Done deal.
Multiple sources have confirmed to ARN that Former Cup champion Brad Keselowski has signed with Roush Fenway Racing in a deal that includes part ownership, motorsport.com reported Tuesday.
Keselowski’s contract with Team Penske expires after the 2021 season.
The team will be renamed Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing and Keselowski will drive the No. 6 car starting in 2022.
Obviously with Keselowski headed to Roush Fenway, that impacts the futures of other drivers. Chris Buescher is expected to return to Roush Fenway next season, while Ryan Newman does not have a contract yet for 2022.
Newman has yet to decide whether he will retire after 2021. With Buescher and Keselowski already in seats, Roush Fenway would have to start a third car to keep Newman – something that isn’t totally out of the question, according to those knowledgeable of the situation.
Or Newman – whose 20-year full-time Cup career has taken him from Penske to Stewart-Haas Racing to Richard Childress Racing to Roush Fenway – potentially could find another organization that wanted a veteran driver.
As far as Keselowski’s seat at Team Penske, the organization has an option on Matt DiBenedetto, who currently drives for the Penske affiliate Wood Brothers Racing.
Team Penske announced last year that Austin Cindric, the defending Xfinity Series champion and son of team president Tim Cindric, would replace DiBenedetto in 2022 in the Wood Brothers No. 21 car.
It would surprise no one if Cindric ends up in the No. 2 car that Keselowski will vacate and if Team Penske picks up the option on DiBenedetto and he remains at the Wood Brothers, where DiBenedetto’s personality seems to be a good fit.
It is posable that both Newman & Busecher leave the team at the end of the 2021 season but highly unlikely.
Should the team have a third car, it would need a charter to be guaranteed a starting spot for each race and receive the financial benefits charter teams receive each race over non-chartered teams.
The general manager of Keselowski’s former truck series team, Jeremy Thompson, is already working out of the Roush Fenway Racing shop, according to sources. And Keselowski was initially scheduled to do the Next Gen tire test for Team Penske two weeks ago at Texas but then was replaced by Ryan Blaney.
Keselowski would be the second high-profile driver to move into an ownership role in Cup. Denny Hamlin partnered with NBA icon Michael Jordan to form 23XI Racing, which is in its first season this year.
The 37-year-old Keselowski won the 2012 Cup championship. He has 35 career Cup wins, including earlier this season at Talladega Superspeedway.
Car owner Roger Penske said in March that “I think we’re moving in the right direction” to sign Keselowski to an extension. Penske said then that “I guess it’s just a matter of us sitting down and putting it together, but with everybody not being able to move around, you don’t do that over the phone and you don’t do it by Zoom, so we want to do that face-to-face.”
Keselowski ran three Xfinity races for Penske in 2009 and joined the organization in 2010. He has made 409 career Cup starts for Team Penske heading into Sunday’s inaugural series race at Circuit of the Americas.
Keselowski delivered Team Penske’s 500th all-time win when he took the checkered flag in Sept. 2018 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Keselowski passed Mark Donohue in February 2019 at Atlanta Motor Speedway to become the all-time win leader at Team Penske.
“All wins are special,” Keselowski said that day. “There’s no wins that don’t mean something, but some just mean more. And this one means more for more reasons, whether it be the win record for Team Penske; that’s certainly very special to me.
“When you look at the list of drivers, it’s a pretty big list, and it’s big not just with the amount of drivers but big with the superstar power I guess you’d call it. And just to be on that list as a winner means a lot, but to be on top of it means even more.”
Keselowski has 67 wins (Cup and Xfinity) for Team Penske.
Off the track, Keselowski owns Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing, a state-of-the-art 3-D printing company in the facility that used to house his Camping World Truck Series team. Keselowski’s business is aimed at aerospace, defense, medical and automotive fields.
Team Penske, Brad Keselowski and Roush-Fenway Racing have no comment on the report.
