Brad Keselowski briefly met with the media Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. He said contact discussions for next year have not begun yet. His contract with Team Penske is up at the end of the year and Ryan Blaney announced a multi-year contract extension on Friday.
Asked about future plans, he said, “I think I can win races and be competitive for another ten years and that’s really want I want to do”.
With Jimmie Johnson retiring at the end of the season, there has been speculation that Keselowski could be a favorite to replace Johnson at Hendrick Motorsports. next season. Asked if he expects to talk to other teams Keselowski said, “I’m not dialing out, but if someone dials in, I will certainly listen, for sure.”
“I really haven’t thought about (the game plan for an extension). I haven’t put any emphasis on it,” Keselowski said Saturday before his qualifying run of 14th. “I’ve been trying to … I had a baby over the offseason, trying to enjoy that. Then we had the team change right after that, trying to make the most of that and get off to the right start here the first few weeks.”
“Honestly, I haven’t worked on it but I’m really happy for Ryan that he got his deal done,” Keselowski said. “I understand that probably puts a lot more eyes on me. … So I’m really happy for him, but I haven’t talked to anyone or gone through any of those steps. I’m sure it’ll be coming up soon. I want to race and be in contention to win for a long time. I think I’ve got a pretty good car right now and that’s certainly not always easy to come by. There’s also a lot of really good rides out there, too, so we’ll see how it goes.”
