CONCORD, N.C. — The drought is over. Brad Keselowski has returned to the top 10 of a NASCAR Cup Series finishing order.
Anything that could go wrong did go wrong for Keselowski through the opening four months of the NASCAR Cup Series season. Dating back even further, he hadn’t cracked the top 10 since the penultimate race of the 2024 season. His last top five was a narrow defeat to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Talladega Superspeedway last fall.
Keselowski entered Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 33rd in the regular-season championship standings, with nine finishes worse than 25th through the first 12 races. With a dreadful start to the campaign, his only way of making the postseason is to essentially win a race.
NASCAR’s longest race of the season summed up Keselowski’s season to date. For a good chunk of the event, the No. 6 Ford was miserable to drive. At other parts, he was among quickest car in the field, making passes to leap up the scoring pylon. The handling went away the worst towards the end of Stage 2, dropping to 34th in the running order at the halfway point of the race.
By the end of Stage 3, Keselowski drove to 13th. And over an 87-lap run to the checkered flag, the No. 6 car kept creeping forward. He ended the race in fifth, the best finishing Ford driver in the field.
“Got mixed up in some stuff at the midpoint of the race and clawed our way out,” Keselowski said after the race. “Feel like if we could have gotten to the lead, we could have won the race.”
During that final stint, Keselowski thought he was among the best cars in the field. The strong ending comes on the heels of a stellar opening to last week’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway where he led 62 laps from pole position. In the series’ last points race, he drove up to second from a deep starting position when low air pressure triggered a flat tire and he backed into the wall for his third consecutive DNF.
Speed hasn’t been an issue for RFK in recent weeks, as Ryan Preece notched his fifth top-10 finish of the season during the Coca-Cola 600, tying his personal best for a single season. All season long, Keselowski has spoken of the potential of the No. 6 team. It’s starting to come to fruition in small increments.
“We’ve been really competitive the last few weeks,” Keselowski added. “I feel like it hasn’t all come together and it still hasn’t come all together. This car has the speed to win the race and I need to go get it. It shows what we’re capable of, but I want to win.”
With the fifth-place outing, Keselowski jumped only one spot in the standings to 32nd. He’s exactly 100 points behind the playoff elimination line, currently held by Preece. The series heads to Nashville Superspeedway next weekend where Keselowski has a best finish of 11th in four starts.