Brad Keselowski Blames Stage-3 Caution Overload for His Iowa Loss

RFK Racing driver Brad Keselowski shared his thoughts on how multiple cautions cost him the victory against William Byron at Iowa.

Brad Keselowski Blames Stage-3 Caution Overload for His Iowa Loss

Brad Keselowski (Via IMAGO)

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The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season so far has been a massive disappointment for 2012 champion Brad Keselowski. He came into the year determined to make it into the playoff, after making a comeback in final half of the 2024 season. At Iowa Speedway this weekend, the veteran experienced the worst and best day of season.

Brad Keselowski had the fastest car of the day in the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol, as he dominated and won the first two stages, making it into the final stage with an advantage. But things went south when race winner William Byron and second place Chase Briscoe got multiple lucky breaks due to wild number of cautions in the third stage.

The No:6 Ford driver, who led over 68 laps and won the initial two stages, couldn’t match the pace of the young duo and ended up P3, with the only positive being the 55 points he earned. Talking abut the disappointing result, the veteran admits that the caution flags ruined his chances, giving the driver that pitted outside the fuel window a chance.

The way the yellows fell, there were so many yellows there in Stage 3 that it got the 24 and the 19 where they could make it on fuel pitting way outside the window. We just couldn’t get back by them.

Brad Keselowski said on the USA Network post-show.

The cautions and multiple restarts as a result, put him behind the front runners, and the P3 he secured in the final run was the best finish he could ever secure. But the former champion is taking a lot of positive from the outings as well, as RFK cars are pretty strong and is in contention for the race victory. They have now secured back-to-back top-5s, first time since race week 14 and 15 of 2024.

Got back by a lot of guys, got all the way up to third, but that was as far as I could get. … Great run for both of our RFK cars. Obviously, we want to win, but we’re in contention, for sure.

Brad Keselowski added.

The Byron win and Briscoe finishing P2 wasn’t something Keselowski expected in the race, as he was expecting a duel with ex-teammate Ryan Blaney. So, at the end he found himself in caught in surprising battles he can’t win. But despite all that, he feels it they had a solid day, and more great finishes might be coming their way soon.

[Ryan] Blaney was really fast there at the end. He had a little bit newer tires and was running us down. I feel like I was gonna get the 19, but Blaney was gonna pass me. It was a solid day, just needed a few more things to go our way.

Brad Keselowski asserted.

Brad Keselowski is confident going to Watkins Glen

Though the day ended with a P3 finish, it gave him a lot of momentum and confidence going into the upcoming race weekend at Watkins Glen. RFK is the defending race winner at the track, with Chris Buescher securing the win last season, and with the string Ford they have, Keselowski expect to do the same this week.

Brad Keselowski (via Imago)
Brad Keselowski (via Imago)

Watkins Glen has been good for us. It’s been a good track for me — my teammate won there last year [Chris Buescher]. Just keep putting solid runs on the board and I feel like this will come to us. We’ve got some pretty strong Ford Mustangs right now.

Brad Keselowski added.

Unlike the tough start he had, in the last 10 races of the 2025 season, the veteran secured seven top-10 finishes with four of them being top-5 runs. This shows the team is in the right track to fight for race wins, and Brad Keselowski needs to use it soon with just three more races left for him to make it into the playoffs.

Also Read: “I Told Them Don’t Bring This Setup!” Bubba Wallace Blames the Car Setup for the Challenging Iowa Corn 350