Denny Hamlin believes Brad Keselowski made the right move by leaving Team Penske for RFK Racing

Ahead of the 2022 season, Brad Keselowski made the decision to leave Team Penske and join Roush Fenway Racing, rebranded as RFK Racing, as minority team owner and driver of the No. 6 Ford.

In leaving Penske, Keselowski left behind a legacy which included 34 NASCAR Cup Series wins and a 2012 championship. Success didn’t immediately translate to RFK, with Keselowski undergoing a 110-race winless streak spanning three seasons. But in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, it was finally Keselowski’s day.

Keselowski took the lead from teammate Chris Buescher with under 10 laps to go and held on to score the victory. Speaking on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Denny Hamlin summed up the day of relief for Keselowski before calling his move from Penske to RFK a “good move for him.”

“Things were going on over there at Penske,” Hamlin said. “I think they had a loss of sponsorship over there and they probably made him an offer he wasn’t overjoyed with and then he started looking at his other options. I think that this was his best option on the table, and I just feel like generally speaking, he feels like me like hey, this is an opportunity for me to not only be part of a team but my racing days — I’ve done the bulk of them in the past versus the future and this is a way to stay in the sport beyond my driving days.

“So, I think this was obviously a good move for him. He was able to make an impact on the competition which he desperately wanted. … It was a win for both parties. Roush Fenway, they didn’t have much to lose. They weren’t really relevant anymore, not since the Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle days. They made the change and now they’re back to one of the better two-car organizations we have in our field.”

Brad Keselowski reflects on breaking 110-race winless drought at Darlington

Keselowski is now officially locked into a playoff spot for the second consecutive season.

“What a heck of a day,” Keselowski said after the race. “It’s Darlington, so whether it’s your first win, your last win, this is a really special track. The history of NASCAR, it’s as tough as it gets, and that battle at the end with my teammate [Buescher], Tyler Reddick, we just laid it all out on the line, it was freaking awesome. I thought it couldn’t get much better than Kansas. It did today. That was awesome.”