Following Friday’s announcement that Martin Truex Jr. will retire from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition at season’s end, it means two drivers will now be considered the “elder statesmen” of the sport.
Denny Hamlin (43) and Brad Keselowski (40) are set to carry the veteran torch entering the 2025 season as Truex (43) exits the garage.
Keselowski has mixed emotions regarding age.
“I just think about Mark Martin driving until he was 50,” Keselowski began. “One, I think that’s really impressive and, two, there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Well, if he can do it, I can do it.’ And think, ‘Alright, well that’s still like another 10 years from now.’”
Martin, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, retired at age 54 in 2013 after 31 seasons of competing in the Cup Series.
While Keselowski feels he still has plenty of runway in contending for Cup Series championships, there are times that reality sets in for the RFK Racing driver and co-owner.
“I don’t think too much about that stuff, but every once in a while you have some of those moments,” Keselowski said. “I had that moment this week when we were filming the last Race Hub show.”
FOX Sports’ NASCAR Race Hub aired its final show last week after the television show began in 2009.
“I was just thinking about, ‘Wow, I remember when I was a rookie in Cup when this show started.’ You hate to see things like that go away, but it’s just different eras,” Keselowski said.
“Times change and that’s part of the reason being on the ownership side was so important for me and getting exposure to it at this point in time of my life. Inevitably, everything ends.”
Sure, thoughts of his time coming to an end as a driver creep in. However, Keselowski’s on-track success and continued drive overshadow the driver of the No. 6 Ford’s doubts — on most days.
“I feel like I’m a long ways away from that on the driver’s side,” Keselowski said. “Although there are bad days where you do kind of kick yourself and you have those thoughts pushed in your head, but, fortunately as of late there have been enough good days to where you go, ‘Oh, no, no. I’m gonna do this for a long time.’”
Last month, Keselowski returned to victory lane for the first time in 110 races at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, reigniting his winning ways.
He backed that performance with a runner-up effort at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in the Coca-Cola 600 and a third-place run at Illinois’ World Wide Technology Raceway.
“I left the Coke 600 saying, ‘Oh, I’ve got 10 years left in me,’” Keselowski said.
“And when I left North Wilkesboro I was saying, ‘Oh my God, how am I gonna keep doing this?’ So, you’ve got the ups and the downs and you just try to level them out a little bit in your head.”
Riding the highs and lows that racing naturally brings is the name of the game for Keselowski. Referencing a quote Martin said on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s ‘Dale Jr. Download’ podcast, Keselowski said, “‘They don’t make a drug like that. They don’t make a drug that good as being able to win races.’
“So, I hope we’re running really well and I have another 10 years left in me,” Keselowski said. “That’s what I feel at least.”
Keselowski enters Iowa Speedway seventh in the standings with eight top-10 finishes.