NASCAR: Brad Keselowski on the verge of key requirement

Brad Keselowski is still well outside the NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture, but he is close to taking an important step to get back into it.

Following the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway last month, Brad Keselowski and RFK Racing were dealt a massive L2-level penalty for modifying a part on the car that came from a vendor, a violation found during teardown inspection at the NASCAR R&D Center.

The 2012 champion and the #6 team were docked 100 driver and owner points and 10 playoff points, and crew chief Matt McCall was suspended for four races and fined $100,000.

After the race at the four-turn, 1.54-mile (2.478-kilometer) oval in Hampton, Virginia, the fifth race on the 2022 schedule, Keselowski sat in 16th place in the point standings and 17th in the playoff picture. He had scored 122 points and was four points below the playoff cut line.

Following the penalty, he had just 22 points and sat 104 points below it in 35th place, lowest among full-time drivers.

But perhaps more notably, he sat 34 points outside of the top 30. This was an especially significant development because even with a victory, a driver must rank inside the top 30 in points in order for that win to be counted toward playoff eligibility.

While RFK Racing’s appeal was rejected and the penalty will not be overturned, Keselowski has already almost gotten himself back into the top 30, meaning that he is close to being back into a position where a win would count in terms of getting him into the postseason.

And there was never really much doubt that he would get back there.

With 72 points, he ranks 31st and sits just 22 points behind Spire Motorsports’ Corey LaJoie in 30th place. When you don’t factor in the penalty, he has actually managed to score 172 points, a total that would be good for 14th place in the point standings.

This would position him as the 16th and final driver in the playoff picture and the ninth and final driver to qualify on points, and it would also give him an average of 11.14 points more than LaJoie each race.

So getting back into the top 30 appears to be only a matter of time for Keselowski, who has now reeled off three consecutive top 14 finishes after a three-race stint during which he finished no higher than 23rd place.

Of course, a win and a top 30 finish in points wouldn’t guarantee a playoff spot for the 38-year-old Rochester Hills, Michigan native, simply because of the possibility that more than 16 regular season winners emerge; there have already been seven in seven races this season, and there are 19 races left on the regular season schedule.

But by that logic, none of the seven winners so far this season are locked in, so that is no different than it would be for anybody else anyway.