LOS ANGELES: While Roush Fenway Keselowski’s record in the Busch Light Clash at the LA Coliseum leaves a lot to be desired, when it comes to sponsorship entering the 2024 NASCAR Cup season the organization is humming on all eight cylinders.
RFK has missed the season-opening feature in their last two attempts in the City of the Angels but for the first time in more than a decade, RFK’s sponsorship inventory is sold out. No empty hoods or quarter panels. No Roush, Fenway, or Ford-inspired liveries.
From the Clash to the Championship 4, the Nos. 6 and 17 Mustangs of Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher will be fully funded.
“NASCAR is really in a good place,” Keselowski said. “There are always things that could be better—don’t get me wrong. But we have a lot of partner interest in our sport right now. We’re going to go to the Daytona 500 with a third car (David Ragan). We hope to build off of that and turn that into a full-time car, but in order to do that, you have to have great partners.
“And we’ve been very fortunate to sign some really strong partners lately. We’re going to have more announcements coming up soon—I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. When that day comes, the story of RFK will be ‘The future is very healthy and bright.’”
Keselowski was 21 in 2005 when one-half of the 10-car Cup Playoff field consisted of Roush Racing drivers. The previous season, Jack Roush had won consecutive titles—first with Matt Kenseth, then with Kurt Busch. His five-car stable was anchored by Mark Martin, along with Kenseth, Busch, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle. A roster of that caliber will likely never be duplicated.
Five years later, NASCAR limited teams to four drivers. Over time, Roush racers moved on, sponsors pulled out, performance dwindled and the one-time powerhouse was trending down. By 2015, Roush Fenway Racing was a fledgling three-car operation with just one driver in the top 20 and not a single driver in Victory Lane.
Fast forward to 2022 when Keselowski arrived at the Concord, N.C.-based campus. From the start, the shop changed aesthetically—including a state-of-the-art workout facility. And slowly, as employees that bought into the third-generation racer’s vision, the culture changed at RFK as well. Buescher won his first race in six years—unfortunately, too late to advance to the post-season.
In 2023, Buescher scored a career-best three wins. Both Keselowski and Buescher qualified for the Playoffs and finished in the top 10 in the standings—for the first time since Edwards pulled off a ninth-place result in the 2014 standings.
“To be a good race team it’s simple,” Keselowski said. “It just takes two things: you have to win races and you have to sell partnerships. If you can do those two things, you’ll be a great team for years to come.”
In December, RFK’s Sales and Marketing team was recognized with the MarCom Team Achievement Award from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. Over the last two months, RFK has announced the renewal of Fastenal and Castrol, the addition of Consumer Cellular and the creation of the RFK TeK Alliance that includes partners such as Siemens, FARO and Flow Software.
Now, Keselowski has to take his own advice and return to victory lane. The 2012 Cup champion hasn’t won since the spring race at Talladega Superspeedway 98 events ago.
“All the pieces are lining up,” Keselowski said. “We had a tremendous offseason—not just with partnerships on the corporate side but on the motorsport side and making the car go fast with some really key hires and developments across all fronts.
“I’m excited to see that play out. It’s been a very strong season to play off of.”
Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at: [email protected].
