1. Brad Keselowski looks like he has plenty left in the tank
It took Brad Keselowski until mid-June last year, his first with RFK Racing, to record his second top-10 finish. He performed better during the second half of the 2022 season and some of the playoff races in which he was not contending for the title. But it was hard to determine whether he was just experiencing the expected growing pains with a new team or just sliding into the twilight of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
Based on his start to the 2023 campaign, the growing pains are looking a lot more likely. Keselowski looked like he was headed for a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway until he was passed by former teammate Joey Logano on the final lap. He still came home a strong second, leading more laps than everyone but the eventual race winner.
It doesn’t look like a fluke. Yes, as mentioned, Atlanta is very superspeedway-esque now, and Keselowski has always been great at that style of racing. He led plenty of laps in this year’s Daytona 500 too, until he was inevitably involved in a wreck.
Much more telling is that he led laps at Auto Club Speedway and ended up seventh. In all, he’s been up front for 97 laps in 2023, fifth-most among Cup Series drivers and second to only Logano in the Ford camp. Keselowski is also one of only six drivers with a stage win so far.
There’s a lot of season left, but Keselowski and RFK look like they’ve built on their experience last year to step it up to where he is a threat to make the playoffs and maybe even more than that. We’re sorry we ever doubted you, Brad.
2. Ford was fast and Chevy slow. Coincidence? Think so.
The Ambetter Health 400 final running order, and really the race as a whole, was a conspiracy theorist’s dream.
Chevrolet drivers had won the first four points-paying Cup Series races of the year heading into Atlanta. Fords were in disarray, looking outclassed pretty much everywhere.
Then the top Chevy organization, Hendrick Motorsports, got slapped with a pretty hefty penalty that introduced NASCAR fandom to the world of louvers (with Kaulig Racing also caught up in it). All of a sudden, Fords were ruling the roost at Atlanta. From qualifying, where they claimed the top eight starting spots, to the race itself, where Logano took the checkered flag.
So obviously, the Chevrolets have to play by the rules now and aren’t able to dominate, right?
As much fun as it would be to play into this…
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