How Keselowski's recovery from injury has energized RFK Racing

Some of the magic behind a successful NASCAR team is the ability to prepare for as many hurdles as can be thrown its way.

In the case of Brad Keselowski and crew chief Jeremy Bullins, that includes planning an offseason vacation, because if something were to happen on said vacation, Keselowski, the driver of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, needed as much runway as possible to get himself ready for race season.

“He and I had a conversation back in the fall about how he loves going skiing, and he’s going to go early in case something happens,” Bullins tells RACER. “It’s not what we thought would happen, right? But he certainly gave himself time if something did happen, which it was totally not a skiing accident.”

Wait. Such a conversation actually took place before Keselowski went and broke his right femur in mid-December from slipping on ice?

“Oh, absolutely,” says Bullins. “Because we’ve talked about it, you have to live life. One of the things he loves to do with his family is take the girls skiing. So it’s like, absolutely, you should go.

“It was crazy – he wasn’t skiing – (but something happened), and fortunately, he had time to recover and not miss anything. He was pretty determined right away that he wasn’t going to miss anything.”

Aside from the preseason exhibition event at Bowman Gray Stadium, which took place the week before Keselowski went through his medical evaluation to be cleared for competition, he has not missed a race. That includes back-to-back superspeedway events to start the season, the physically demanding lefts and rights of Circuit of the Americas and the oft-described toughest racetrack on the schedule, Darlington Raceway.

At the latter, in fact, Keselowski didn’t just run the race, but dominated it. Keselowski swept the stages and led six times for a race-high 142 laps. He ultimately wound up as the runner-up, a season-best result.

“I think if you go all the way back to COTA, it’s just toughness,” Bullins says. “He has a great rehab team around him, and he’s put in the work to be where he’s at. So, hopefully he just keeps getting better.”

Keselowski began the year using a walking cane. Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

Keselowski showed up in Daytona hobbling and using a walking cane to get around. But he was in good spirits and shared for the first time what his recovery had been like, and the excruciating pain the injury caused. The 2012 Cup Series champion joked that he understood why soldiers in the Civil War would cut their legs off in battle.

The rehab, recovery, and ability to race have been an incredible feat, given questions about whether Keselowski would walk again. But inside the race car, he doesn’t feel like he’s injured, or that he had to undergo surgery before getting to start rehab.

“This is supposed to be a six-to-12-month recovery, and I’m on track to do it in three to four, which is great,” Keselowski said last month. “Yes, driving the car is not the best thing for me in some ways, whether it be the vibration, or the loads, or just the movements to get in and out, but once I’m in the car, I feel reasonable. I can’t say it’s the best I’ve ever felt, but I feel reasonable.

“There are little setbacks that come from driving the car with dehydration or just the workload in general. But with a day or two of recovery, I’ve been able to come back even stronger each of the races we’ve had so far.”

Ryan Preece is not surprised by Keselowski’s work ethic. Back in November, Preece was in the gym every day and saw Keselowski there as well, before the injury occurred. And then it became a workout of a different kind.

“You have two roads that you can go down: you can play the 'poor me' route, or you can get up on the horse and figure it out,” Preece tells RACER. “He did. He wasn’t missing a race, and obviously, you’ve seen that they’re running really strong.”

Keselowski is eighth in points with an average finish of 11.7 and 156 laps led. A dramatic difference from this time a year ago, when his team was struggling in various facets and was buried 30th in the standings.

The idea that drivers are careful or restrain themselves in the offseason or early into a season has been proven false time and time again. Take some recent examples, like Brett Moffitt's two fractured legs in 2020, Chase Elliott's fractured tibia in 2023 and now Keselowski. There is no such thing as drivers wrapping themselves in bubble wrap.

“I did a lot of dumb stuff this offseason, too. I just didn’t get hurt,” Chris Buescher tells RACER.

Keselowski has remained competitive despite his injury, as his performance at Darlington proved. David Jensen/Getty Images

Buescher looks at Keselowski, who is both his teammate and boss, and said that his recovery has proven what everyone already knew. It was that “BK is going to fight and do everything he can to get in a race car and be competitive, and that as a racer, you don’t even want to see someone else in your seat.

“He never, at any point, didn’t put in 100% effort to make sure that he was in it,” he says. “So, it shows all the resilience and the commitment to make sure these things are on the right track from the start of the year to the end. Life happens. Things are dangerous.”

Although he doesn’t remember the first few times Keselowski started coming around the race shop, Buescher says it wasn’t as if Keselowski disappeared after the injury. Keselowski was “up and at ‘em” quickly thereafter to try to speed up the recovery process.

“I know for the longest time we could track him by the sound of his cane clicking.” Buescher says with a laugh. “So, we always knew when he was coming upstairs for meetings or getting around the shop floor. It was like that pre-warning that everyone needed to straighten up as boss man came through.

“He’s doing great. He’s really blown through, I think, all expectations on the recovery side of things and hasn’t missed a beat. I was nervous for him when we got to COTA and he powered right through. I think it’s smooth sailing from here on out.”

Martinsville Speedway, the first true short track of the season, gives way to another this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Then it’s back to an intermediate with Kansas Speedway before heading to Talladega Superspeedway to close out the month. Texas Motor Speedway, an intermediate, kicks off the month of May.

But then comes the second road course, Watkins Glen. By that point, Keselowski will be just days short of hitting the five-month mark of having been injured.

Keselowski's toughness and resilience have not only been noticed, but also serve as an example for others.

“It’s obviously motivating when you see him dealing with what he’s dealing with,” Bullins says. “None of us is walking around with a broken leg, so it’s good for the team. It shows the effort he’s putting in and the lengths he’s willing to go to by sacrificing and gutting it out.”