When Brad Keselowski walked away from Team Penske after 2021, it was like a pit road pile-up in the NASCAR world. The 2012 Cup champ didn’t just switch teams; he bought into the struggling Roush Fenway Racing, rebranding it RFK Racing with a promise to drag it back to glory. Once a juggernaut with back-to-back titles from Matt Kenseth in 2003 and Kurt Busch in 2004, the team had hit rock bottom, going winless in the Cup Series from 2017 to 2021.

Keselowski wasn’t just there to drive; he was there to rebuild, vowing to bring new tech and a fresh mindset to a team that’d lost its spark. It was a bold bet on a legacy that’d gone cold. The turnaround’s been a wild ride. After a brutal 2022 of growing pains, RFK roared back in 2023 with Chris Buescher nabbing three wins. Keselowski himself snapped a 110-race drought in May 2024, proving RFK was no longer a mid-pack afterthought. But it didn’t come easy. Keselowski had to shake things up, and that meant sidelining some of the old ways to make room for a new RFK legacy.

Keselowski’s blueprint for RFK’s revival

On a recent Stacking Pennies podcast with Corey LaJoie, Keselowski got real about the overhaul: “Well, it’s a big task and I’m still taking it and it’s not a you know mission’s not accomplished. You know the mission’s not really ever accomplished, but there are signs that you’re where you want to be when you can contend for race, wins, and championships on a weekly or yearly basis.” His game plan?

A three-pronged attack, he calls RPP: resources, people, processes. “The first thing you start with, then, is up to the resources and then acquainting the place with adding the tools you need to have to do your job so you can actually be held accountable for it. It is the high culture of accountability,” he said. It’s not just talk. When Keselowski joined in 2022, RFK was a shadow of its 2000s glory days, when Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and Busch were title threats. By 2021, they were stuck in neutral, winless, and outgunned by teams like Hendrick and Penske. He made a strategic move to modernize RFK Racing, effectively sidelining some of Jack Roush’s traditional methods.

He dug deeper, “The biggest problem is a long accountability was signed to people who didn’t have the tools to be successful, and that really bothered me. So give me the tools, right is the place to start, and then you can come back on the back side and say All right? It is personal. Well, now that they have the right tools, can I really fairly answer that question?”

Keselowski saw a team hamstrung by outdated tech, lagging simulators, weak data analytics, and poured cash into engineering upgrades. It was a page from his Penske days, where top-tier tools fueled his 2012 title. RFK’s turnaround started showing in 2023, with Buescher’s three wins and a 2024 season where both drivers made the playoffs, a first since 2014. Keselowski’s Darlington triumph was the cherry on top, proof that the tools were working.

Meanwhile, Roush was stepping back from day-to-day operations, giving more space to Keselowski. He said, “I enjoy passing the baton to Brad. Steve questioned me if I was really willing to do that and I said, ‘Well, as long as I can keep one hand on it for a while, it will work for me.’”

The final piece? “Staying here and then you work your way, or okay if I get the right person. I’ve got better resources, and we’re still not getting the right results. Do we have the right processes? And you know you tried to drive all three of those in it, inevitably, that they’re connected,” said Keselowski.

Keselowski’s not just tinkering, he’s rewiring the whole operation. RFK’s old habit of swapping crew chiefs and drivers without fixing the core issues, like aero or sim tech, kept them stuck. His systems approach, rare in NASCAR’s old-school gut-driven world, has RFK contending again. It’s a nod to Jack Roush’s legacy but a clear pivot, sidelining the legendary owner’s outdated ways for a modern edge that’s got fans cheering.

Next Gen struggles test Keselowski’s vision

Keselowski’s RFK rebuild isn’t just about the front office; it’s about fighting through the grind of NASCAR’s Next Gen car, a beast that’s tested his skills and his team. On Stacking Pennies, he didn’t sugarcoat it: “The Next Gen car changed me in some ways for the worse as a driver because you have to drive it way differently. The cars in 2008, 2009, first off, were significantly faster… My first Cup start was at Texas, and you could literally spin the tires off the corner, you spun the tires up.”

Now? “You can’t spin the tires on a restart. Like, I’m in the zone, mash it, here it goes [and it’s] like I’m in an old pickup truck.” The 670-hp Next Gen’s a slug compared to 2009’s 900-hp rockets. Ryan Blaney’s 2025 New Hampshire pole at 29.159 seconds lags Keselowski’s 2014 record of 27.281. Even worse, Corey Heim’s Truck Series pole beat it.

“It’s different because the other cars that I’ve raced, throttle control was paramount… And this car, it’s like the antithesis of that. You’ve got to like just smash the pedal. That’s been hard for me personally,” Keselowski admitted. His 35 Cup wins pre-2022 dwarf his one since joining RFK, with a career-low 24th in 2022 and 20th this year. Buescher’s struggled too, missing playoffs in 2022 and 2024. “I have to remind myself to just drive it stupid, you know?” he laughed.

Younger drivers, raised on Next Gen, burn tires fast, lacking the finesse Keselowski honed. He’s pushing for more power: “I am definitely Team Horsepower… It looks like NASCAR is going to change the rules next year to where we’re like 740-750.” That bump from 670 hp could spark RFK’s next leap, giving Keselowski’s vision, tools, people, processes, a shot at a title. Sidelining Roush’s old ways for a data-driven future is paying off, but the Next Gen fight shows the legacy’s still a work in progress.