It can be particularly frustrating when a driver as good as Brad Keselowski knows that he has the potential to win but simply cannot find the supporting speed. He’s been living with that question while racing with RFK. Looking back, he came in as a champion and co-owner, hoping to put a struggling team at the forefront. Now that it’s confirmed that he’ll be leaving at the end of 2026, he has to find somewhere else to go, since the driver still wants to race.

Naturally, since he has a winning history with Dodge, it has put RAM in the conversation. However, a bigger question faces us now. It is whether changing the car can give him what he’s looking for: a chance to prove his point. To put a stop to speculation about what he’s expecting out of the move, Brad Keselowski had this to say:

“I feel like in Tier 1 equipment that I can win a lot more races,” he told Bob Pockrass.

Now you see he’s referring to some sort of equipment. So, the RAM connection does naturally come to mind. Brad won the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series championship with Team Penske. That is when Dodge got its last title in the series before they completely withdrew.

Stellantis has come back to NASCAR’s national-tier competition via RAM in the Craftsman Truck Series. RFK Racing’s former employee Kevin Kidd is also linked to the program. So, there is speculation that a possible reunion might be in the works.

But according to Brad Keselowski, that connection isn’t even there yet, at least not through Kidd. When he was asked whether the former RFK employee could help him if he joined RAM, Keselowski did say something about why these names were being taken together, but also made his position pretty clear:

“I can understand why someone would like to link him and myself together. I have not had any discussions with Kevin Kidd. I think he’s a really smart guy, but no, I don’t think there’s anything there.”

You have to look at that answer with a critical eye because, although this rumour has a plausible backstory, there is no confirmed deal to back it up. Brad Keselowski’s Dodge history obviously makes it an obvious name. But the manufacturer returning does not automatically mean there’s a seat available for the former champion. Stellantis has expressed an ambition to bring Dodge back to Cup racing, but RAM’s current Truck Series program is not proof that a Cup entry might be ready for Keselowski.

If we’re looking at options, Kaulig Racing is another one of them because it also fields RAM trucks. However, the team president, Chris Rice, has denied discussing a driving opportunity with Keselowski, even if Dodge does come back to Cup. That puts forth two important differences. Keselowski has not ruled out every opportunity in the sport, but neither Kidd nor Kaulig has given any evidence of having had a deal with him.

His leaving RFK Racing is the reason those possibilities are coming up. This announcement was made on September 29th after five years of driving for the team. He joined it in 2022 as a driver and a co-owner. The split came after months of discussion about his future. RFK wanted him to move to a leading competition role. But Keselowski wanted to keep racing and did not want to sit in that management chair just yet.

But neither side has actually clarified that Brad Keselowski would not be racing now. He’s received calls from around the sport but hasn’t signed a deal for 2027 as of his October 3 media availability at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He’s open to other NASCAR series, including a full-time Truck Series campaign for another championship. But right now, his preference for the right opportunity to find him is clear.

Now, coming back to the issue at hand, which Keselowski also pointed to: he’s only won one race in the Cup Series after coming to RFK. It was his 2024 Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. For a 36-time Cup winner and a former champion, that is not something he would have appreciated. Yet he argues second-place finishes and uncontrollable circumstances tell a fuller story.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ve only won once in the last five years, but I think I’ve got like eight or nine second-place finishes and a lot of, you know, shoulda, woulda, couldas and were outside of our control.”

You have to look at that argument with a limitation. Second-place finishes do not automatically say that a driver would have won if the car had been fast, and every team can take a missed opportunity as a reason. But Brad Keselowski is still asking a fair question. Should a driver’s recent win total be treated as the final measure of his ability when the equipment has not shown up for him consistently?

He also said something about Mark Martin’s career around 2004 and 2005, when there were doubts about his results. But they did not prevent him from racing competitively with Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Hendrick Motorsports after that.

“When you’re not in the right opportunity, it doesn’t matter who you are as a driver.”

That is where his assessment of RFK also comes forth as a defense of his own record. Brad Keselowski, of course, joined the team to make it better, and consistently, he’s appreciated the progress made since he joined. However, he does not believe that the team has still reached that top-tier level, saying in a media availability:

“There’s an old Kevin Harvick saying: you can’t make a slow race car go fast, and you can’t drive a slow race car fast. It’s just how it is. And I don’t think our cars are awful, but clearly we’re not Tier 1.”

Bob Pockrass then asked him whether RFK could reach that level. Brad Keselowski did not write it off, but his answer was something like this:

“Yeah, there’s always been potential for RFK to be Tier 1.”

So, you clearly understand that he does believe in this organization that he’s been a part of. However, he’s not going to wait around for it to improve or translate into measurable wins and results.