Brad Keselowski Explains How Nashville Superspeedway’s Concrete Surface Requires More 'Discipline' Than Other Tracks

NASCAR Cup Series drivers race primarily on asphalt, with a few events held on concrete surfaces. In fact, of the 26 tracks that hold Cup races, just four have concrete racing surfaces: Bristol, Dover, Martinsville and Sunday’s host facility, Nashville Superspeedway.

While fans may think a track is a track, no matter the surface compound, drivers would disagree. Among those drivers who feels each of the four concrete tracks drives significantly different from their asphalt counterparts is veteran Brad Keselowski who is also co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

Of Keselowski’s 36 career Cup wins, six have come on concrete tracks — although he has yet to reach Victory Lane at Nashville. In fact, he has yet to earn a top-10 finish in four prior starts there — something he hopes to change on Sunday.

“We have had some really good runs at Nashville (but just) haven’t been able to get the finish on the Cup side,” Keselowski said.

Even so, Nashville still holds a special place in Keselowski’s heart: he earned his first career win on any level of NASCAR competition: 2008 in an Xfinity Series race for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports. In 10 overall Xfinity races at Nashville, Keselowski earned two wins and seven top-five finishes.

So, 17 years after his first career NASCAR win there, can the Michigan native achieve success again on Nashville’s concrete surface — and finally for the first time in the Cup Series?

“What I have always enjoyed about it is that the concrete is just really, really unforgiving and takes a lot of discipline,” Keselowski said. “When you get sideways the car is much more difficult to recover, generally. I just think it is a different type of racing than asphalt racing.”

While Keselowski has three career Cup wins on the concrete surface at Bristol, two at Martinsville — both essentially half-mile tracks — and one on the mile-long track at Dover, Nashville is the only concrete track over one mile in length at 1.333 miles.

“It is something different, interesting, that kind of breaks up the schedule a little bit,” Keselowski said. “We have to survive the restarts and bring speed. I think we can do both of those.”

A strong finish on Sunday imperative for Keselowski

Fate has not been favorable to Keselowski in the four previous Cup races at Nashville: Other than an 11^th-place showing in 2023, his other three finishes have been 23^rd or worse.

But he’s hoping he comes into Music City with momentum: his fifth place finish last Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte was his best showing thus far — and first top-10 — in 2025.

“It is an exciting time for us, outside of looking at where we are in the point standings,” said Keselowski, who is 32^nd in the standings. Only the top 30 drivers at the end of the first 26 races are eligible for the playoffs.

“We need to build off of (the Charlotte momentum) and incrementally inch our way up to being able to win,” Keselowski said. “I think we are really close to that right now. Trying not to jump the shark on that is important. But last week was a really positive moment for us.”

He said the final run gave him confidence, noting they passed at least half a dozen cars, ran the fastest laps, and did a lot of positive things that made him feel they’re capable of winning.