NASCAR: The big silly season ‘secret’ has been unwrapped

Brad Keselowski appears to be on his way to Roush Fenway Racing for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, leaving Team Penske after 12 seasons.

As a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver, 2012 champion Brad Keselowski has only known one team: Team Penske. But that appears slated to change for the 2022 season.

Last month, reports emerged that the 37-year-old Rochester Hills, Michigan native had been offered a deal by Roush Fenway Racing to not only drive the #6 Ford for the team in 2022 but to become a team co-owner of what would become Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing.

Keselowski entered the 2020 season as a pending free agent before signing a one-year extension with Roger Penske’s team in August, making him a pending free agent entering the 2021 season as well.

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Now Sports Business Journal‘s Adam Stern has reported that Roush Fenway Racing have already informed partners that they have “a done deal” to bring Keselowski to the team for next year, and other sources have reported this news as having been confirmed as well.

This deal has not yet publicly been made official, as neither Roush Fenway Racing nor Keselowski have released any sort of statement. So Keselowski can technically still be classified as a “pending free agent”.

However, this is simply believed to be out of respect for Team Penske, which have made clear that they plan to announce their plans for what is currently Keselowski’s #2 Ford at a later date. So for all intents and purposes, it is, in fact, a done deal.

But how much of a “done deal” was this move even before these recent reports emerged?

It was classified as a “rumor” after the reports emerged that the 35-time Cup Series race winner had been offered the deal and was likely to accept, and justifiably so, given the fact that Penske had said that they wanted Keselowski back in the #2 Ford for next year, the fact that he said there was no reason why a deal wouldn’t get done, and the fact that Keselowski had not said anything to suggest otherwise.

But even with all of that being said, it was pretty clear what was coming next after this possibility went public. It was no secret, and now what was coming has arrived.

Keselowski has always been interesting in NASCAR ownership; he used to own Truck Series team Brad Keselowski Racing. Becoming the co-owner of a Cup Series team will give him the glimpse of what Cup Series ownership could look like well beyond his driving days. He is thinking long term, big picture here.

Additionally, the 2022 season is set to mark the debut of the Next Gen car, so there is no better time to get involved as a Cup Series team owner than next year.

Plus, in Keselowski’s case, he doesn’t need to worry about the headache of trying to find a charter to purchase and everything else that along comes with what several other teams are trying to do ahead of the new car’s launch next year, whether that be expanding their current efforts or taking teams from lower series to the Cup Series.

His seat and team are ready to go, and he gets to join as not only a driver but as a partial owner.

The reports of Keselowski possibly making the switch only emerged after he was offered this deal, and it was always going to be pretty hard for him, at this point in his career, to turn down that opportunity. And he appears to have gone for it.

But what comes next? Naturally, this move, when it is officially confirmed by team(s) and driver, will turn eyeballs to the #2 Ford and to Ryan Newman, the current driver of the #6 Ford who is a pending free agent. Who will get Keselowski’s ride, and where will Newman end up for the 2022 season? And what teams and drivers will be impacted by those decisions? Time will tell.