Brad Keselowski‘s 2024 season has been his best since becoming an owner-driver in 2022, but it won’t culminate in his second Cup Series championship.
Keselowski was eliminated from the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Bristol on Saturday night, officially ending the title hopes of both RFK Racing cars.
The final seven events of the 2024 season will take place without Keselowski in the title hunt, though the 2012 champion will still have seven more opportunities to win his second race of the year.
Keselowski broke a 110-race winless streak at Darlington on May 12 and at one point, accrued five top-five finishes in a stretch of seven races.
Finishes of second at Texas, second at Talladega, first at Darlington, second at Charlotte and third at St. Louis encompassed a stretch that saw Keselowski rise from 17th in points to eighth.
Finishes of fifth at Michigan, eighth at Daytona and 14th at Darlington were an encouraging sign entering the playoffs, but finishes of 19th at Atlanta, 26th at Watkins Glen and 26th at Bristol were the death knell for the No. 6 team’s postseason run.
After a third-place run at the track in March, Keselowski was expected to be strong in the circuit’s return to Bristol. However, a starting spot of 23rd put him behind the eight ball before the race started and little progress was made in the stages to improve Keselowski’s car.
As the laps wound down, there was nothing for crew chief Matt McCall to do but watch as Keselowski limped home in 26th, 37 points out of a spot in the Round of 12.
Keselowski’s elimination comes one week after his teammate, Chris Buescher, won at Watkins Glen.
Both Buescher and Keselowski will look to add more trophies to RFK’s trophy case over the final seven races of 2024.
