Driver Bob Keselowski rarely spent as much seat time at home as at the racetrack.
Keselowski balanced those long, hardscrabble days under the chassis and on the asphalt by getting behind the wheel to drive his kids to school — a tradition his son Brad continues with his two daughters.
Since his father’s Dec. 22 death, Brad Keselowski’s routine has added significance. The ritual serves as the most enduring memory of a highly influential father who poured his soul into racing without sacrificing a relationship with his five children.
“I don’t get to spend a terribly large amount of time with my kids,” Keselowski said. “That’s the life I chose. My dad was very similar and the one thing he always made time for me was to drive me to school. I did the same thing because I think of it the same way: I don’t want to miss that moment.
“We might go the whole car ride and not say a word or we might go the whole car ride and talk it up. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. But I think of him every time I do that. It’s kind of my tribute to him.”
Entering Sunday’s Daytona 500, Keselowski continues to follow the course set by his father, who got into racing because of his father, John.
Keselowski’s success is the byproduct of three generations in the garage.
“Talk about a race family, that truly was a racing family,” said Larry McReynolds, a FOX analyst and former crew chief.
Bob Keselowski was an ARCA Series champion in 1989, a 24-time winner and longtime team owner. But his second of two sons has enjoyed success at the sport’s top level no one in the family could imagine, including 35 Cup Series wins and the 2012 season championship.
Yet as Bob Keselowski waged his battle with cancer, Brad wanted to deliver his father the ultimate prize before he passed away.
In the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 2021, Brad Keselowski nearly did at Daytona International Speedway. Instead, he and Team Penske teammate Joey Logano wrecked battling for the lead on the final lap of the 500-mile race to allow 100-to-1 long shot Michael McDowell to reach Victory Lane.
“The sting of Daytona …,” Keselowski said, his voice trailing off. “I knew my dad didn’t have much time left this time last year and he actually made it a lot longer than I thought he would. I don’t know if that’s the kind of fighter he is or was. But I told him before I left for Daytona, ‘I’m going to win you the Daytona 500, Dad.’
“That’s part of what stung so bad, losing it the way I did last year. I thought about him the whole plane ride home and how close I was. I wanted to win it for him.”
Keselowski aims again to honor his father Sunday during the season-opening race and sport’s showcase event. In a sense, the 38-year-old NASCAR star already has.
Bob Keselowski and his wife, Kay, owned K-Automotive Racing when he competed in ARCA and the NASCAR Truck Series — Keselowski was one of the original drivers in 1995 and won the 1997 race in Richmond, Virginia.
Following last season, Brad Keselowski ended his 12-year-old run with Roger Penske Racing and the No. 2 car to become co-owner at Roush Fenway and drive the No. 6 Ford Mustang for what is now known as Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.
“I was prepared to finish my career at Team Penske,” Keselowski said. “Wasn’t really thinking much different would happen and then this opportunity came and some other pieces fell into place and I was kind of like, ‘Why would I do this?’ The answers on why I wouldn’t do it weren’t very good, so here I am.”
Similarly to how he approaches driving, Keselowski views ownership through a different lens than his father did.
“My dad was never a Cup racer. He never even had aspirations of that from what I can recall,” Keselowski said. “He just wanted to race and kind of be a middle-class guy. I wanted to race, but I only wanted to race to win. My dad wanted to win; don’t get me wrong. But he wasn’t caught up in the concept of if you didn’t win the championship the year was a bad year.
“Some ways I kind of wish I had that personality.”
Keselowski’s disappointments in the Daytona 500, including top-five finishes in 2013-14, reach deep.
Keselowski otherwise is a superspeedway demon, with a victory in the 2016 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona and six wins at Talladega, tied for second most to Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s 10 victories there.
“Daytona is a heartbreaker,” Keselowski said. “She’s broke my heart a couple times here. I still keep coming back, though. I’m like the guy in the friend zone here with Daytona, trying to break out of the friend zone.”
A Keselowski victory surely would tug at the heartstrings, serving as a story of love, loss and family worth celebrating.
“My dad was a special person, a unique person,” Keselowski said. “I owe a lot of my success to him. My dad loved the sport to death. He gave the sport his life from Day 1. And that’s special to me.”
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