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What Else Does Brad Keselowski Have to Do as He Edges Closer and Closer to His First Win?

Published 04/27/2024, 6:04 AM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

Now that the 2024 Cup Series season is well underway, the driver standings reveal an unpleasant story for some of NASCAR’s greatest veterans. Turns out, Kyle Busch isn’t the only team-owner/driver that is eager to turn the tables with a win in the 2024 season. For Brad Keselowski, the wait for a visit to victory lane has been even longer, lasting for a staggering 1098 days.

With that being said, the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing co-owner has the edge over Busch as he continues to climb toward victory with stellar finishes as of late. After missing out on his first win for RFK Racing as Tyler Reddick pulled away with a 0.208 second lead, the long wait for Keselowski’s return to the top step may finally be over within the next few weeks.

Can Brad Keselowski turn his fortunes around at Dover International Speedway?

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As a team owner, it’s no secret that Brad Keselowski has been openly critical about NASCAR’s decision to reduce practice time. However, as for the driving side of his duties, the #6 Mustang Darkhorse driver’s results speak for themselves. After kickstarting the season with inconsistent results until the Ambetter Health 400, Keselowski began to reel in the top positions at Phoenix and finally stepped on that podium at Bristol. In both races, Keselowski had qualified outside the top 15 and carved his way through the field.

Despite COTA and Martinsville throwing curveballs at the #6 driver, Keselowski managed to recollect himself at Texas Motor Speedway. After qualifying in the middle of the field with P22, the RFK Racing co-owner brought home a special second-place finish. Soon enough, Déjà vu struck Keselowski at Talladega, as he once again made it to second from P22. However, this time around, victory was the closest it had ever been in the past few seasons.

Unfortunately, the late block from the #34 of Michael McDowell caught Keselowski off-guard, resulting in Martin Truex Jr bumping Tyler Reddick into the lead. At the end of the day, Keselowski had lost out on his comeback win in typical NASCAR fashion. Still, as NASCAR heads to the Monster Mile at Dover, the RFK owner is in the prime spot to take home the win. According to DriverAverages, in 25 races at Dover, Keselowski has finished in the top-ten 11 times and has also visited victory lane on one occasion in 2012.

After last weekend’s misery at the GEICO 500, Keselowski finds himself in a sticky situation as the favorable tracks for the Fords are slowly disappearing. Naturally, some RFK Racing fans were quick to point out that Keselowski should have been more cautious on the chaotic restart. However, another veteran NASCAR driver came to the RFK Racing co-owner’s defense by highlighting the true culprit behind Talladega’s last-lap debacle.

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Kevin Harvick pulls no punches against Toyota for their role in Keselowski’s Talladega misery

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After Brad Keselowski lost out to Tyler Reddick despite being in prime position for the win, Kevin Harvick dissected the last lap incident that triggered the chaos leading to Reddick’s first win for 23XI Racing. The former SHR star turned NASCAR on FOX analyst took fans over the onboards from the final lap, and how Tyler Reddick was in fact in the better spot compared to Brad Keselowski as Michael McDowell spun out.

Still, Harvick pointed out that it wasn’t Reddick that had caused Keselowski heartbreak at the end of the day. The Harvick’s Happy Hour host shared on the podcast, “When you go back even further, Reddick was put in that position just because of the pure bonehead move from the seven or eight Toyotas that were drafting together. They had kind of fooled everybody on the strategy and put themselves in a position to be really in control of the race.”

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Calling it a ‘bonehead’ move, Harvick felt that the TRD drivers including Nemechek, Hamlin, Wallace, and Erik Jones, should not have managed to wreck while driving in a single file. After all, if we could have had four wide overtakes just a few weeks prior, what led to such a major wreck? Harvick concluded by sharing his disappointment with the TRD strategy, “You saw that play out for a couple of them but the other four of five of them were wrecked running in a single file line. There’s always things that can happen but that is just a terrible terrible move by the group of Toyotas that were running there together.”

Now that the chaos of the GEICO 500 is behind us and the Cup Series makes its way toward Dover, do you think Brad Keselowski will finally break the dry spell?

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Written by:

Kabir Bajaj Ahmed

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Kabir Bajaj Ahmed is an F1 & NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports. Known for his storytelling and extensive research skills, he has covered multiple stories on Dale Earnhardt Jr and his legendary dad, allowing readers to relive the thunderous days of 'The Intimidator'. Being a racer himself, Kabir can resonate with the motorsport world better than most.
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Edited by:

Abhishek Manikandan