When Brad Keselowski joined Jack Roush and Fenway Sports Group in 2022, the idea was simple: combine three names and build something bigger. But as that partnership ends, Kenny Wallace doesn’t buy into the corporate explanation for the split. To Wallace, RFK never truly gave Keselowski the kind of power the “K” in its name seemed to promise. He even sprinkled in a Tony Stewart and Stewart-Haas Racing comparison to add another layer to his argument.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“The only thing real was Stewart-Haas. Tony must have had a pull. RFK all show there. The K on the end, Roush, Fenway, Keselowski- that was all fake. Come to find out, Keselowski didn’t have any pull. He was brought in there to make the team more competitive, and he did,” Wallace claimed on the split. “They had Brad Keselowski’s boss tell everybody why they let Brad go. And it was pretty damn simple. They said, in their contract, Brad was supposed to drive for this long, then he was supposed to become like an executive at RF. Like I said, it’s a joke there. The K didn’t work.”
What Wallace claims the bosses told everybody is true. According to the RFK President, there was no power struggle, and in the end it all came down to the fact that the two parties involved had extremely different outlooks. Bowers did say that while they did try to come to a solution for months, it led nowhere.
“One of the things that I heard very early in the process from Brad is that he really has an interest in being a race car driver for the foreseeable future. I think a five-year-plus span is what he’s got his eyes on, and I applaud that,” Bowers said. “When we started looking at what the next three years look like for us and beyond, it was clear that we wanted Brad to start focusing more on his role in competition.”
Whatever Wallace thinks about Keselowski’s influence behind the scenes, he has no issue with one thing, that is Brad’s will to race. Wallace believes he should be allowed to do exactly that.
“You are telling a NASCAR champion…the guy who’s won all those races in NASCAR, you need to stop racing?” Wallace questioned. “Brad Keselowski for the win, everybody.”
If you are talking about the “K” influence, though, there are many who worked with Keselowski who actually vouch for him. Chris Buescher, for example, has credited Keselowski with helping create a stronger connection between the drivers and the competition department.
“You sit there and you try and explain it the best you can as a driver, but when Brad is a driver as well and can explain it to everybody on the competition side, not just in that meeting, and continue to push it to be better, it has a big impact and moves the needle quicker than I’ve seen it in the past,” Buescher said.
Bowers offered a similar take on Keselowski’s contribution, despite the organization ultimately deciding it needed him to step away from that role.
“A lot of the reasons why we are competitive today are thankfully because of Brad,” Bowers said.
That contrast is important because Keselowski did not arrive at RFK simply looking for another ride. When Keselowski left Team Penske after the 2021 season, he was not simply searching for another Cup ride. He had won 34 races and a championship with Penske, but he wanted to build something of his own.
Joining Roush Fenway as a driver and co-owner gave him the opportunity to continue racing while gaining a much deeper role in the business and competition side of NASCAR.
It was a natural progression for someone who had already owned Brad Keselowski Racing in the Truck Series. At RFK, he could test whether the lessons he had learned as a driver and team owner could translate into building a competitive Cup organization. And there is little question that Keselowski became heavily involved.
He eventually served as RFK’s head of competition while driving the No. 6 Ford, helping oversee the organization’s competitive rebuild, and the changes were visible. Slowly, RFK began to look different.
When Buescher won at Bristol in 2022, it ended the organization’s long winless stretch. He went on to win five races during Keselowski’s tenure. Keselowski himself got his own RFK victory at Darlington in 2024. So clearly RFK was moving forward, but Keselowski’s role for them was becoming increasingly difficult to balance with his ambitions behind the wheel.
Bowers pointed to competition leaders such as Chris Gabehart and Chad Knaus to explain the commitment RFK believed the job required, someone who could “live, breathe it constantly.”
That was ultimately the dividing line. Keselowski didn’t want to let go of the driver and shift to a full-time role in the front office. Nevertheless, this is not something Keselowski says he didn’t see coming.
Keselowski has acknowledged that he could see the split coming one or two months before it became public. He also made it clear that his next chapter will involve continuing to race, even though he does not yet know where that opportunity will come from.
This move also doesn’t mean that Keselowski forgets the last five years. He still wants to own a team. In fact, he has said the RFK experience made him more confident that he can operate an organization at the highest level.
For Wallace, the “K” never carried the control its presence in the name implied. But there is another way to read it. Keselowski may not be walking away from ownership at all.
He may simply be refusing to let ownership arrive at the expense of driving. After five years of trying to build an organization from the inside, the former champion now knows he can run a team. What he apparently does not know yet is why he should stop being a driver when he still loves racing.