NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Brad Keselowski has only been in his role as driver and owner at RFK Racing for two years, but he’s already considering potentially significant moves for the organization.
Keselowski hopes RFK Racing will take on IMSA, the North American road course racing series headlined by the Rolex 24, at Daytona.
Breaking into IMSA is not what you would expect from a driver who grew up racing ovals and went on to win championships in Xfinity and Cup. There’s a specific reason behind this potential move, and Keselowski wants to make it happen as part of his long-term plan.
“As NASCAR continues to become more and more heavy on road course racing, I think the ecosystem of teams that have been successful in Cup competition has a lot of pedigree benefits,” Keselowski said at the NASCAR Awards at Music City Center. He spoke before the ceremony.
Keselowski pointed out that IMSA offers a route into hybrid race cars without having a product that competes with NASCAR’s “American Horsepower” brand.
Several NASCAR drivers have competed in IMSA events. Jimmie Johnson and Austin Cindric competed on separate teams at the 2022 Rolex 24. Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray were part of the Chip Ganassi Racing team that won the 2015 Rolex 24.
IMSA is a destination for RFK Racing, but it will be a while before the organization enters a road course series. The bigger priority is expanding around a third Cup team.
Keselowski and RFK Racing announced on November 29th that they will be running a part-time third entry known as Stage 60. The Cup car will feature a variety of drivers in selected races. Starting with David Regan At the 2024 Daytona 500.
The Stage 60 entry matches Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 and 23XI Racing’s third entry which helped Kimi Raikkonen. Shane Van GisbergenTravis Pastrana Kamui Kobayashi All will be making their Cup debut.
Keselowski is not ready to reveal details about the driver lineup or number of races. He confirmed that entries will be contested on superspeedways and road courses.
Keselowski has big plans for RFK Racing. That doesn’t mean he will speed up the process as his term continues. Even after a season in which he and Chris Buescher both made the playoffs and Buescher won three games, he still has the goal of being competitive.
“We don’t want to grow just for the sake of growing,” Keselowski said. “We’re not particularly interested in that. We want to grow to be successful, so we have to take very deliberate steps to achieve that.”