Brad Keselowski Reviving RFK Racing

Back in 2021, the most significant move of silly season was Brad Keselowski leaving Team Penske to buy ownership stake and drive the 6 car for Roush-Fenway Racing. Keselowski was leaving a championship caliber team to rebuild a former Ford powerhouse. Prior to the 2022 season, the now rebranded RFK Racing was a shell of their mid-2000s peak. Both RFK cars had missed the playoffs in 2020 and 2021. Since Carl Edwards left the team after the 2014 season, RFK had only made the playoffs twice. Ryan Newman pointed his way there in 2019 and Ricky Stenhouse Jr won two superspeedway races in 2017. Fast forward to the regular season finale of 2023, RFK Racing has both cars in the playoffs with Chris Buescher winning three races this season. In 62 races, Brad Keselowski’s influence has brought RFK Racing from middling to the top Ford team in 2023.

Slow Start, Building Foundation

Throughout the 2022 season, the move by Brad Keselowski looked like a mistake. Statistically, it was his worst season since he joined Penske back in 2010. It was the first time he failed to win a race since said season. His average finish ballooned 6.2 positions compared to the year prior. Simply put, Keselowski (the driver)) took a massive step back in 2022. Meanwhile, his former team and teammate won the championship.

Despite the downturn in driver performance, 2022 did show glimmers of what was to come in 2023. While Keselowski had one of his worst seasons, teammate Chris Buescher had his best season. Buescher won the Bristol night race and set career highs in Top-5s, Top-10s, and laps led. While 2022 was the year of parity (in terms of winners), the Bristol win was a significant moment in the RFK rebuild. It was RFK’s first win on a non-superspeedway oval since 2014. Not only did Buescher win the race, both RFK drivers combined to lead 278 laps. If not for a tire failure, Keselowski could have been the winner.

Bristol was not the only race where RFK felt positive afterwards. The road courses were a huge success for Buescher. Keselowski started to run better late in the season. If not for a DQ, the second Martinsville race would have been given back-to-back Top-5s. The potential for a better RFK was there despite the overall picture not looking great. With his influence, Brad Keselowksi has been the driving force behind the revival NASCAR has seen from RFK Racing.

Rebuilding the Culture

Jack Roush is a NASCAR Hall of Famer and built one of the best race teams of the 2000s. Undoubtedly, he is a champion and should be respected in the sport. However, Roush oversaw the decline of his team during the 2010s. There was a steady flow of drivers leaving the team without finding suitable replacements. Since Kurt Busch was booted from the team, Roush Racing was unable to adequately replace a departing driver until Ryan Newman in 2019. The culture of Roush-Fenway Racing was not well perceived.

When Brad Keselowski became a partial owner, there was a noticeable shift in culture. The details about the team became a focus. Not only the on-track details, but the day-to-day operations of the race shop and team headquarters. Money and time were spent on cleaning and updating the Concord headquarters. If the team was going to be a first class organization, the headquarters were going to look the part. On the NBC Sports podcast after Michigan, Steve Letarte commented about the improvement of RFK. He discussed the impact that the improved appearance of the RFK HQ had on visitors during an event.

In his post-race press conference at Daytona, crew chief Scott Graves commented about how Brad’s influence has seen more investment in areas where RFK was not spending money previously. Prior to Keselowski’s ownership, purchases of tools that could help the team were made based on a question of necessity rather than potential improvement to the team. According to Graves, that has changed. If the team believes a certain tool or upgrade will improve on track performance, then management will now find a way to make it happen.

Keselowski has discussed the rebuild is a long term project. While he had a poor 2022 season, Keselowski has stated that there were foundational changes the team had to do in order to improve. 2022 was the start of the process. 2023 is reaping from what 2022 sowed.

2023 Success

Although the rebuild for RFK Racing was a long term vision, 2023 has been a standout season for Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski. After winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Buescher enters the playoffs with three wins. Buescher has already surpassed his career highs in wins, Top-5s, Top-10s, and laps led. There is no driver hotter in the Cup Series right now than Chris Buescher.

While Buescher has been racking up the wins, Brad Keselowski’s 2023 season has been a stronger comeback than many thought. Though he is still winless, Keselowski finished higher than Buescher in the points. Ignoring the past two road courses, Keselowski is on a stretch of five Top-10s in the past six oval races. Keselowski has also been racking up stage points at a consistent rate. He ranks eighth out of all drivers in terms of stage points, scoring 54 more than Buescher.

RFK Racing has two drivers in the playoffs for the first time since 2014. RFK is only one of two teams (23XI Racing) that has every driver in their team in the playoffs. Even if you want to discount that by saying Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman only missed due to injury, both Keselowski and Buescher would have been in the playoffs if the two Hendrick drivers did not miss anytime.

Sponsorship Wins

Not only has there been tremendous on-track success for RFK, but the business side of the race team has seen some exciting developments. Despite the loss of Kohler Generators as a sponsor this season, RFK has found new sponsors to help boost their operations. It started with the Daytona 500, where Nexlizet was the primary sponsor for Brad Keselowski. At Kansas, Keselowski had sponsorship for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 on his car. Chris Buescher has also seen new primary sponsors for his car, including Pala Casino and Nexlizet.

The most exciting and interesting new sponsor came in the form of BlueForge Alliance. Announced during the Coke 600 weekend, the multi-year sponsorship sees the BuildSubmarines.com initiative as a primary sponsor for both drivers through 2024. Plus, the deal will push to bring manufacturing jobs back stateside through the relationship between the two entities. From the details of the deal to the highly produced announcement, this is innovative and resembles strides that Trackhouse Racing has been complimented for previously. Brad Keselowski plays a big part in that.

These sponsorship wins are not limited to new sponsors. Longtime sponsor Castrol has been producing the Castrol Edge Challenge series. The RFK drivers took on F1’s BWT Alpine drivers in a head to head challenge. Plus, Buescher picked up Castrol’s first NASCAR Cup Series win (as primary sponsor) at Michigan.

Top Ford Team

At this moment, RFK Racing is the best Ford team in the Cup Series. Stewart-Haas Racing’s downfall has been well documented. Team Penske has been surprisingly lackluster this season. Meanwhile, RFK Racing, more specifically Chris Buescher, has half of Ford’s wins this season.

Before the recent string of wins, the argument could have been made on RFK’s behalf. Under Brad Keselowski’s guidance, both RFK cars were usually the top driving Fords at a variety of tracks. While Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano sat ahead of both, neither were inspiring tremendous confidence. On paper, Logano’s 2023 has been solid, if not spectacular. However, there are several of his Top-5s that came from lucking into track position, such as Martinsville and Sonoma. Meanwhile, Blaney has had a cold streak since his Charlotte win. He has more outside Top-30 finishes (5) than Top-10s (4) since winning the Coke 600.

While SHR as a whole has been running poorly, Kevin Harvick has remained a top Ford driver. However, both Buescher and Keselowski have outdrove Kevin Harvick, especially throughout the summer. At the All-Star break, Harvick led Keselowski by 35 points and Buescher by 71. After the regular season finale, both drivers passed Harvick in the standings.

Heading into the playoffs, Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski are considered the favorites from Ford to advance far. Buescher has been discussed as a possible Championship Four driver. At least for this season, RFK Racing has returned to being the class of Ford.

An Eye to the Future

While the 2023 success is great, Brad Keselowski does not seem to be the owner who will bask in this glory. After Buescher’s win at Richmond, Keselowski discussed how RFK has become relevant. The next step was to become contenders. After two more Buescher wins and Keselowski Top-5s, the team is on the verge of hitting that step. Once championship contention is hit, where does RFK go from there?

Expansion is naturally the first assumption. Keselowski does have an eye on expanding RFK, however, it will be a cautious approach. The team does not want to expand too quickly where it ruins the current momentum the 6 and 17. Plus, the cost of acquiring a charter seems astronomical.

Instead of addition through charters, Keselowski and RFK will look to expand their influence through partnerships. RFK has a technical alliance with Rick Ware Racing.This alliance is likely what attracted Justin Haley away from Kaulig Racing. While Rick Ware Racing is still a separate team, could the relationship bloom into something similar to Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing? Rick Ware Racing could turn into RFK Racing lite. This would be mutually beneficial for both sides. RFK can expand without buying expensive charters, depleting resources for their two cars. Meanwhile, Rick Ware Racing becomes more competitive. Would it be surprising to see Rick Ware’s second car having a fulltime driver next season? With the RFK alliance, maybe not.

Lower Series Team?

Rumblings about RFK expanding have mostly been focused on Cup Series expansion. However, it would seem sensible if former Truck Series owner Brad Keselowski wanted to dip his toe back into the lower series of NASCAR. Ford could use the boost as well, since their developmental system is a single Front Row Motorsports truck team and two SHR Xfinity cars.

With Team Penske withdrawing from the Xfinity Series after Austin Cindric’s callup, RFK might be the team to fill that void. RFK has a history of strong lower series teams. The foundation of the great Roush Racing years was through their lower series teams. Chris Buescher is a product of Roush’s Xfinity Series program. A return to either (or both) lower series could be a “one-day” goal for RFK and Brad Keselowski. With Keselowski at the helm, expectations for the team have sky rocketed. Off the back of a fantastic 2023 regular season, the future looks bright.