What Brad Keselowski's departure means for the trajectory of RFK Racing

Since he left Team Penske at the end of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, Brad Keselowski the driver has not gotten the results he likely envisioned as a team owner. 

Keselowski became a part-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, now Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing in 2022, but missed the NASCAR postseason in three of the five years he's driven the No. 6 Ford. He's only won a single race as an owner-driver, and unless his team finds something over the final six races of the season, that's likely to be his final tally. 

Yet, despite his personal shortcomings in the cockpit during his five years with RFK Racing, Keselowski — who announced Tuesday that he'll be leaving RFK as both a driver and owner at the end of 2026 — left the organization better than he found it. 

Once a perennial championship contender with the likes of Mark Martin, 2003 champion Matt Kenseth, the late Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton and 2004 champion Kurt Busch, among others, Roush had fallen on hard times during the latter half of the 2010s. 

Kenseth's departure at the end of 2012, Edwards' at the end of 2014 and Biffle's at the end of 2016 saw the organization, which, in quintessential Jack Roush fashion, never had been quite up to date in regard to its practices, fall woefully behind the teams it once battled for race wins and championships. 

How Brad Keselowski helped turn RFK around

From 2013-21, Roush won only seven Cup Series races. Four of those wins came courtesy of Edwards, while Biffle won his final race at Michigan in 2013. Only a pair of superspeedway wins at Talladega and Daytona in 2017 from Stenhouse Jr. quelled what was otherwise a long dry spell for the team. 

But when Keselowski joined the team in 2022 in conjunction with the introduction of NASCAR's Next-Gen car, a switch flipped, even if it did so slowly. Chris Buescher scored his first win with the team at Bristol in 2022 before rattling off three victories during a five-race stretch in 2023. Keselowski made the playoffs for the first time at RFK in 2023 before finally winning as an owner-driver at Darlington in 2024. 

In 2025, RFK brought in journeyman Ryan Preece to drive its new third Cup Series entry. Preece won the 2026 Clash at Bowman Gray before scoring his first official Cup win at Daytona on Aug. 29, and along with it, his first postseason berth. 

Buescher also made the Chase this season, while Keselowski floundered during the summer and missed out. Still, the direction of the organization as a whole was trending up: Buescher signed a multi-year extension in July, while Preece will return to the team next year as well. 

While Keselowski didn't turn RFK back into a title-winning team, he did lift it up from the historically poor spot it was in. 

It's not yet known who will take over Keselowski's vacant ride, nor where the 2012 champion will race next season. But his absence will certainly be felt by Roush not only on the racetrack, but at the shop as well.