Kevin Harvick Exposes “Dysfunctional” Ford After Brad Keselowski’s Criticism

Toyota has been dominating the 2026 season with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick leading the charge with nine combined wins. RFK Racing owner driver Brad Keselowski feels that the reason for TRD’s success is the fact that unlike other OEM’s that prioritize teams, Toyota has superior collaboration.

This comment got the attention of Kevin Harvick, who raced with Ford for a decade with his last team, Stewart Haas Racing. He agreed to the No:6 drivers’ point and admitted that Ford’s stock car racing operation has always been dysfunctional. The teams never worked together towards a common goal unlike the rest.

Yeah. And I think that when you look at Ford, it’s a little bit dysfunctional. Based on my experience at Stewart-Haas Racing, it just never really worked. Nobody ever worked together. And they’re still at that point where nobody really works together.

Kevin Harvick said on his podcast.

Another key issue is the finances according to Kevin Harvick, as Ford don’t have the opportunity to have a relationship like 23XI & JRM or Spire & HMS where the top side is paid for their support. They have their own No:1 team in Team Penske Racing, but the others don’t seem to be wanting to have a partnership like what the other OEM teams are having.

But there’s a very different dynamic here. And, you know, I think from a Ford standpoint, who’s going to pay who? Because 23XI pays Joe Gibbs Racing to build their cars and share the technology and all the things that they do. You look at Spire; that’s how Spire does it with Hendrick.

Kevin Harvick added via Happy Hour podcast.

Kevin Harvick reveals what Brad Keselowski really asking from Ford teams

According to the 2014 Cup champion Brad Keselowski seems to be asking the Ford teams to come together and work with each other for free. It is too much to ask from an OEM, that at the moment is investing very less into their development program, lower division teams and even towards the second-tier Cup teams.

So, I think what Brad’s asking for is everybody to work together at elite level for free. And I don’t know that it’s going to be free, but I think that when you look at Ford, and I mean, you look at their development program, it’s not very good, not a lot of attention. Trucks are running pretty good, [but they’re] almost extinct in the O’Reilly series.

Kevin Harvick said.

If they were well organized side like that of TRD, this would have been a possible suggestion, but the dysfunction within their organization makes it challenging. This was always been an Achilles heel for the Ford teams and still remains the same.

So, it just, it doesn’t seem like they’re they are very well organized. They were not very well organized when we were at Stewart-Haas, as far as how they worked together. It was always very dysfunctional and didn’t work very well.

Kevin Harvick added.

Ford can survive in the top-tier avoiding questions as long as Team Penske is delivering for them, but if they get caught into some slump, it would be a disaster as they won’t have a supporting cast. It would be interesting to see how long it would take the American OEM to learn their lesson and make decisions inspired by Toyota.

Also Read: “What an Idiot We are Now!” Kelly Earnhardt Regrets Not Buying Cup Charters for Just $2 Million