Brad Keselowski is set to apply the lesson’s learned from 2022 to lead the evaluation of RFK Racing in 2023
Brad Keselowski terminated his contract with Team Penske racing to join RFK Racing as owner-driver in 2022.
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Brad Keselowski
The 2022 Cup season marked the start of a new era with the introduction of the Next-Gen car. Former Cup champion Brad Keselowski had more than the car top acclimatize himself to as he moved to RFK Racing last year as an owner-driver, purchasing a minority share of the team. The Ford driver had an average season as he failed to score a win in the Cup for the first time since his rookie years.
Keselowski also missed the playoffs for the first time since his rookie years. The L-2 penalty for unauthorized modification on the car imposed at the start of the season made his consistent performance without wins worthless. He did celebrate a win as his teammate Chris Buescher scored the sole win of the season during the postseason.
In an exclusive interview with motorsports.com, Brad Keselowski expressed his views on the 2022 season and how the uncertainty over the 7th-gen car affected their performance. He also pointed out that the team has learned its’ lessons, and though he is still in the transition stage, they are ready for the upcoming season.
“I think we have a lot more ‘knowns’ going into this year. Our people understand our resources and how to optimize them at a much higher level. This year is more about applying lessons learned specific to the people I’m working with,” Brad Keselowski said.
“Last year, there was a lot of transition just with the Next Gen car and getting to know people within the organization. I feel like this is still a transition for me, and I’m still pretty early in it, but at least I have some lessons learned, and I know what I don’t know now. I’m happy and fortunate to be a part of leading a team and leading a company at the same time,” Brad Keselowski added.
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Chris Buescher compares Brad Keselowski to RFK’s co-owner Jack Roush
Buescher pointed out that he used to believe he was the one who was most involved in the team shop, but it is Keselowski, and he said that the co-owner has a hand in everything happening in the team. He said, “I used to think I was at the shop a lot, but I’m not compared to ‘team owner’ Brad. He puts a ton of effort, and a ton of time into this thing. He’s in all of the competition discussions. He has his fingerprints on everything,”.
Chris Buescher says Jack Roush is just like Keselowski, who demands more from the team and is apologetic when he fails to give the driver the best car. He said, “He reminds me a lot of Jack. Jack is from a little bit different era. It was always, ‘I’m going to be hard on you because I expect your best.’ But Jack was also always the first one to apologize after a bad weekend for not giving us what we need to have a successful weekend,”.
He added that Keselowski needs to possess a similar dialogue delivery skill as Roush. Buescher said, “Brad is maybe not quite as sharp and direct on the delivery, but he’s over here doing the exact same thing, asking, ‘What do we need? What do you need from me to make us more successful?’ It’s a sign of strong leadership from both of them even though their delivery may differ,”.
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Justin P Joy
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