After last weekend’s race at Charlotte Roval, Alex Bowman’s disqualification sent shockwaves through the NASCAR community. NASCAR officials cited that the #48 Chevy was underweight in the post-race inspection and thus had to relegate it to the tail end of the standings. This was a huge blow for both the driver and the team, as they had started to hit their strides in the playoffs, and a couple of pounds proved costly to their championship hopes.

There was a lot of chatter and speculation surrounding Blake Harris and the team resorting to cheating tactics with their set-up. This speculation grew further after Hendrick Motorsports decided not to appeal NASCAR’s decision and accept their mistake. From the outside, it might look like the #48 team crossed the fine line, but Brad Keselowski had a rather different opinion.

Brad Keselowski found himself in a similar situation at Martinsville in 2022

Now having an underweight car at the end of a race is indeed rare, especially after the team has already cleared the tech ahead of the race. But, just like the drivers have their bad days on the racetrack, the crews and engineers working in the garage are susceptible to these flaws. Not to forget, their sole motive is to help their driver find that extra millisecond or speed that helps them stand out on the track.

Unfortunately, in Bowman’s case, the effort by the #48 team went sideways, resulting in a big penalty. But this wasn’t the first elimination of a driver or team based on weight threshold in the Next Gen era. Brad Keselowski was the one who found himself on the receiving end of a similar ruling in 2022 at Martinsville Speedway. It is why he refuted any notion of Bowman’s team flouting the rules.

“I have empathy for sure with the 48 team. I hate seeing teams being knocked out of playoffs that way. In 2022, we had the same penalty at Martinsville. In the fall race, we wore more brake pads, brake rotor off the car, and we got hit in the back, and the rubber that naturally adds weight to the car didn’t accumulate, and the combination of the two put us below the weight threshold, and it certainly didn’t feel egregious to me and probably carry the same line of thinking without knowing of the details in 48s endeavor there.” Keselowski said this to Bob Pockrass.

Bowman’s teammate Chase Elliott also felt the pain of the ruling against the #48 HMS team. He cited the weight difference didn’t work in his favor at Roval: “I think we all know that couple of pounds or whatever it was, it was not likely a difference maker what happened during the race. Still, a rule that is pretty black and white and is not something you can do a lot about when you go across the scales and that happens.”

Brad Keselowski also answered questions about the plans to add the third charter to RFK Racing. Now that there are rumors that NASCAR could take over the FRM and 23XI Racing charters, would this allow RFK Racing to put its expansion plan into motion?

Keselowski remains tight-lipped about RFK Racing adding a third charter

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“We don’t have any announcements that we’re ready to make, but hopefully we’ll have something to share with everybody here in the next month or so.” This was Keselowski’s response last month when he inquired about his team’s plan to add a third car for the 2025 season. Ryan Preece was the driver linked with the team. There were even rumors of a potential merger with JTG Daugherty Racing. But nothing of the sort has worked out between the two parties.

However, a cryptic social media post by RFK Racing made all the noise. Fans started to connect the dots, suggesting the time stamp 06:17:59 was a hint at the team’s third entry. The #6 is Brad Keselowski’s car, whereas Chris Buescher leads the command for the #17 team, so is #59 going to be the number of their third entry? But Keselowski remained pretty reserved in his answer when asked about the development.

“No. Nothing’s changed. We are excited about our future. I’m sorry, I don’t have anything to announce for you,” Keselowski said to Bob Pockrass. He neither confirmed nor denied the possibility of the team expanding with a third charter. However, NASCAR’s legal tussle against FRM and 23XI Racing could provide them with an opening.