Scoring a playoff berth 'means a lot' to Keselowski

Brad Keselowski can hear the clock ticking on his NASCAR Cup Series postseason hopes.

He needs a win to earn a postseason berth. There are two races left in the regular season, and Keselowski is 19th in the championship standings. On one hand, it’s an impressive feat for the No. 6 team to have made it this far after sitting as low as 32nd in the standings earlier this year.

“It means a lot to me,” Keselowski said on Friday at Richmond Raceway when asked if he felt any stress about making the playoffs. “I want all of our teams to make the playoffs … We’re all going to have a shot to compete for the win (at Richmond). The Childress cars are really fast; they’ll be cars to beat. Gibbs cars are always good here. No one is going to hand us anything, but we have a shot tomorrow, for sure.”

Ryan Preece qualified on the pole and is the first driver below the cutline on the provisional playoff grid. The driver holding the final spot is another RFK Racing driver, Chris Buescher. The margin between the two is 34 points.

Keselowski was the only RFK Racing driver to make the postseason a year ago. Buescher missed out after going winless, whereas Keselowski made the 2024 postseason through a win at Darlington Raceway in the spring. But he hasn’t won since. In fact, it’s the only win he's had since becoming a co-owner of RFK Racing.

“Being in the playoffs is a statement,” Keselowski said. “It’s a statement that you’re a good driver and you’re with a good team and a good company. That’s what we want. We want to be recognized as that.”

Being left out in the cold is unfamiliar territory for the 2012 Cup Series champion. In the elimination era (2014 to present), Keselowski has only failed to make the postseason once – his first year at RFK Racing in 2022.

“It’s not a fun place to live,” he said of fighting to be in the postseason. “You want to go out and win and not have to worry about it. We had a couple of shots to do that that slipped through our fingers, which was kind of disappointing. We need to capitalize on that opportunity when it comes.”