You didn’t really count out Brad Keselowski did you?
There was a considerable amount of skepticism directed towards the 2012 Cup Series champion on July 20, 2021 when he shook hands with Jack Roush at the NASCAR Hall of Fame and formally declared he was joining the Ford Performance flagship as an owner-driver.
Roush was in a state of disrepair at the time, having just two superspeedway wins over the previous eight seasons, but the NextGen was a clean sheet of paper and Keselowski jumped at the chance to author part of its story.
… no matter how questionable it looked in real time.
“There have been a lot of deep digging moments,” Keselowski said. “That’s been part of the journey. They’re not all fun. In fact, a lot of them aren’t fun. But it’s part of the journey.
“I sleep well at night with that decision. I was okay if it failed. I had a lot of people that poked at me when Cindric won the 500. I had a lot of people poking at me, ‘oh, that could have been you in that car.’ Same thing when Joey (Logano) and (Ryan) Blaney won the championship last year and the year before, and they’re right.”
They really looked right when Keselowski’s winless streak at the highest level reached 100 and then 110 last week even as teammate Chris Buescher rolled off four wins … and arguably should have earned a fifth on Sunday at Darlington.
“Some of those comparisons are fair and some of them aren’t,” Keselowski said.
“I think that Chris has done an excellent job at putting himself in position to win races and catching the good breaks that go with it. … He’s been able to make things happen. He’s in a good spot personally and professionally. Good age, good experience level. He’s surrounded by some really good people. He’s significantly underrated.
“I don’t know why nobody else tried to steal him from us. When we re-signed him last year, I thought for sure somebody else was going to make a run at him, and to my knowledge they never did. I don’t know why nobody else sees in him what I see in him, which is a guy that’s a winner that you put in the right situation can be a multiple-time not just race winner but champion with the right equipment.
“He doesn’t get that credit and respect. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because he’s so humble. But I’ve been happy to see him be successful. I’ve never really spent a lot of time looking in the mirror comparing our success.”
And that is part of why Keselowski made the decisions he made too, all the ways he could impact the careers of another driver, their crew chiefs and engineers and everyone now associated with the Roush brand.
But at 40-years-old, and still in the understood peak range of driver performance, Keselowski was not going to be denied for long once RFK Racing gave him the kind of cars he had at Penske.
And since the late summer of 2022, Keselowski has had those cars, and it seemed inevitable that he would get back to being the same driver that averaged 3.5 wins a year and has now reached 36, despite giving up at least two of them to serve this greater legacy than just his place as a driver.
“I take as much pride in anything as helping the people and being on teams and seeing the 19-, 20-year old kid that comes in as an intern and watching them learn something or seeing the 23-year-old that just graduated college and didn’t make the NFL draft but comes in as a pit crew member and is now going over the wall and has a good job and does a great job,” he said. “I take as much about that as I do my own success because it feels so good to leave a positive mark on others that way.”
But now, Keselowski is back in Victory Lane, guaranteed a playoff spot, and maybe more chances to win championships.
“I don’t know what the next chapter will be,” he said. “I’m not done with this one. I hope I’ve got a lot more pages to write. Took a little longer than I would liked to have to have gotten an official run, although I did win the Duel right there right out of the gate, but I guess that doesn’t count, does it.
“I’m just thrilled that I’m able to put some meaningful pages in this chapter, and I hope there’s a lot more to come.”
Winning over everything else
It’s not about the sticker.
When Buescher confronted Tyler Reddick over the slide job that eliminated both from the Goodyear 400, he made reference to the winner’s sticker above the door and how important having one and not having one is come this point of the season.
That made some roll their eyes.
But think of it this way: That sticker is symbolic of everything that everyone in this sport works towards on a daily basis. That Reddick already has one, from his victory last month at Talladega Superspeedway, changes his approach every week until the playoffs start.
That Buescher doesn’t makes a 30th place finish and falling outside of the top-10 in the standings, and at risk of falling near the playoff cutline really sting more.
But really though, all of this is a reflection of NASCAR’s decade long approach of making race wins mean more than they ever have before. Keselowski won and that punched his ticket into the playoffs. Reddick had a chance to win his way into the playoff top seed conversation and Buescher is still seeking that darn sticker.
It’s what makes this moment, or the photo finishes at Kansas and Atlanta, all so consequential and it shows with every emotional outburst we see every week.
Again, it’s not just a sticker.
Too Tough to Tame
The Goodyear 400 was a really good race with a great finish that was a few different outcomes away from being a great race.
First and foremost, Goodyear right side tire code D-5222 continues to deliver every time it gets the call to be used for a race.
This is the same compound that has been used on all the intermediate tracks this season and even made Texas Motor Speedway look directionally positive last month.
It gives up a ton and opened the door on Sunday for passing opportunities late in a run or in lapped traffic.
Think of the first stage finish when Kyle Larson overtook a fading Ty Gibbs. That was tire management and set-up on an abrasive track.
It’s a shame that Zane Smith spun on Lap 163 because a leading Reddick had just caught Daniel Suarez at the tail end of the field and Ty Gibbs made up nearly two seconds as a result.
Like virtually immediately.
Point is, this car continues to generate a tremendous amount of wake for better and worse and they are so equal that passing is absolutely a slog but this tire code combined with Darlington was an absolute treat.
Had some of those green flag runs been longer, it would have made a good race, greater.
It’s all another reminder that tire compounds will continue to be the key in unlocking the best possible racing out of the NextGen, which of course, leads us to the All Star Race and its dual compound format this weekend at North Wilkesboro.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.