NASCAR insider 'panicked' about Brad Keselowski amid 2025 struggles

Brad Keselowski is a former NASCAR Cup Series champion, and he’s becoming a stellar team owner in the sport, as well. However, the 2025 season has gotten off to a miserable start for the No. 6 team. 

The 41-year-old doesn’t even have a top ten yet, his best finish being a P11 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Is it time to panic if you’re Keselowski? NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic tried to make sense of the team’s struggles on the latest episode The Teardown podcast.

“Are you pressing the panic button if you are Brad Keselowski? P30 in points. Finishes P26 [at Homestead]. Your teammates, Chris Buescher, P6. Ryan Preece, P9. Where was Brad Keselowski in all of this? It just seemed like he had another day full of struggles. He had a bad start,” Gluck prefaced. “Are you pressing the panic button if you’re Keselowski?”

Evidently, Bianchi believes there’s enough cause for concern if you’re Keselowski. He cited the team’s crew chief change in the offseason as a reason to worry, and the fact that the No. 6 squad only has one win since Keselowski took charge as reasons why.

“I’m concerned. In the off season, I didn’t like the direction where the No. 6 team was headed. It just didn’t feel like it was a positive. … I just didn’t feel good about this team. I felt like this team had lost its edge a little bit,” Bianchi stated, regarding Keselowski. “You go back a year ago, they started off in the spring really strong. They obviously won at Darlington. They had some other good runs along the way. As the year went along, they weren’t up to that level. They fell off a little bit, or at least their consistency. 

“… I look at this, Ryan Preece is running well, and Chris Buescher is running well — I’m a little concerned about that. There’s no reason that this team shouldn’t have a top ten this year. They haven’t even led a lap this year. That’s concerning. So, there’s something amiss there. I guess maybe you chalk it up to bad luck, but it’s not like they’re — you know, they crash at Atlanta. They crash at Phoenix. I just, I don’t know — it just feels like, fundamentally — something is wrong with this team. So, I am panicked about where this was.

“Let’s not lose sight of the fact that as compared to his teammate, you look at the number of wins of the No. 17 and the No. 6 team have had since Brad has taken over the ownership — there’s a gap there. Brad’s only won once driving for RFK. It’s not like this No. 6 team has been a level of a world beater. It’s where they have like, a body of work — you look at it and say, ‘Okay, they’re going to turn this around, because that’s what they do.’ Like, no — they really don’t, honestly.”

As Bianchi pointed out, Keselowski’s struggles have been magnified due to the success of his teammates, who double as drivers he employs, in Buescher and Preece. Buescher has won multiple races over the past couple of seasons, while Preece looks like a man on a mission since taking his talents to RFK from Stewart-Haas Racing. He finished P3 at Las Vegas, and followed that up with a P9 run at Homestead this past weekend.  

One thing is for sure, Brad Keselowski is certainly going to lean on his experience and his racing prowess to turn his season around in 2025. It’s not smart to bet against a former champion, and most won’t write him off, but it’s time for the 36-time Cup Series winner to get back to Victory Lane, sooner rather than later.