NASCAR’s “Cat in the Hat” Unravels Forgotten Tale Amidst Brad Keselowski’s RFK Racing Dominance

From earning a degree in mathematics to being a development engineer for Ford and eventually creating a NASCAR racing team, the career trajectory of 80-year-old Jack Roush has had quite a few spring-ups. It was in 1988 that the man decided to dip his feet into the world of NASCAR. But what would a former Ford employee and once college physics teacher possibly have known about the intricacies of stock-car racing then? 30 years later, he has answered that question by building his team into one of the most successful franchises in the history of motorsports.

RFK Racing currently fields two strong cars in the Cup Series grid. Behind the wheels of the #6 and #17 Ford Mustang GTs sit the experienced Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher. As both the Mustangs power the tracks in the playoff stage in 2023, their owner Jack Roush opened up to NASCAR about an interesting story of his.

The background of the magical hat that set Jack Roush’s NASCAR fashion apart

Almost 16 years back, Jack Roush and the Fenway Sports Group decided to bring their two powerhouses together. What they ended up creating was a partnership that would win 325 Cup Series wins, five owner championships, and three driver’s championships. But Jack Roush’s impact does not stop there. Through his engineering expertise, he helped create multiple safety innovations that are now a standard in NASCAR. Away from the grid, his company also supplies automotive parts to many continents across the globe. But all these accolades and achievements are not what make him an adored fashion icon in the racing world. Rather, it is his seagrass fedora hat.

As famed as Jack Roush is for winning, he is equally known for the sponsorless straw hat that he always wears. As it turns out, it wasn’t even him that chose to buy it. Telling the tale of how it came to be on NASCAR’s “Untold Stories” series, he narrated an incident that happened in Pocono in the early 90s. Explaining he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of wearing sponsors’ hats, he said, “We were downtown in Detroit. I sent my assistant up to one of the Men’s stores in the riverfront there. […] I said see if you can find me something I could wear the church on Sunday, I don’t want a cowboy hat. And so she brought this seagrass Fedora back.”

Going further to explain how he got the name “Cat in the Hat,” he talked about how former racer Benny Parsons had seen what he was doing with the hats and called him “Cat in the Hat,” which eventually stuck. Whether a lucky charm or not, the straw hat’s magic certainly seems to be working for RFK racing, as the “K” in its name keeps bringing success back home.

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Jack Roush’s partner and driver Brad Keselowski keeps the flag flying high

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When Brad Keselowski signed onto the Roush Fenway partnership as a driver and owner in 2022, the Ford team wasn’t in the best of spots. Currently in the second year of the mission to the top, Keselowski has taken it to peaks that it has not seen in over a decade. When he moved from Team Penske to RFK, the common opinion was that Jack had handed him the partnership papers just so that he would sign on as a driver. But in contrast to that thought, Brad has been in the victory only as the team’s owner ever since and not as a driver. Leading the organization as its voice and face, he has also played a huge role in the success of his teammate Chris Buescher.

All in all, he has proven that the words he said when he got aboard the RFK ship were more of promises. As reported by forbes.com, he’d said, “I am optimistic about what Jack, John and I can accomplish together, especially with a new era for our sport on the horizon [with the Next Gen car]. Our goal is to win races and compete for championships at NASCAR’s top level. I feel like I’m buying into a stock as it’s going up.”

With both the team’s cars going strong into the second stage of the playoffs, RFK appears set to challenge for the title. But Jack Roush and Brad Keselowski will not be resting until they have the cup in their bag. Both have long acquired a taste for victory and there’s no saying that they will settle for any less in 2023. We will soon be seeing Mustang GTs in RFK colors speeding through the Texas Motor Speedway. Log in to the Essentially Sports NASCAR page for updates on the race weekend!

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