With the drop of the green flag Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Brad Keselowski eclipsed 600 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, becoming just the 35th driver to reach that historic threshold.
“I just wanted to have a career and was trying to prove myself,” Keselowski said in a team release. “To think that I’ve had another 599 since then is pretty cool. I just want to sit down with a 24-year-old me and tell him that was going to happen.
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“When I first got in a Cup [car], I just wanted to be here. I didn’t think about anything outside of that,” he added. “I didn’t think of the stats. I didn’t think about the accolades. I just wanted to be here, and I’m lucky to be here.”
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From Rochester Hills, Michigan, Keselowski made his first NASCAR start in 2004, driving for his father, Bob, in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He debuted in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2006 before making his Cup Series debut for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. A year later, driving a part-time Cup schedule for multiple teams, Keselowski won his first premier-series race at Talladega Superspeedway, coming in a James Finch-owned Chevrolet.
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His Cup Series career officially took off in 2010, when he moved to Team Penske’s No. 12 Dodge entry for the full campaign. While he went winless and missed The Chase, he put together a stellar O’Reilly Series season in the team’s No. 22 entry, winning the series championship.
In 2011, Keselowski turned into one of the Cup Series’ elite young drivers. Switching to the No. 2 entry, he won three times and finished fifth in points. A year later, he reached the sport’s pinnacle, earning his first and only series championship, highlighted by five victories and remarkable consistency through the 10-race Chase.
Keselowski drove for Roger Penske through the 2021 season. He earned 34 victories for the organization and banked nine top-10 finishes in points, including a runner-up in 2020.
“I was really blessed to have the opportunity to drive for Roger Penske, a great chapter in my career,” Keselowski said in a media teleconference earlier this season. “We did a lot of really cool things together. Winning the championships in both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Cup Series was just highlights of my career. I look back really fondly on most of it.”
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RELATED: Brad Keselowski driver page | RFK Racing team site
Entering his age-38 season, Keselowski took a leap of faith. He bought an ownership stake in what’s now RFK Racing and switched to the team’s No. 6 Ford starting with the 2022 season. Keselowski finished 24th in his debut season, but made the playoffs in a 2023 season highlighted by Chris Buescher’s three victories in the team’s No. 17 entry. A year later, Keselowski won at Darlington Raceway for his first victory as both driver and owner.
Keselowski got off to a difficult start in 2025 as RFK expanded to three full-time cars with Ryan Preece joining the fold in the No. 60 Ford. All three drivers missed the playoffs, but Keselowski showed signs of life in the back half of the campaign with a trio of runner-up finishes.
But entering 2026, Keselowski faced arguably his greatest challenge yet.
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During the offseason, the future Hall of Famer fell and broke his femur during a vacation with his family. He was rushed into surgery, and later admitted he wasn’t sure if he’d ever walk again. But through consistent winter rehab, Keselowski climbed back into his No. 6 Ford just in time for the Daytona 500, finishing fifth.
Through six races, he’s finished no worse than 20th and enters Martinsville ninth in points after leading 142 laps and coming home second at Darlington.
“Driving the race car is a blessing and a curse,” Keselowski said. “It’s a blessing because it provides the motivation for me to really push my rehab and do things faster than normal, which is not a bad thing. But it’s a curse because, yes, when I get in the car, it does hurt, it does pull me backward.”
While Keselowski is one of NASCAR’s elder statesmen, he feels the end of his Cup career is nowhere in sight, with at least 800 starts in mind.
“I think that’s a good goal,” he said.
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