Brad Keselowski knows the feel of steel as well as the feel of the wheel. Such has been his experience at RFK Racing – a NASCAR race team whose dynamic nature knows no bounds. Although the team was dormant for some years before Keselowski’s arrival, Roush Yates’s manufacturing brand was very active. This brand may be well-prepared to pave NASCAR’s race car future.

The Next-Gen car, as we are well aware, is made from spec parts assigned by different vendors. Yates had already dipped his toes there – with Cup Series drivers wheeling a car partly made by his brand. Now Roush Manufacturing is ready to take up more space in the Gen 7 car if the rumor mills are true.

Roush set to dominate NASCAR’s innovation 

Roush Yates Manufacturing, founded in 2008 as a division of Roush Yates Engines, received a boost in 2021. It ventured outside of motorsports and diversified its services for the defense, aerospace, and industrial sectors.

Doug Yates said then, “We had a really good group of people, very talented people and a lot of equipment. It set us up to go out, branch out, and make parts outside of racing.” Now the company is all set to increase its influence in the NASCAR Cup Series.

When the Next-Gen car debuted in 2022, Roush manufactured a few parts like anti-roll bars, shifters, transaxle mounts, etc. Now a rumor is afloat that another spec part manufacturer is exiting, leaving its responsibility – control arms – in Roush’s hands. “For those that care, I hear that the Next Gen control arm manufacturer, Visser Precision (owned by Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser), is getting out of NASCAR, and Roush Manufacturing will take over, I assume starting in 2025. Roush already makes some components for the car.”

This marks a major development, echoing Roush’s earlier ventures as well. For instance, one of its primary clients is L3Harris Technologies, and the division helps make military communication devices. It was also in talks with SpaceX to work on its Starlink satellite system. Similarly, their racing component is faring no worse. Although Brad Keselowski got eliminated in the Round of 16, RFK Racing has grown in the past two years. Chris Buescher spoiled playoff drivers’ hopes at Watkins Glen as he snapped his year-long winless streak.

These are just a few instances where Jack Roush’s enterprise has produced magic. He paved the way for a brighter future in NASCAR in 2021 with a unique milestone.

RFK is leading the way

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Previously known as Roush Fenway Racing, the NASCAR Cup Series team underwent a period of downfall. Once a five-car powerhouse competing for championships, it shrunk to two cars before 2017. Carl Edwards led the team to weekly wins until 2014. After that, it won only two drafting races under Ricky Stenhouse Jr in 2017 (until Keselowski took over in 2023). But even amidst their drab race performance, the team’s idealistic approach was on point. In 2021, it became the first team in all of NASCAR to go carbon neutral through the PAS 2060 standard.

The team began recycling equipment from its racecars more and worked with Ford to reduce its carbon footprint. To celebrate this milestone, Castrol decked up Ryan Newman’s No. 6 car at the 2021 Daytona race. Roush Fenway Racing president Steve Newmark said, “We’ve always prided ourselves in being environmentally conscious to reduce our overall waste, recycle the cars, solar orientation of our buildings and those were one-off projects, driven by our chief sustainability officer. We didn’t have a holistic approach to sustainability.”

RFK Racing‘s advanced approach started even before Brad Keselowski’s entry. We expect to see revamped Next Gen cars under Roush’s leadership.