(Photo: Sean Folsom | The Podium Finish)
RICHMOND, Va. — Brad Keselowski isn’t happy unless he’s winning races. But you could say he’s satisfied with the growth of RFK Racing over the last season.
“I’m happier than I was last year, but I wouldn’t say I’m happy,” Keselowski said on Saturday. “We need to be winning races.”
Keselowski is in his second season as co-owner of RFK Racing after 11 seasons driving the No. 2 car for Team Penske.
Last season was difficult for Keselowski. He recorded just one top five and six top-10s as he went winless for the first time since 2010. Keselowski finished 25th in points after getting hammered with an L2 penalty, which included a loss of 100 points, after the Atlanta Motor Speedway spring race. On the other hand, Keselowski’s teammate, Chris Buescher, made it to victory lane last fall in the Bristol Motor Speedway night race.
But things seem headed in the right direction for RFK. Through six races, Keselowski sits 13th in points with a runner-up at Atlanta, a race he led at the white flag, and also has a seventh at Auto Club Speedway. Keselowski recorded his only DNF of the season last week at COTA, finishing 35th with a driveshaft problem.
Keselowski, however, has his eyes set on Richmond Raceway and the Toyota Owners 400 as an important race for the organization. It’ll be the first time the new low downforce package will be used on a short track. In February, NASCAR announced that all road courses and tracks measuring 1.058 miles in length or less will use a package with a two-inch spoiler and the removal of three diffuser strakes and engine panel strakes. It creates 30% less downforce.
Keselowski and Buescher debuted this package last month at Phoenix Raceway, where they ran 18th and 15th respectively.
(Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
“This is certainly a mark for us as to where we’re at as a company and as a team with the No. 6 car,” Keselowski said. “It’s definitely a race that’s been circled and one that we have high hopes for.
“It’s the first time here with the much lower downforce than what we’ve had. I expect the cars to be incredibly difficult to drive. It’ll take a lot of finesse. I’m looking forward to the challenge of how to maintain that over what tends to be a really long green flag race. I love this track.
“I would expect [the new package] to make a bigger difference here [than Phoenix]. I think that this track already has a tendency for significant tire fall off, which should just add on top of the effects of loadout.”
Practice and qualifying Saturday at Richmond were canceled due to inclement weather. Based on the rulebook, Keselowski will start 24th on Sunday. The race is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
