Brad Keselowski recalls drinking his first beer with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Brad Keselowski just looked back at the time he was working for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the early stages of his NASCAR career. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast, Keselowski told Kevin Harvick that he had his first beer with Earnhardt since he didn’t drink when he was growing up.
“Before I got the Miller deal, I didn’t drink at all,” Keselowski said. “I grew up in a household that didn’t drink. It wasn’t like a super religious thing, but my parents just didn’t drink. …There was no alcohol in the house growing up that I remember. I just never really had an interest in it.”
Keselowski went on to say that his father, Bob Keselowski, was “fairly strict” and told him if he wanted to drink and date, he could, but he wasn’t going to help him race.
“So there was no drinking, there was no dating, there was none of those things because I wanted to race and my dad was very clear like ‘If you even touch any of that stuff, done,” Keselowski said. “I don’t think he meant it in a mean way, it was probably actually really good for me. If you’re going to do this, you’re going to be 100 percent focused, we’re not doing anything at all. I’m not wasting my time with this.”
Keselowski continued: “It actually served me really well. I’m telling you that story because until I got to be racing with Dale and kind of like off on my own, none of that was even an option for me because I couldn’t race without my dad at least helping me in some way.”
Brad Keselowski had success with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team
Keselowski raced for Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports from 2007 to 2009. During his time with the team, Keselowski won six Xfinity Series races and finished third in the Xfinity Series standings in 2008 and 2009. He then moved on to Team Penske and has had a successful career in the Cup Series, winning the title in 2012 and 36 races in 538 starts.
In 2022, Keselowski joined RFK Racing and won his first race with the team this year at Darlington. But how long will he drive for RFK?
“Healthwise I feel great. It’s not really a health thing,” Keselowski told Harvick. “It’s really a mental thing of how long can you endure the emotional roller coaster. One of the big factors for me is I want my kids to see me winning races. There’s a lot of people that say when a race car driver has a family that ‘Ah, he loses a little bit of his edge.’ To some degree, I almost feel the opposite. I want to feel like a winner to my kids.”