Brad Keselowski not ready to retire after 19 years in NASCAR

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brad Keselowski doesn’t have a specific landing spot for next season after announcing he is leaving Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing at the end of the year.

However, that does not mean he is ready to retire after 19 years in NASCAR.

“My career’s not over by any means,” Keselowski said after qualifying 16th Saturday for Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “There’s a lot of things still to work out. I can’t really go into details on how we got to where we are, at least not at this time. There’s a lot of things I can’t really talk about.”

Although the announcement was made Tuesday, Keselowski said he had an idea it was coming for a couple of months. The end of the 2026 season marks the conclusion of his five-year contract with RFK. He expressed confidence that he will be driving next season and has not ruled out team ownership in the future.

“When I’m in a vehicle at Daytona, I’ll be confident about that,” he said. “Right now, I think there’s enough interest where I’m not sweating it. There’s things to work out, but there’s enough interest where I’m confident that I’ll be somewhere next year.”

Chip Bowers, president of RFK Racing, said the decision stemmed from Keselowski’s desire to focus on driving for the foreseeable future rather than transitioning fully into team leadership.

“We wanted that to be a natural transition over the next two to three years for Brad,” Bowers said. “I think he wanted to continue driving much longer than that, and that’s fine. We applaud that. We have such immense respect and appreciation for Brad. … That’s what makes it so hard. This is our business and we just weren’t aligned with that, and that happens sometimes. We just wanted to make the competition side more of a focus and he wants to focus more on the driving side.”

Keselowski joined Roush Fenway Racing as a co-owner in 2021 and began driving for the rebranded team the following season. The 2012 Cup Series champion spent the bulk of his career at Team Penske.

Keselowski drove the No. 2 Ford for Penske before taking over the No. 6 Ford Mustang with RFK, a number chosen to honor Hall of Fame driver Mark Martin, around whom team founder Jack Roush built his NASCAR program.

Over 19 seasons, Keselowski has 36 wins across 623 Cup Series starts, with his most recent victory coming in 2024. His marquee wins include the Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400, and Southern 500. His six Cup Series victories at Talladega Superspeedway tie him with Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for second most.

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