The Texas race was one to forget for many drivers. Denny Hamlin is foremost on that list. He meticulously worked his way through to the top only to get his hopes dashed by a final-lap smoking crash. The notorious turns of the Texas track claimed Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, and others.

Yet one veteran racer prevailed amidst all that chaos. Brad Keselowski and his team deftly dodged the caution hiccups. He expertly climbed the ladder from the 22nd spot to a runner-up finish. The No. 6 team’s efforts even impressed Richard Petty.

Keselowski’s impeccable strategy arrested Richard Petty’s attention

Keselowski may be going through a 107-race winless drought. But considering his stellar performance in the Lone Star state, he is close to breaking it. The 276-lap affair in Texas was decked with a whopping 16 cautions. Yet the RFK Racing driver took advantage of those pit stops and gained track position slowly but steadily.

Brad Keselowski’s prowess caught the attention of a NASCAR legend: Richard ‘The King’ Petty. Recently, the 200-Cup winner sat down with his old-time friend and past crew chief, Dale Inman, to dissect the Texas race. At first, they talked about the crashes that characterized most of the race. 

Petty guffawed at the aggressive nature of the race, saying, “Even the last lap, they were crashing.” Inman quipped, “Once Chase took the white flag, and then I guess about a corner into the race, the race was over. You know, and then they were wrecking behind him.”

Petty brought up Tyler Reddick, who was able to take advantage of Ross Chastain’s wreck to get ahead. “When they spun the 1 car, he was able to get through the crowd and get back up there.” But Reddick’s fortunes were axed by Brad Keselowski’s speed on lap 245.

Richard Petty revealed his opinion about Brad Keselowski’s team. “I guess to me the real surprise to me of the whole race was the 6 car winding up second. I don’t know if he ever got laps, but he was way back in the field when he was running. But the deal was, he was up front strategy-wise, with good tires. And he was able to race with those guys. So whatever the 6 crowd done, they got to run second on strategy more than how good the car ran.”

Richard Petty’s acknowledgment further cemented Keselowski’s superior performance in Texas. A remarkable crew and dedicated teamwork went a long way in ensuring the runner-up finish.

Keselowski hailed his hard-working team

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As Richard Petty rightly identified, RFK Racing’s No. 6 team had an impeccable pit strategy. Keselowski hung outside the top 15 in the first 100 laps. But the team was very patient, as one caution after another in stage 2 put track position in their hands. If not for the Ricky Stenhouse Jr caution on lap 228 that stole Keselowski’s tire advantage, the team might have tasted a win.

Keselowski saluted his team post-race. “It just shows that we have good spirit. Culture is good…We were a 15th-place car most of the day, maybe a little worse than that, and we just kept putting ourselves in position and racing hard and racing smart and making good calls on pit road, executing on pit road. We’re able to put ourselves in a top five and a top-two finish of it. I’m really proud of that.”

As we inch closer to the Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, Keselowski is also edging closer to a possible end to his winless streak.