On Tuesday Morning, when it was officially announced that Brad Keselowski would be joining Roush Fenway Racing in a partial ownership role, many people’s minds flashed back to the days of Brad Keselowski Racing’s tenure in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, which concluded following the 2017 season.
Brad Keselowski Joins Roush Fenway Racing as Driver and Partial Team Owner in 2022
However, it looks as though the program has a chance to return next season, albeit in a slightly different form, as Keselowski added further comment to a Tweet by r/NASCAR on Reddit (@NASCARonReddit), in regard to a post made by u/samivey72 about bigger teams in the NASCAR Cup Series no longer choosing to operate NASCAR Camping World Truck Series programs.
In said Tweet, Keselowski says “I’d love to change this for 2022, just need the right partnerships…”
I’d love to change this for 2022, just need the right partnerships… https://t.co/fBYJIHdq4B
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) July 24, 2021
If the funding materialized for the program to continue, it likely would run under the Roush Fenway Racing banner, which would mark the first-time in over a decade the team would dip into the NASCAR Truck Series. However, the team’s record is an impressive one, scoring 50 victories, 204 top-fives and 360 top-10s in the team’s 712 starts between 1995 and 2009.
For the Rochester Hills, Michigan-native, a renewed involvement in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series would be the first of any kind since Brad Keselowski Racing shuttered at the conclusion of 2017. Despite only collecting 11 victories, the team also played an enormous part in developing some of the talent you see in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series today.
Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemric and Chase Briscoe have all graduated from the organization’s program, moving on to notch a combined five NASCAR Cup Series and 41 NASCAR Xfinity Series victories, with Reddick and Cindric capturing the last three championships in the second-tier series.
All six of the aforementioned drivers have competed in at least one full-time campaign in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2019, or are scheduled to embark on their first full-season in 2022.
It’s safe to say that the addition of Brad Keselowski and Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, or even the NASCAR Xfinity Series, would be an enormous victory for each respective series, and a positive sign of what the future will hold for NASCAR’s development track.