Brad Keselowski makes his intentions crystal clear with a "breakthrough" message for the Daytona 500: "It's the only crown jewel I don't have"

Brad Keselowski has set the tone for his 17th Daytona 500 attempt, expressing his expectations from the 500-mile battle. The RFK Racing driver and co-owner has multiple accolades to his name but his resume is still shy of the highly-coveted crown jewel race win.

Keselowski is the 2012 Cup Series champion and winner of 36 races. He earned 34 with Team Penske, the outfit where he honed his stock car racing prowess to rise in the ranks of the NASCAR greats. In 2022, he exited Penske to collaborate with Jack Roush through a stake in Roush Fenway Racing, rebranding it to Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing.

Despite all the success, partnership with the elite NASCAR teams, and the other three crown jewels -Southern 500, Brickyard 400, and Coca-Cola 600 -win in the bag, the Michigan native is yet to clinch the iconic Daytona 500 victory. Thus, ahead of the 67th running of the event at the Daytona International Speedway, the RFK driver delivered his "breakthrough" message, hoping to taste the victory burnouts.

"It all starts with the Daytona 500, it's the initial race of the year, the first point span race of the year. It's the only crown jewel I don't have, we've done a lot to prepare for it...there's never been a race I prepared more for every year than the Daytona 500. I feel like we've been so close, can't wait to see if we could breakthrough in 2025," Keselowski said (4:26).

Keselowski qualified in all but one of the 16 attempts he made and has bested a third-place result, in 2014.

Brad Keselowski sends powerful message amid RFK Racing's massive silly season move

Brad Keselowski's co-owned outfit underwent a massive overhaul in the off-season. Not only did RFK Racing bring aboard JTG Daugherty Racing's (now HYAK Motorsports) longtime sponsor Kroger but it also expanded to a three-car team beginning from the 2025 season.

With that, Ryan Preece was deemed the best candidate to pilot the #60 Ford on a full-time schedule. It's worth mentioning that Preece was heavily linked to joining RFK Racing before it became official.

That said, the 36-time Cup Series race winner delivered a stern message about doing all the "right things" to be a "threat" to rivals.

"We've had an amazing off-season. With adding a third team, really exciting - Ryan Preece, Kroger partnership, brought a lot of people in with new ideas, fresh ideas that we've been able to see some pretty immediate gains out of, at least with what we can tell from not being at the track," Brad Keselowski said.

"I feel like we are doing all the things we need to break out of being kind of this, challenger [or] contender to being a real threat to go deeper into the playoffs and win multiple races with all of our cars," he added.

Brad Keselowski's team will share a technical alliance with the Haas Factory Team, with Ford as the common engine supplier.