600th Cup start ‘bigger than I dreamed’ - Keselowski

The driver who wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to make his NASCAR Cup Series debut is now set for his 600th this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

“No, I was just trying to get to one,” Brad Keselowski said of whether he thought he’s made it this far. “I still remember my first start at Texas in 2008. I remember sitting in my bus right before qualifying and I think I watched maybe the first five or 10 cars qualify. My dad was still alive at that time, and he was sitting with me, and I said, ‘Dad, I don’t know. It’s going to be really tough to make this show.’”

Keselowski’s debut at Texas Motor Speedway on November 2 was with Hendrick Motorsports. At the time, Keselowski was in the sights of Rick Hendrick for a Cup Series ride, having shown what he could do competing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He was two seasons into that ride with JR Motorsports and had won two races.

“I remember qualifying for the race like 33rd or whatever that was, and just being so relieved that I made the race,” said Keselowski. “And come race day, it was like everything was just gravy from there. I wanted to do the best I could do, don’t get me wrong, but I remember that day and just feeling like, ‘I can’t believe I made it this far.’

“So, to hit 600, it’s bigger than I dreamed.”

It was a 37th-place starting position for Keselowski in the Dickies 500, which was won by championship contender Carl Edwards. Keselowski, who was two laps down at the finish, was credited with a 19-place finish. Some of those whom he finished ahead were former series champion Kurt Busch, future series champion and teammate Joey Logano, and NASCAR Hall of Famers Earnhardt and Bill Elliott.

Keselowski made his second start two weeks later in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In the 2009 season, he ran 15 races in the Cup Series, split between Hendrick Motorsports, James Finich, with whom he won his first career race at Talladega Superspeedway (in his seventh career start), and then the final three races of the year with Roger Penske.

Penske signed Keselowski to be a full-time Cup Series driver beginning in 2010. In his tenure driving for Penske, from 2010 to 2021, Keselowski made 432 starts to bring his total to 449 in the series. The other 150 starts have come driving the car he co-owns at RKF Racing.

But of note in Keselowski’s career, he has never missed a points race as a full-time driver (2010 to current).

“Not all my starts are consecutive in the sense that I ran a partial schedule in 2009,” Keselowski acknowledged, “but once I went full-time, I’ve been very fortunate to do that.”

Keselowski is fourth of active drivers with the most starts. Those ahead of him going into Sunday’s race are Kyle Busch (756), Denny Hamlin (727) and Logano (621).