NASCAR: Don’t miss today’s ‘major announcement’

Roush Fenway Racing plan to make a “major announcement” about the future of their NASCAR Cup Series team today, presumably about Brad Keselowski.

Last Friday, Roush Fenway Racing confirmed that they will be “hosting a major announcement next week regarding the team’s plans for the future” at the NASCAR Hall of Fame at 11:00 a.m. ET this morning.

Set to attend this “major announcement” are team owner Jack Roush and team president Steve Newmark as well as Ed Weiss, the Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy, and General Counsel for the Fenway Sports Group.

“Others” are also slated to be present at the announcement with one of those “others” presumably being Brad Keselowski. Keselowski has been rumored to make the move from Team Penske to Roush Fenway Racing next year for several months, and all the pieces are now in place to make that happen.

After this rumor began to swirl, several sources indicated that the move was likely, and the same sources later indicated that it was effectively a “done deal”.

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Cited as the reason for why nothing had been announced by the team or the driver as days and weeks passed by was the desire to respect Team Penske and their driver lineup decisions for the 2022 season.

Now this confirmation is out of the way, as it has been announced that current Xfinity Series driver Austin Cindric is set to replace the 2012 champion behind the wheel of the #2 Ford next year.

Cindric was to have driven the #21 Ford for the Team Penske-affiliated Wood Brothers Racing organization next year, but he was promoted straight to Roger Penkse’s Cup Series team instead, something that obviously wouldn’t have been done if Keselowski was returning.

Roush Fenway Racing tweeted about today’s announcement on Monday evening.

It is believed, albeit not confirmed, that Keselowski is slated to replace Ryan Newman behind the wheel of the #6 Ford.

Unless there is more to it, which there could be — remember, Chris Buescher still isn’t signed to drive the #17 Ford beyond 2021 — I don’t think anybody is going to be guessing this one incorrectly. The worst kept “secret” regarding next season is about to no longer be a secret.