DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Apparently, Brad Keselowski’s decision to become an owner/driver at RFK Racing has infused success back into Jack Roush’s NASCAR team.
After 12 successful seasons at Team Penske, Keselowski made the decision last year that he was leaving that team for a new opportunity at what was then known as Roush Fenway Racing.
So far, so good for the revamped operation as RFK Racing swept both Bluegreen Vacations Duel races Thursday night – the qualifying races for Sunday’s 64th Daytona 500.
Keselowski drove to victory in the first race, defeating former Team Penske teammates Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe.
Chris Buescher swept the night for RFK when he won the second Duel in an exciting last-lap battle that ended with the leader, Joey Logano, hitting the wall coming out of turn two on the last lap.
“It was a heck of a start,” Buescher said. “It’s not the big one. Looking at statistics, I want to back it up in the big race, but what a heck of a way to start the season. It’s not a points paying race, but it’s great to start the season with a win.
“Jack Roush was smiling in victory lane, just like he was when the No. 6 (Keselowski) won the first race.
“Brad came in, said ‘Thank you.’ I don’t know why he thanked me, but it was so cool to see him park it in there after the first race. It opened the opportunity for us to race hard so that we didn’t have to play it safe. We raced hard and it was a massive departure from where we have been.
“This isn’t a 6 or 17 victory, it’s an RFK victory two times over for the night.”
After the first Duel, SPEED SPORT asked Keselowski what the owner thought of the driver’s victory.
“Well, he won’t get fired, which is good,” Keselowski said. “I’ve got a little job security there, but there’s some things I could have done better, I’m sure, but I was good at being patient, putting ourselves in position at the end, and I give a lot of credit for my crew on executing the pit stop really well to put us in position where we could kind of control our own destiny there.
“Then for me it was just finding the right opportunity and capitalizing on it and working with my spotter. That was important once we did get the lead to manage it and keep ourselves there.”
Keselowski’s arrival at Roush’s team has given RFK a confidence level that it hasn’t had in years. It used to be one of the top teams in the NASCAR Cup Series, but in recent years it has been mediocre at best.
To score two victories in a single night has boosted the spirits of one of NASCAR’s proudest organizations.
“It’s just really good,” Keselowski said. “It’s just so important. There’s a lot of guys and gals on my team that have never won a race before. The company hasn’t won a race in five, six years now, five and a half, something like that. That’s any kind of race.
“It’s really important to get that winning habit built up, and the only way you can really do that is to go win. That builds confidence in each other and builds expectations. Not just the expectations, that’s probably not the right word, it builds a reality that those expectations can happen. We had a really poor showing at the Clash, and we needed something to offset that, and this is a great offset for that.”
The two Duels were 60 laps each. Sunday’s Daytona 500 will be 200 laps – or more – of fierce, hard racing. Nobody is aware of that more than Keselowski.
“The 500 will be a lot different than this race,” Keselowski said. “I think the big thing we’re noticing is as the pack increases the cars change pretty dramatically, and then of course on the 500, you’ll have the hotter temperatures because it’ll be during the day. Good Lord willing it doesn’t rain on us, which it looks pretty good for that. That’ll be a whole different set of circumstances that we’ll have to adjust to, but I think I’ve got a really solid team. Most of the team is from the 1 car last year, and they’re built on a really strong foundation. This is something to just keep going from.”
It was also Keselowski’s first win since his father, Bob, passed away during the offseason.
“Yeah, it was special,” he said. “We did get to put the decal on right before the start of the race. Ron Drager from ARCA, he had decals made and asked me if I wanted to run one, and said, hell, yeah. They came in right before the start of the race and put it on the car. I told my dad last year because I knew he was pretty sick, and his prognosis was he wasn’t going to make it through the summer.
“I said, ‘Dad, we’re going to win the Daytona 500,’ and you saw how that went.
“It’s bittersweet that it didn’t happen while he was still alive, but I’m still glad it’s some success.”
With Keselowski’s win in Race No. 1, and Buescher’s first NASCAR win of any kind since 2016, RFK made a statement Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway.
“It makes a statement from our organization and everybody at the shop that we are going to work really hard to put winning cars on the track every week,” Buescher said. “This is a good way to get us heading on the right track.
“It was big. We had speed in practice. We had speed in both Duels and that is a really good statement for all of us. I’m excited about our opportunity, what we believe we have for the rest of the weekend and the rest of the year.”