There was a point during the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Gateway where Brad Keselowski got passed by Joey Logano inside the top-five and expressed dissatisfaction with the hierarchy between Team Penske and RFK Racing.
“I wish I was a Ford considered good enough to get one of the good engines. We’d already be passing. Instead, we’re called a shit box team and get the shit box stuff. Thanks a lot. Fucking just motored by me with a motor that’s significantly better. That’s a fucking bunch of bullshit. I’d already be past these guys and driving away if I had that shit.”
Team Penske is the Tier 1 organization for Team Penske and has considerably more say on the direction the manufacturer takes than the organization owned by Keselowski, Jack Roush and Fenway Sports Group.
Keselowski did not make the Chase for the Championship this year and crew chief Jeremy Bullins offered over the week that his driver likely did face a 1-3 horsepower disparity to the championship contender … but also it was just a knee-jerk reaction.
“No, I wouldn’t say that,” said Bullins on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I think you say things out of frustration at times. I mean, certainly, I think no matter what OEM you’re talking about, when you have cars that are in the playoffs, if there’s something that’s a little bit better, I’m sure those cars have it.
“To be honest, it’s not something that I get caught up in, because from my end, you know, we’re a customer of the engine shop, and I know they’re doing the best they can to give us the most horsepower they can. And they do that every week, no matter what.
“So is there a chance that somebody has a motor that’s one or two horsepower better than you? Of course there is. That’s just how the thing works. But I can’t control it.
“I try not to get too worked up about it. But I think a lot of what you heard was just frustration of being up front and, you know, being just enough to not, you know, make a pass or get clear or whatever.
You can see the moment Keselowski lashed out at 3:32 in the below video:
A week later, Keselowski said he has a great relationship with engine builder Doug Yates and minimized any potential tension that comments said over the radio like that could generate.
“Hey, you get inside one of these race cars and everybody has their moments,” Keselowski said on Friday during a media scrum at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Ultimately, he said this was not one of his proudest moments, but he simply wanted to win.
In a follow-up question asked by Motorsport.com, Keselowski said he wanted fans to understand in this moment that every car is not constructed or powered equally, no matter how much the perception is that this is a spec era.
“Yeah, NASCAR likes to present itself with the illusion that all the cars are the same,” Keselowski said. “I’ve been the benefactor of that and I’ve been on the bad side of that over the years of my career. When you are on the great side of it, certainly you like that illusion because it makes you look really good as a driver. When you’re on the bad side of that, you don’t like that because it makes you look terrible.
“The cars, they’re not spec cars. Yes, there are spec parts on them but they’re not spec cars and the way you put them together and the different tricks and trade craft, they make a difference.
Keselowski referenced a line from the movie Days of Thunder where Cole Trickle references a Stock Car and crew chief Harry Hogge said ‘there is nothing stock about a Stock Car.’ It’s the same thing in this NextGen era.
“Well, that goes to the perception versus the reality and the big differences that there are,” Keselowski said. “But I can tell you that if you put the best driver, whoever you perceive that to be in the worst car in the cup field, they will run last tomorrow night.
“That’s the reality of this series. Does that necessarily mean that if you put the worst driver in the best car, they’d win? No. No, it doesn’t mean that. But there are disparities and those disparities, they change the success of the drivers.
“Those that are really into the sport, it’s our job to understand the limitations of a driver, limitations of the equipment, and sometimes they don’t always align.”
To wit, Keselowski referenced his drivers, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher as drivers that routinely exceed the limitations of their equipment.
“And so the job of teams like RFK is to give them the equipment to match their talent,” Keselowski said.
Watch: Race Rewind: Larson outlasts chaos for breakthrough win
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