Fresh off RFK Racing’s first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season, Brad Keselowski kept the team’s momentum going Saturday by claiming the pole for Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Following Chris Buescher’s win at Bristol Motor Speedway, the driver / co-owner won his first pole since 2019 with a top speed of 188.990 mph around the 1.5-mile track.
“That was a heckuva lap. I was proud to show my speed and be starting on the front row on pole,” Keselowski said. “This is a tough track to qualify at because the speeds are so high and the track is so slick and hot. We were able to put a lap together. Three and four was one of those gutsy laps where you hold it wide open through there and hope it sticks. It was really close but we made it through. That was probably the difference maker.
“I haven’t gone back and seen all the data but I just committed to running through it wide open and it made it. Credit to Matt McCall, the crew chief of the team here who worked on the car. We unloaded a little bit with that warmup session and we weren’t bad but we weren’t good enough. We made two good changes and here we are. We had a great test in Miami here this week and learned a lot and we applied some of that here to what we have today and got some results from it.”
It’s RFK Racing’s second pole of the season after Buescher claimed his first career pole at Dover Motor Speedway. This is RFK Racing’s first season with multiple poles since 2013.
“It is a super exciting time for me and for our company here at RFK with a lot of the progress we have made over the last few months and now it is actually starting to show up. It has been a painful journey, but a good one. I am proud of our lap. It didn’t come unearned but we have a long way to go tomorrow for 500 miles here in Texas.”
As he starts first on Sunday, Keselowski and the No. 6 team will attempt to give RFK Racing back-to-back Cup wins for the first time since 2010. A trip to victory lane for Keselowski would also mean four straight wins by non-playoff drivers to start the postseason.
Joining Keselowski on the front row is his former teammate, Joey Logano. The Team Penske driver posted a speed of 188.805 mph.
Completing the top five is William Byron, Tyler Reddick and Michael McDowell.
It’s McDowell’s first top five qualifying spot this year that didn’t come on a superspeedway or road course.
Rounding out the top 10 for Sunday’s race is Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez.
Click here for the NASCAR Cup at Texas starting lineup
While Keselowski was fastest in qualifying, he was only the ninth fastest overall in practice.
The best overall speeds were posted by Richard Childress Racing, as Dillon was P1 (187.643 mph) and Reddick was P2 (187.526).
Logano has the best 10-lap average at 185.528 mph.
Click here for the NASCAR Cup practice results.