“Way more forgiving”: Brad Keselowski on Next Gen car’s superiority on road courses over Gen 6 

Brad Keselowski lauded the capabilities of the Next Gen cars on the road courses. Despite widespread criticism from drivers and fans alike about these cars having less horsepower and underperforming on short tracks, Keselowski pointed out that the Next Gen cars handle much better on road courses compared to ovals.

Now in the 17th season of his Cup career and 20th year in NASCAR, the driver of the #6 Ford Mustang—who previously raced full-time for Team Penske—has racked up 36 wins, 258 top-10 finishes, and 18 poles over 538 starts. This season, Brad Keselowski has already clinched a victory at the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, along with securing six top-5 finishes and two top-10s.

So far this season, during the two road course races at Circuit of the Americas and Sonoma Raceway, Brad Keselowski has finished in 33rd and 13th place, respectively. Despite these outcomes, Keselowski expressed a preference for more ovals over road courses during last week's episode of "Harvick's Happy Hour." He remarked:

"I feel like the last half a dozen new tracks we’ve added are road courses. A road course is kind of like the easy thing to do. To add a road course to the schedule, there’s plenty of them, it’s not really hard to make one." [at 10:31]

However, with another road course event on the horizon—the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Race—Brad Keselowski recently shared on the "Rubbin is Racing" podcast that the Next Gen cars actually perform better on road courses. He said:

"Yeah, the cars [Next Gen] are way more forgiving. You can just really hammer the brakes, where the car before this would like bounce and jump when you're trying to get the brakes. Oh, wheel hop. It's got a different rear axle in it. So it's just more made for road courses than the car before this."

He also went on to say that the Next Gen car is an overall improvement over the Gen-6 and earlier models.

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Brad Keselowski opines NASCAR is not making it easier for the teams to operate

Brad Keselowski expressed concerns about the rising costs for NASCAR teams, despite efforts to manage expenses. In a discussion with Kevin Harvick, the RFK Racing co-owner noted:

"Nothing gets cheaper. Nothing ever gets cheaper. [...] If you look at headcounts in the teams, the headcounts went down generally 10-20 percent. The problem is inflation hit everybody by another 20, so you kind of nullified all those gains, and then the car costs more." [at 16:37]

Brad Keselowski also shared his skepticism about future cost reductions, even with the ongoing charter negotiations. He predicted that car expenses are unlikely to decrease. Keselowski also added that the shift in TV deals—moving from traditional broadcasters to streaming services—has made it increasingly challenging for teams to engage partners in the ways they prefer.