Kyle Petty gives Brad Keselowski props for getting back to victory lane after long drought
Brad Keselowski finally made his way back to victory lane with a win in this past Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.
It had been 110 races since Keselowski had won a NASCAR Cup Series race, a skid spanning three years’ worth of races. Among those happy to see Keselowski back in the winner’s circle was Kyle Petty, who said Monday that he was “rewarded” for battling through the recent lull in his future Hall of Fame career.
“Brad Keselowski for three years’ worth of races, has not won,” Petty said. “He went over there [RFK Racing] to start this team, to bring Roush Racing back, to bring RFK back to the prominence that it once had. That was his dream. That was his goal. And I think that if we go back to when Brad first won his championship [2012], he said, ‘I just wanna be a great champion for this sport.’
“I think Brad has maintained that great championship and that great champion honor. All through these winless races and all through this time finally, he was rewarded yesterday. That is a huge moment for a guy like Brad K who came from nothing to be a champion and built this team back to be a winning team under his guidance.”
Brad Keselowski gets first win in RFK Racing tenure
Keselowski, 40, inherited the lead with less than 10 laps to go after RFK teammate Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick, P1 and P2 at the time, came to pit road after making contact with one another. Keselowski took it home to collect his 36th Cup Series victory and first since coming over to RFK from Team Penske ahead of the 2022 season.
“What a heck of a day,” Keselowski said after the race. “It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win, your last win, this is a really special track. The history of NASCAR, it’s as tough as it gets, and that battle at the end with my teammate [Buescher], Tyler Reddick, we just laid it all out on the line, it was freaking awesome. I thought it couldn’t get much better than Kansas. It did today. That was awesome.”