Brad Keselowski needed a win. Desperately. Not for the headlines or the sponsors—though they certainly wouldn’t complain—but for himself. His last trip to Victory Lane came way back at Darlington in 2024. Since then, it’s been near-misses, maybes, and mechanical heartbreak. Sunday at Iowa, it finally looked like the No. 6 Ford had all the right pieces lined up. For 260 laps, it was his kind of race.
Until it wasn’t.
Keselowski led 68 laps—more than he’s led in any single race this year. He swept both stages for the first time in six years. And with more fuel in the tank than the two cars in front of him during the final run, it looked like the math would finally break in his favor.
Instead, the streak lives on. It’s now 46 races without a win.
“Just the way the yellows fell,” Keselowski said, after settling for third. “We had so many yellows there in Stage 3 that it got the 24 and the 19 to where they could make it on fuel pitting way outside the window, and we just couldn’t get back by them.”
Keselowski restarted 24th after a late pit stop and bulldozed his way back to third. It was an impressive charge, especially when most of the field was playing defense with an eye on the fuel gauge—or rather, guessing at where empty might be.
“Got back by a lot of guys… but that was as far as I could get,” he said.
Still, it wasn’t all frustration. RFK Racing continues to trend upward. Keselowski had speed. Chris Buescher had a solid run. Ryan Preece came home fifth after a bold early-race gamble. And the No. 6 car looked more like a threat than it has in months.
“Yeah, great run for both of our RFK cars,” Keselowski said. “Obviously we want to win, but we’re in contention, that’s for sure.”
Next week brings Watkins Glen, a road course Keselowski likes. Sort of. He’s never won there, but he’s been close—and Buescher took the victory there last year.
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“Watkins Glen has been good for us. It’s been a good track for me. My teammate won there last year. Just keep putting solid runs on the board and I feel like this will come to us and we’ve got some pretty strong Ford Mustangs right now.”
How close was it in Iowa?
“I don’t know,” he said. “Blaney was really fast there at the end. He had a little bit newer tires, and he was running us down. I feel like I was going to get the 19, but Blaney was going to pass me.
“It was a solid day, just needed a few more things to go our way.”
If racing had a fairness switch, Sunday would’ve been the day. But this is NASCAR. And Brad Keselowski is still waiting.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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