Bradley Aaron Keselowski (; born February 12, 1984) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 6 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RFK Racing, a team he also co-owns. He was the owner of Brad Keselowski Racing, which fielded two full-time trucks in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for 10 years.
Keselowski, who began his NASCAR career in 2004, is the second of only six drivers to win a championship in both the Cup Series (2012) and the O'Reilly Series (2010) and the twenty-fifth driver to win a race in each of NASCAR's three national series. When he won the Cup Series championship in 2012, he joined Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to win the title within their first three full seasons of competition.
Keselowski is the owner and founder of Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing, a hybrid manufacturing company based in Statesville, North Carolina, specializing in additive metal technologies as well as CNC machining. He is set to leave RFK Racing as both driver and owner at the end of 2026.
Early life and career Keselowski was born in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and grew up in a racing family. He is the fifth and youngest child of Kay and Bob Keselowski and the nephew of Ron Keselowski. His older brother, Brian, is also an active racing driver. The Keselowski family is of Polish descent. Keselowski spent much of his adolescence working at his father's race shop; he swept and mopped the floors, and mowed the grass. In 2000, Keselowski began racing stock cars in the Factory Stock division.
NASCAR
2004–2006: Early years In 2004, at only twenty years old, Keselowski began his NASCAR career as the driver of the No. 29 Ford F-150 for the generally owned company in the Craftsman Truck Series. He made his debut in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville, where he started twenty-sixth and finished thirty-third. He made seven more starts that season, with his best finish coming in the UAW/GM Ohio 250 at Mansfield, where he finished sixteenth.
Keselowski started competing in the Truck Series full-time in 2005 with backing from SUBcrews.com and Samson Stone. He opened the season with a seventh-place finish in the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 at Daytona, his only top-ten finish of the year. He would end up finishing twenty-first in points. He ran the first two races of 2006 for K-Automotive before a lack of sponsorship caused the team to temporarily suspend operations. Keselowski then drove the No. 02 Chevrolet at Kentucky and Memphis, filling in for an injured Kelly Sutton and drove the No. 63 Ford for MB Motorsports at Bristol and in the season finale, the Ford 200 at Homestead.
2007–2009: Breakout years
Keselowski began competing in the Busch Series full-time in 2007. He drove the No. 23 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for Keith Coleman Racing until the team suspended operations that July. Earlier in June, during the 2007 Truck Series season, Keselowski was tabbed by Germain Racing to replace Ted Musgrave in the No. 9 Team ASE Toyota Tundra for the O'Reilly 200 at Memphis after Musgrave was suspended for an in-race scuffle with Kelly Bires at the Milwaukee Mile. Keselowski won his first career pole for the race, and led sixty-two laps, but got turned around by Travis Kvapil as they fought for the lead with ten laps to go. Keselowski wound up finishing sixteenth. Shortly afterward, Keselowski was called by car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. to drive the No. 88 United States Navy-sponsored Chevrolet for JR Motorsports for three races, and eventually the rest of the Busch Series season. During the Camping World 300 at California Speedway, Keselowski was involved in a violent accident involving A. J. Allmendinger and J. J. Yeley. His car crashed hard into the Turn 1 wall and went airborne. It later caught flame, but Keselowski was able to climb out of his damaged car, though he complained of foot pain. He would later be treated and released from Loma Linda University Medical Center and was cleared to race at Richmond the following weekend. Keselowski would close the 2007 season with five top-ten finishes and a twenty-fifth-place finish in points.
In 2008, Keselowski re-signed with JR Motorsports for the 2008 Nationwide Series season, and earned his first career victory in the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway, holding off Clint Bowyer. Keselowski would hold off Bowyer again for his second career win in the Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway. He ended the season third in points, the highest finish by a full-time Nationwide Series-only driver. Keselowski also got his first taste of Sprint Cup action during the 2008 season. He was on standby for an ill Jeff Gordon at Kansas and for expectant father Casey Mears at Talladega, before competing in two races for Hendrick Motorsports in the No. 25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet Impala. Keselowski finished 19th in his Cup debut, the Dickies 500 at Texas, and 23rd in the Ford 400 at Homestead.
Keselowski returned to JR Motorsports to drive the No. 88 Chevrolet for the 2009 Nationwide Series, with sponsorship from GoDaddy.com, and competed in a limited Cup schedule. He drove the No. 25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in seven races and drove the No. 09 Miccosukee-sponsored Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing in five races.
First career Sprint Cup victory at Talladega Keselowski pulled off a massive upset and earned his first career Sprint Cup victory in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega. He pushed Carl Edwards towards the front from fifth with two laps to go. Coming out of turn four on the final lap, he attempted to trick Edwards into blocking on the high side so that he could pull underneath. Edwards moved high to block, opening the door for Keselowski to attempt a pass on the low side. When he saw Keselowski moving low, Edwards again tried to block him. Their cars made contact, with Edwards spinning as Keselowski charged to the checkered flag. Due to the rear-wing design on 2009 Car of Tomorrow, Edwards' car lifted off the ground as it spun backward. After Ryan Newman's No. 39 hit Edwards' car, it sailed into the catch fence separating the track from the front grandstands, then skidded to a halt in the middle of the track. Eight fans were injured by flying debris; the most serious one being a woman who broke her jaw and was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital. Keselowski earned his first career victory on his fifth career start and earned James Finch his first career victory as an owner in his twentieth year of racing. The race's final lap was the first Sprint Cup lap that Keselowski ever led, and therefore the only lap he led for the entire race; coincidentally this was the first time in history that the very first lap a Sprint Cup driver led was the final lap of a race."Keselowski steals NASCAR win on wild final lap at Talladega". TSN.ca.
Remainder of the 2009 season
Keselowski's victory at Talladega earned him more seat time in the James Finch-owned Chevy. Originally scheduled to appear next in the 18th race of the season, at Daytona International Speedway, he was then rescheduled to appear in the upcoming race at Richmond International Raceway. Keselowski also was entered into the Sprint All-Star Race as well. He was forced to pull out of the Richmond race due to commitments to his Nationwide Series team.
Keselowski got his third Nationwide Series victory at Dover when Kyle Busch cut a tire on the restart and second-place Joey Logano made contact, allowing Keselowski to pass both.
After taking a gamble and staying out past his pit window, Keselowski garnered his fourth win at the first-ever Nationwide race, the 2009 U.S. Cellular 250, at Iowa Speedway after battling Kyle Busch to take over and maintain the first position. Keselowski finished first over Kyle Busch, though Busch still tied a record with his ninth consecutive top-two finish.
At Montreal in the 2009 NAPA 200, Keselowski had a promising run. After a brief red flag for sprinkles, Keselowski could only hold his spot up in the top fifteen, causing him to lose some spots in the standings. With three laps left, Keselowski barely avoided a pile-up in turn 1 to end up in the fifth spot, earning back his lost points. When the race ended with rival Carl Edwards as the winner, Keselowski among other drivers said that the pile-up and the shocking finish between Marcos Ambrose and Carl Edwards; resembled the finish of the Montreal race in 2007, when Marcos Ambrose almost won but was crashed by Robby Gordon during the confusion of a similar crash in turn 1.
Keselowski's next Nationwide Series victory came in August at the CARFAX 250 at Michigan International Speedway. Pole-sitter Brian Vickers and points-leader Kyle Busch dominated the race, but Keselowski passed them both on the final lap after a blocking move by Vickers on Busch forced both drivers to slow down slightly.
The rest of Keselowski's 2009 season in the Sprint Cup was less than stellar. After the win, he only captured two top-fifteen finishes until November 2009. He met controversy at the fall race in Talladega when he bumped future teammate Kurt Busch going into the tri-oval causing a fifteen-car melee, that included Busch, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin - who went upside down after being clipped by Martin Truex Jr. Because Keselowski was already being ridiculed by most of the drivers and fans for how he drove aggressively throughout the races, this wreck earned him some jeers, including a disapproving look from Mark Martin.
In the Nationwide Series, Keselowski also had a series of run-ins with Denny Hamlin. Throughout 2007, 2008, and 2009, Keselowski and Hamlin tangled in many races. After Keselowski punted Hamlin during the autumn Phoenix event in the Nationwide race, Hamlin said he would retaliate. The next week, Hamlin kept his promise, intentionally colliding with Keselowski early in the race. The wreck ended Keselowski's huge chances of beating Kyle Busch for the championship. NASCAR black-flagged Hamlin three laps for aggressive, rough driving, but Hamlin recovered for a top-ten spot. Hamlin was unapologetic in an interview, and while Keselowski also remained unrepentant, saying "I've already moved on," Keselowski got little or no sympathy from most of his fellow competitors.
Keselowski ended up in third spot behind rivals Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch in the final NNS standings.
2010–2021: Penske years
Although Keselowski had rubbed some of his fellow drivers the wrong way with his driving style, the results he produced on the track seemed to indicate that a permanent move to the Sprint Cup Series was an inevitability. Despite his relationship with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports, the team did not have a car for him to drive full-time as each of their four regular teams already had established drivers under contract. Keselowski began looking elsewhere and left the Chevrolet camp to drive a Dodge for Team Penske.
2010
In 2010, Keselowski replaced David Stremme in the No. 12 Dodge Charger in the Cup Series and ran the full Nationwide Series schedule as well in the No. 22 Discount Tire. In Atlanta, on lap 41, Keselowski unintentionally tapped Carl Edwards on a restart, and Edwards went up to the wall to collect Joey Logano. Later, Keselowski appeared to be headed toward a top-five finish at Atlanta with three laps to go when Edwards, apparently in retaliation for this accident, intentionally spun Keselowski. Keselowski's car caught air and, despite the roof flaps working, his car overturned, hitting the front-stretch wall roof-first in an accident that resembled the Talladega finish of the previous year. His new teammate, Kurt Busch, ended up winning the race. Edwards was parked by NASCAR, and Keselowski was physically okay but shaken up from the heavy impact.