What’s Next for Keselowski, RFK Racing?

by
Peter Stratta
March 25, 2022

Photo by Peter Stratta/TSJSports

How Will Keselowski, RFK 6 Team Move Forward from L2 Penalty?

CONCORD, N.C. – Thursday morning, NASCAR handed down one of the largest individual penalties in their history. For allegedly modifying single source Next Gen parts, Brad Keselowski and the RFK Racing No. 6 team had the book thrown at them.

The 6 team violated Sections 14.1 and 14.5 in NASCAR’s rule book, which refer to illegal modifications to spec Next Gen parts. They were given an L2 penalty, including a four race suspension for crew chief Matt McCall. In addition, the 6 car lost 100 driver and owner points, and McCall was fined $100,000. Should Keselowski make the Playoffs, he will also lose 10 Playoff points. These sanctions send Keselowski from 16th to 35th in points. How exactly will the 6 rebound from this catastrophic points loss?

With only 22 points currently to his name, Brad Keselowski is almost starting 2022 from square one. Despite winning a Duel race and finishing ninth in the Daytona 500, 2022 has been a struggle since for the 6. Keselowski’s best result since Daytona was 12th in Atlanta, his only other top 20 finish. This season was sure to be a growing and transitional year for Keselowski, but it just got even tougher.

Aside from superspeedways, Keselowski has not shown the pace or performance to even sniff victory lane. Should he win one of the three remaining superspeedways in the regular season, he would still start the Playoffs in a points hole. As a result, the 6 would have a very uphill battle making it out of the Round of 16.

Keselowski now finds himself 99 points outside of the top 16 in standings. Pointing his way into the Playoffs is a much loftier battle now, as making up over a race’s worth of points in 21 weeks is quite daunting. Consequently, Keselowski and the 6 team are almost in a must-win scenario already if they are to make the Playoffs.

The coming weeks will be very pivotal for this team’s future. They head into race six of the season behind all other full-time teams in points. Keselowski needs multiple race victories or Stage wins just to start the 2022 Playoffs with 0 bonus points. Should Keselowski win between now and the Playoffs, he will be one of the 16 contenders. However, in order to make a deep run the 6 will need more than just one win. 2022 just got a lot tougher for the driver/owner of the 6 car, it will certainly be interesting to see if the team can rally and put this penalty behind them.