Brad Keselowski calls for more NASCAR penalties

RFK Racing co-owner says more penalties would save money for NASCAR teams

At the start of the 2022 NASCAR season, Brad Keselowski made the switch from Team Penske to RFK Racing. He also became a co-owner of the renamed operation.

At the same time, NASCAR launched the Next Gen car. It’s a spec chassis, identical from team to team. The car is designed to cut development costs, dramatically.

That’s polar opposite to years prior. Previously, teams would design chassis and parts, in many cases, specific to a type of track.

In the second race of the season, RFK Racing was handed a $100,000 fine and they were also docked 100 owner and driver points. The team repaired their car and made it better in the process. A stock part was modified.

NASCAR details the $100,000 rule broken by RFK Racing

In previous years, it was the job of the team to push the boundaries of the rule book. They still need to do so but a clear line has been drawn in regards to a massive portion of the car.

After the penalty to RFK Racing, Brad Keselowski stepped in and told everyone on his team to stop the games…

Brad Keselowski comments

Brad Keselowski - NASCAR driver
BROOKLYN, MICHIGAN – AUGUST 22: Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Discount Tire Ford, walks the grid during driver introductions prior to the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 22, 2021 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

“I feel a little bit of a sense of relief that the penalty that was handed to us at Atlanta was in some form, replicated to more than us,” Brad Keselowski stated.

“In some cases, I feel like some teams’ penalties could have been adjusted higher, maybe even lower. But, the reality is, the garage is going for a reset. With respect to kinda cutting out the games.”

“That’s a good thing for us, as a sport. I personally think the sport needs more penalties. NASCAR needs to be handing them out like candy right now. Get control of the garage.”

“Because, we’ve been playing a lot of games, for a lot of years. The games have to stop.”

“The games cost a lot of money. We just talked about driver salaries, those games come directly at the expense of being able to afford to do things that we’d like to be able to do or just to be able to afford to race.”

Cutting costs by handing out penalties

“The easiest way for NASCAR to stop those expenses is to stop the games. You look at the aero and engineering departments in these companies that are spending 10s of millions to engineer parts. NASCAR has really tightened down the rules.”

“Most of those departments, that are working so hard on those things, are forced to make a choice between doing something illegal or not really having a big role in the success of their race team.”

“Although I love our engineers and I want to see them for a long time, we also have to be a viable business. There’s some compromises there that we have to be careful with.”

“As a sport, the easiest way to control the costs is to just throw those penalties out like candy when anybody gets outside the box.”

“I know after our issues at Atlanta, we went through our entire company and said, ‘No more games. Nothing goes on with these cars. Period.’ “

“That a rapid culture shift. There’s a lot of people inside our own company that didn’t like it. But, the reality is, NASCAR is setting precedence, that needed to be set, that we support being set.”

“It’s important to the future of our sport and its viability. I support NASCAR.”

NASCAR penalty system updated with possible $500k fine

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Brad Keselowski | Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing | NASCAR

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