DARLINGTON, S.C. — The revival of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing has been a relatively slow process. Brad Keselowski signed on as an owner-driver in 2022 with hopes of returning the team founded by Jack Roush to its glory days, and the process has been challenged by detours, hurdles and accelerated efforts by the competition.
The team has won just once since Keselowski scored almost two years ago at Darlington Raceway.
On Sunday, on an unusually hot day and on a track that eats tires like Homer Simpson throws down donuts, RFK almost flipped its script in a very big way, showing the kind of full-race strength the team needs weekly to return to the fast lanes of the Cup Series.
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There was no win for the RFK colors (Tyler Reddick ran through, by and around the RFK Fords and, by the way, the rest of the field to breeze to the win), but the day’s results were as close to victory as is possible without taking home the big trophy. Keselowski led a race-high 142 laps (almost double Reddick’s total), won the first two stages and finished second. Chris Buescher was a better-than-it-sounds ninth, and Ryan Preece was 13th.
At one point in the second stage, the RFK Mustangs — all donning throwback tributes to Greg Biffle — were running one-two-three on the hard road that is Darlington, and somewhere Jack Roush, who had been celebrated by the team and some of its former drivers at a gathering only a few days ago, was smiling.
All three RFK drivers made point gains Sunday.
Last year, with the team still evolving, Keselowski, Buescher and Preece combined for 43 top-10 finishes. None of those ended in Victory Lane, however, so the climb continued with the dawn of a new season. Sunday was a big leap.
“We needed some speed to run with the 45 (Reddick),” Jeremy Bullins, Keselowski’s crew chief, said. “You know, if you go all the way back to last year, we had a lot of problems and had a lot of things go wrong, but we had plenty of races last year that showed what we are capable of. Today was an opportunity for everybody coming here with a new package for this place and trying to be good, and we were. A lot to be proud of today. All three cars were good.”
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Keselowski climbed from his car with the sweat and grime of the day marking his face but seemed quite pleased, all things considered, even after riding through another Sunday with a damaged leg, the cane he still needs waiting for him post-race.
“All in all, a great day for us,” he said. “Won two stages, led a lot of laps, scored a bunch of points. So, a lot to be proud of. The team just needs a little pace. All three of our cars are executing really well and getting good finishes. With a little bit of pace, we can win these races. We’re showing ourselves as a team that is highly capable.”
Early-race evidence indicated that Keselowski and Buescher, who led 41 laps, were strong enough to possibly race each other for the win, a moment that would have sealed RFK’s rebirth. That idea faded, but they raced together lap after lap in close quarters and danced a tightrope between wrecking each other — sometimes too close for comfort — and rolling along in a fun tandem at the front.
Preece dropped out of the front pack but said the team’s triple dose of strength early in the race showed growth across the board.
“It felt really good to drive up to the top three, and all of us were right there just working hard,” Preece said. “That’s a huge testament to Brad Keselowski, Jack Roush and RFK and all the men and women at the shop because you can’t drive slow cars fast and we don’t have slow cars.
“I think it all starts back to November, the day after Phoenix. You know, I may not look like Carl Edwards, but I promise you I am in that gym and I am working as hard as anybody. And what I noticed is Brad was in there every day, up until his leg got hurt and what happened. That determination and drive, just because what happened, you’ve got two roads that you can go down. You can play the ‘poor me’ route or you can get up on the horse and figure it out, and he did. They’re running really strong, and we’re all as a company working toward that goal of every week that we show up, you’re going to worry about us.”
For a long time Sunday they had to worry about each other, a relatively unusual circumstance. The end results left the team eager to go again. Next stop: Martinsville.