Is 2023 the year Brad Keselowski returns to victory lane?
Last year was not Brad Keselowski‘s year; he went winless for the first time since 2010, recorded career lows in top-five and top-10 finishes and finished 24th in points.
But it had been five years since RFK had won a race, and it certainly wasn’t going to do it overnight.
What Keselowski and the team did, however, was show progress in the final races of 2022. That was most on display at Bristol Motor Speedway in September, where Keselowski and teammate Chris Buescher combined to lead 278 of the 500 laps in a race that saw Buescher return to victory lane for the first time since 2016.
Keselowski also won a pole at Texas Motor Speedway, scored his only top-five finish of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway and crossed the line at Martinsville Speedway in fourth before being disqualified; all of these performances came in the 2022 playoffs.
The No. 6 car’s speed appears to have transferred to the start of 2023, even if the finishes haven’t reflected it. Keselowski led the most laps in the Daytona 500 for the second year in a row and was mixing it up for the lead until the race ended in a string of overtime restarts and crashes (that ultimately collected him as well).
Keselowski then spun at Auto Club Speedway early in the race but came from a lap down to finish seventh. He was a top-10 car in the first two stages before fading in the finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a race where most of Ford was out to lunch. He then followed it up with an average running position of sixth at Phoenix Raceway, but a power issue during the final restart relegated him to 18th.
Is this the year that Keselowski ends his drought and return to victory lane for the first time since April 2021? It’s too early to say; the No. 6 car has shown top-five and top-10 speed, but the ability to pass for the lead and run up front on non-superspeedways like Bristol last year would only improve his chances.
Win No. 36 may come this year or down to the road. Nevertheless, the start of 2023 has been a 180 for Keselowski when compared to the start of 2022.
How much success will Kevin Harvick have in his retirement tour?
Kevin Harvick may be the oldest full-time driver on the Cup Series grid, but he certainly didn’t look the part on Sunday (March 12) at Phoenix Raceway.
Harvick ran a methodical race, slowly picking cars off one-by-one during long runs from his starting spot of 15th. He…
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