The NASCAR Cup Series is one of the most competitive motorsports series in the world, so it’s no surprise that team owners are always looking for opportunities to one-up their rivals. To do that, Brad Keselowski has expressed his interest in taking Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing into IMSA. The move would come as a full-circle moment for Jack Roush, who tried his luck in the competition in the early 80s before moving over to NASCAR.
Ever since Keselowski joined as a co-owner of RFK Racing, the team has seen a complete turnaround. They are a lot more competitive than they used to be in the recent past. In the 2023 Cup Series season, the team picked up three race wins including a 1-2 finish at Daytona, and had both drivers in the playoffs. So if Keselowski wants to do something to improve the team’s racing ability, chances are that it will be heeded.
Brad Keselowski explains his vision to help drivers master road course racing
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According to a recent report by Autoweek, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion believes that IMSA participation will help drivers understand road course racing a lot better. NASCAR is slowly delving more and more into road courses and Brad Keselowski’s vision makes complete sense. However, the veteran racer also confirmed that RFK Racing won’t be venturing into the Xfinity or Truck Series anytime soon.
“As NASCAR continues to get heavier and heavier into road course racing, I think that pedigree (IMSA) offers a lot of advantages to the ecosystem of a successful Cup team,” Keselowski said. “I don’t see us on a path to an Xfinity or Truck team in the near future.”
I’ve got a good feeling about 2024. pic.twitter.com/ddMWTjvHi2
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) January 2, 2024
Fans are used to big-time Cup Series teams fielding cars in the Xfinity or Truck Series but the IMSA route is not something a lot of teams take. But that does not mean that it has not happened before. Ford sent two of its drivers only last year to take part in the competition, Zane Smith and Hailie Deegan.
NASCAR owns IMSA, whose LMP2 cars compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship. So Brad Keselowski believes that there’s no reason for the organization to compete with its product. The fact that the Next-Gen was designed with sports cars in mind, the kind that runs in IMSA.
“There’s no reason for NASCAR to compete with its own product of IMSA. You look at their (IMSA) car counts at some of these races and their interest, it’s through the roof. I think it’s good to have those as two separate products and ecosystems,” he added.
However, IMSA is not the primary goal of RFK Racing at the moment. That would be having a third full-time driver seat and the preparations are in full swing.
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A third RFK Racing team imminent in the Cup Series
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The team will have a part-time third team in the 2024 Cup Series called #Stage60. The main focus of that team will be on the superspeedway and road course races. The #60 RFK Racing car will be driven by David Ragan and fans can hope to see the project in action for the first time at the upcoming Daytona 500. Back in December, Brad Keselowski explained the principle behind having a third car.
“The principle behind it was, ‘hey, we want to get to a third car,’ but just going out, and even if you were to go buy a charter tomorrow and even if you were to sign the right partners tomorrow, you still would need to have people and have assets. And so we realized that we needed to kind of crawl, walk, and run our way to making that a successful venture. I think the premise behind Daytona is that’s probably one of the actually easier races for us to run, with respect to selling a partner, bringing in a good driver like David, and then the success that we’ve had with our cars at those tracks, we felt really confident that we could go there and be competitive,” the 2012 Cup Series champion said as per NASCAR.com.
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With the season only a few weeks away, Keselowski will be hoping that his #Stage60 project gets off to a good start. Will the former NASCAR champion’s plan be a success or will it come crashing down? Let us know your thoughts.
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