Friday 5: Brad Keselowski pushing RFK Racing toward excellence

Brad Keselowski warned RFK Racing before this year, his first with the team as a driver/owner, what might come. 

“I’m probably going to wreck out of a number of races this year,” Keselowski said he told his team and the company. “It’s going to be for good reason. Every time, I’m going to push the car as hard as I can push it and probably overstep it. Something is going to happen and then we’re going to come back and we’re going to make it better.

“I understand that that’s part of the role that I have. As long as those failures are coming from a push and not a silly mistake, I’m OK with that, whether it’s me or anyone else in the company. We’ve got to push really hard if we’re going to get where we want to get. We’ve got room to go.”

A quarter of the way through the season, Keselowski sees progress. He’s not wrecked out of any of the first nine races and ranks fourth in the series in laps run, having completed all but four laps this season. 

While Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher each won their qualifying events at Daytona in February, RFK Racing seeks its first Cup win since 2017 when it was known as Roush Fenway Racing. Both victories that season came on a superspeedway — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won at Daytona and Talladega. The last time the organization won on any other type of track was 2014 at Sonoma with Carl Edwards.

It’s that history Keselowski seeks to change. As he enters Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET on Fox), it’s easy to view this as a must-win event for him. 

Keselowski climbed into the top 30 in points and became playoff eligible after last weekend’s race at Bristol. That marked the first time since he and his team were hit with severe penalties, which included 100-point deductions