Earlier this year at Darlington, when Brad Keselowski ended his three-year wait for a win, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shared his happiness and was emotional. Earnhardt Jr. has been by Keselowski’s side for many of his career milestones and he was also responsible for providing the RFK driver with his first big break. In fact, Earnhardt Jr. extended a helping hand when Keselowski was down on his luck when it came to money.

Before Brad Keselowski became a NASCAR Cup Series champion and co-owner of RFK Racing, he was just a young driver chasing a dream. His family’s legacy in motorsport came with plenty of passion but, contrary to popular belief, not a lot of cash. So when the opportunity of a lifetime came knocking, Keselowski had to figure out a way to make it work. In a recent chat, Brad opened up about how a single phone call from Dale Earnhardt Jr. changed everything for him.

A phone call, a plane ticket, and a life-changing move

Speaking with YouTuber Stapleton42, on Sunday, Keselowski went down memory lane taking a trip to his hometown of Detroit, where they stopped by a whole host of iconic spots in his origin story. One of them was his old house, where he received the aforementioned phone call from the NASCAR legend. As he reminisced, the 2012 Cup Series champion took viewers back to a fateful day 17 years ago: July 4th, 2007.

At 23 years old, Brad Keselowski was ready to take a big leap into the unknown. He had been trying to make a name for himself in the racing world, but there was one big problem: he was flat-broke. “I moved to North Carolina on my own on July 4th, 2007. I was I guess 20 what have I been 23? I didn’t have any money. I didn’t grow up rich. I was a racer or at least trying to be a racer. And I remember, Dale Jr. called me. He asked if I want to drive his race car. Absolutely, I want to, but I told him I don’t have any money to get to North Carolina.” said Keselowski.

Instead of letting Keselowski’s financial situation become a deal-breaker, Dale Earnhardt Jr. offered him a lifeline. “He said, ‘You can just stay in my guest house.’ And I lived in his guest house for probably a year.” Imagine that—showing up in North Carolina with nothing but a suitcase, only to find yourself living with one of the biggest names to ever grace the sport of NASCAR. Keselowski still remembers his very first day there.

“So I remember it was July 4th, 2007, because I showed up at his guest house and it was like totally on brand for Dale at that time. This is my day one in North Carolina, living with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and he threw a party. And it was like ‘wow, I really made it here,’” he recalled with a laugh.

But despite the warm welcome, Brad knew this was no guaranteed ticket to the big leagues. “I was fully prepared, you know, being around racing long enough, opportunities come and go. I didn’t know if it was gonna stick,” he said.

Keselowski made his NASCAR debut in the Camping World Truck Series in 2004. His only full-time season at the Camping World Truck level came a year later. In 2006, he ran his first race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Auto Club Speedway in the No. 23 Love FiFi Chevrolet for Keith Coleman Racing.

By 2007, he was trying to establish himself in the Xfinity Series having competed in most of the season. Nearly midway through the season, he received that fateful call from Dale Earnhardt Jr., who offered him the chance to drive the No. 88 U.S. Navy Chevrolet.

But in the beginning of his move, he didn’t even have a car to make the move himself. “I didn’t own a car until I was probably 25. Dale bought me a plane ticket, and somebody picked me up at the airport,” he shared. That someone was NASCAR spotter TJ Majors, who drove him to his new home at Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s guest house. Funnily enough, fully expecting the dream to be short-lived, Brad had only packed enough clothes for a three-day trip. “That’s all I brought with me to North Carolina,” he laughed. “I didn’t know if this was gonna last, so why pack everything?”

Life in North Carolina was a huge leap of faith, but it paid off in ways Brad couldn’t have imagined. Growing up in suburban Detroit, the Keselowski family put every penny they had into racing. His father, Bob Keselowski, was a familiar face in the NASCAR Truck Series, known for his number 29 Dodge Ram, while his uncle Ron competed in the Cup Series back in the ‘70s.

But the family’s dedication to the sport didn’t come with financial security. “We didn’t have any money, right? My family put everything they had in racing,” Brad admitted. “I was very fortunate to kind of breakthrough, but there were never any guarantees.”

It didn’t take long for Keselowski to start making waves in the racing world. He formed his own team, Brad Keselowski Racing (BKR), in 2007. By 2008, he was competing in the Truck Series, driving the No. 29 Chevrolet and even earning his own team’s first Top 10 finish. And he wasn’t done there.

Simultaneously, he joined forces with Dale Jr.’s JR Motorsport team in the Cup series, where he picked up his first race win at the Nashville Super Speedway. While Brad himself was making a name for himself as a driver, his team earned its first Cup series victory in 2012, thanks to eventual 2023 champion Ryan Blaney’s win at Iowa Speedway. This was also the same year Keselowski etched his name indelibly in NASCAR history as a Cup Series Champion. Brad went on to notch up 36 career wins and 155 top fives (and counting), cementing his name as one of stock car racing’s modern greats.

But the journey as a team owner was rife with crests and troughs. By 2017, Keselowski had to make the tough decision to close down BKR. “I was hopeful to reopen the team in the future and turn it into a Cup Series team,” he said at the time. That dream partially came to fruition in 2022 when he became a co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, rebranding it as Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing (RFK). And it turns out Keselowski’s presence has breathed new life into the team, as the 40-year-old took the team to their first win since 2017 in Darlington this year.

His story came full circle as he even ended up buying the guest house he once stayed in, repurposing it to do what Dale Earnhardt Jr. did for him. “I had to buy the house in the process because it was getting foreclosed on,” he revealed. “So I bought the house, and now my niece lives in it.”

Looking back on leaving home, Keselowski knows how lucky he was to have Dale Jr. in his corner almost 20 years ago. “I didn’t know if it was gonna work out. But it did, and now it’s just life. It moves on, right?” Brad said.

Meanwhile, as Keselowski remains indebted to Earnhardt Jr. for showing belief in him and giving him his big break, Jr. has been keen to show his support for his former driver and their bond was once again in its full glory after Darlington.

Brad Keselowski’s Darlington win made Dale Earnhardt Jr. emotional

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When Keselowski took the chequered flag at Darlington this year, he ended his three-year wait for a win. While the moment in itself was profound, something else caught Earnhardt Jr.’s attention.

“There was a moment in that post-race interview when he saw his little girl hugging his leg and went down, looked at her, and picked her up where he just about broke. I know that emotion is in there and he won’t show it if he can help it. That was an emotional moment watching that as a father, imagining, ‘Wow, I can almost feel what he must be feeling right now,'” Earnhardt Jr. said on his podcast.

Over the years, Keselowski has shown his gratitude to Earnhardt Jr., even sharing a heartfelt message on Facebook after the latter’s Hall of Fame induction. “Others might know him as the son of a legend… to me he’s the guy who gave me a big break. Congratulations on the HOF,” he posted.

Brad’s journey from broke racer to one of the wealthiest and most successful drivers in the sport is truly inspirational, even more so considering he’s never forgotten the people who helped him along the way. And to think, it all started with a phone call from Dale Earnhardt Jr. and a plane ticket to North Carolina.