By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Brad Keselowski shook off the myriad of rotten luck that has plagued his 2025 campaign to earn a much-needed fifth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night.
Entering the 13th race of the season, Keselowski took the green flag at Charlotte Motor Speedway without a single top-10 finish. The furthest he’s gone without one to start the year since his first full-season in 2010 when it took him 32 races to get his first top-10 outing.
Fortunately, luck was finally on the former Cup champion’s side as he not only completed all 400 laps but also fought for his first top-five of the season. The result marked Keselowski’s first top-five finish since Talladega last fall. He was so happy how well his No. 6 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse ran, he felt he had another 100 miles more in him to get an even better result.
“We had a really good car. We got mixed up in some of the different stuff in the midpoint of the race and just clawed our way out,” said Keselowski, who led five laps.
“I feel like if we could have got to the lead, we could have won the race. I wish it was a 700-mile race.”
The result comes after having five DNFs due to crashes, including the last three straight races leading up to Charlotte. Two weeks ago, a strong finish at Kansas was in the cards, but a flat tire ended any hope of having a trouble-free race.
Lady Luck has simply not been kind to the RFK Racing driver/owner, but the result at Charlotte left him feeling it was earned with zero doubts.
“We’ve been really competitive the last few weeks and I feel like it just hasn’t all come together,” said Keselowski. “It still hasn’t all come together, but this car has got the speed to win the race, and I need to go get it.”
Heading into Nashville Superspeedway (Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime), Keselowski sits 32nd in points, 100 points behind the playoff cutoff line with 13 regular season races remaining.
The final playoff spot is currently held by his RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece, who finished ninth. An encouraging result comes a long way in the sport’s top level, but there’s always room for improvement from Keselowski’s camp.
“This car was good enough to win,” said Keselowski. “We just weren’t able to put all the dots together and some of that falls on me for sure.”
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