUDON, N.H. – Brad Keselowski’s labor of love toward RFK Racing seems to be paying dividends a year and a half later.
A year ago, the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion entered the New Hampshire race weekend ranked 30th in points. While the 35-time Cup race winner tallied a seventh place result, he only advanced one position in the standings.
Prior to this year’s Crayon 301 at “The Magic Mile,” Keselowski ranked 12th thanks to consistently strong pace at a multitude of venues. Rather than being a respectable competitor in the field, the 39-year-old Rochester Hills, Michigan native has returned to his frontrunner status.
This time around, he does so as an owner-driver in Cup. More importantly, he races for a team with some local ties to New England with the Fenway Sports Group being one of the principal owners of the storied stock car organization.
Ahead of the Crayon 301, Keselowski kicked off his weekend with the eighth fastest time in Saturday’s practice session. He backed it up by qualifying in ninth among the field of 36 drivers for the 301-lap race pushed to Monday afternoon due to persistent rain on Sunday.
Early on, Keselowski drove his No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang to a 12th place finish in Stage 1. By pace and pit strategy, the Michigander improved to an eighth place finish in Stage 2.
Keselowski kept himself inside the top 10 for a majority of Monday’s race. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
For the remainder of the race, Keselowski hovered between fourth to seventh place as one of the fastest Fords in the top 10. When a caution for Noah Gragson’s Turn 1 incident occurred on Lap 272, a flurry of pit strategies ensued for the lead lap contenders.
Unlike a majority of the frontrunners who opted for two fresh tires and fuel, Keselowski opted for four fresh tires and fuel. Although he dropped as low as ninth inside the final 16 laps, he maximized on each restart, dashing his way up to fifth, his ultimate finish in the race.
All things considered, the race served as a microcosm of Keselowski’s progress in the past year and a half.
“We just were kinda that 10th, 11th place car all day,” Keselowski said. “We had really good restart speed. We got a handful of restarts at the end and capitalized on them. And I’m proud of my team for that. I’m proud of our guys. We put ourselves in position at the end.”
With little wiggle room to advance positions due to the rash of late race yellows, it took quick reflexes and bursts of speed to maximize results. At times, it seemed like Atlanta or a superspeedway race especially once the field resumed green flag racing.
“There were a handful of cars that were really just good on the short runs,” he said. “We were one of them and some that were really good on the long run than the short run. You just have to capitalize and you saw that on the restarts, where they got really wild – three and four wide.”
No doubt, the Michigander could mix it up with a purely fast, consistent No. 6 Ford Mustang at New Hampshire. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
In concert with the tremendous racing on the track, improvements with the short track package and Goodyear tires changed things up at New Hampshire. This was not lost in Keselowski’s mindset especially with the heat cycles and longer green flag runs.
“With the shifting and everything you can do with these cars, it changed the way the track drives,” he said. “We saw the track get super wide and it was super interesting.”
In less than a week, Keselowski and his peers return to work for this coming Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway. Admittedly, the 2011 “Tricky Triangle” winner knows it will not be easy pickings, but the 11th place points runner is up to the tasks at hand.
“The next few weeks are going to be challenging for us,” Keselowski said. “We need to claw and get everything we can get. We need to go at least four more weeks without a new winner or if there is, for it to be us. Until then, we’re going to keep clawing.”
