Keselowski Motorsports, formerly known as K-Automotive Racing and Brian Keselowski Motorsports, is a
stock car racing team in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...
. K-Automotive previously raced in
ARCA and the
Nationwide Series
The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...
. K-Automotive is owned and operated by
Bob
Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to:
Places
* Mount Bob, New York, United States
*Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica
People, fictional characters, and named animals
*Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
*Bob (surname ...
,
Brian
Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world.
It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...
and Kay Keselowski. Brian Keselowski Motorsports is owned and operated by
Brian Keselowski
Brian A. Keselowski (born September 2, 1981) is an American professional stock car racing driver, crew chief, and spotter. He made headlines in 2011, qualifying his family-owned K-Automotive Motorsports entry into the Daytona 500.
Early life and ...
.
The team began racing in ARCA and
USAC Series in the 1969 with Ron driving and Bob serving as the team's
crew chief.
Winston Cup Series
K Automotive made its debut in the NASCAR
Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series:
*National-level stock car series:
**NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...
in
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
, the team being owned by
John Keselowski. Fielding the number 62
Kaye Engineering Dodge,
Homer Newland finished 36th in the team's debut at
Michigan International Speedway
Michigan International Speedway (MIS) is a moderate-banked D-shaped speedway located off U.S. Highway 12 on more than approximately south of the village of Brooklyn, in the scenic Irish Hills area of southeastern Michigan. The track ...
. Newland also ran K Automotive's car at the inaugural event at
Alabama International Motor Speedway
Talladega Superspeedway, nicknamed “'Dega”, and formerly named Alabama International Motor Speedway (AIMS) from 1969 to 1989, is a motorsports complex located north of Talladega, Alabama. It is located on the former Anniston Air Force Bas ...
, starting eighth, but dropping to twenty-seventh due to an engine failure.
In
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
, Ron began running most of the races for the team. He ran seventeen races, finishing eighth at the
West Virginia 300, and finished 39th in the final points standings. They also fielded a car for
Dave Marcis at the
Southern 500
The Southern 500, officially known as the Cook Out Southern 500 for sponsorship reasons, is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, United States. The race distance is and consists of 367 laps. Fro ...
, finishing 29th. In
1971, K fielded entries for a variety of drivers, including Ron,
Dick Polling, and
Bill Shirley
William Jesse Shirley (July 6, 1921 – August 27, 1989) was an American actor and tenor/lyric baritone singer who later became a Broadway theatre producer. He is perhaps best known as the speaking and singing voice of Prince Phillip in Walt Disn ...
. After taking
the following year off, K returned in
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
, fielding a car for Ron in two races. He finished fifth at
Michigan International Speedway
Michigan International Speedway (MIS) is a moderate-banked D-shaped speedway located off U.S. Highway 12 on more than approximately south of the village of Brooklyn, in the scenic Irish Hills area of southeastern Michigan. The track ...
. They made one start in
1974 with
Bob Whitlow
Robert Edward Whitlow (February 15, 1936 – October 23, 2020) was an American professional football player who was a center in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons, and Cleveland Browns. ...
before making their final Cup start at the
1975 Daytona 500
The 1975 Daytona 500, the 17th running of the event on February 16, 1975, was a race in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.
Race report
From the start, it appeared that David Pearson was on his way to his first Daytona 500 victory as he built a siza ...
when
Jim Vandiver
Jim Vandiver (December 13, 1939June 18, 2015) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver who raced from 1968 to 1983. As an independent driver, he had limited financial resources but enjoyed a level of success that relatively few independent drivers ...
finished 35th after a wreck.
Local racing and ARCA Racing Series
In 1975, Bob and Ron switched roles, with Bob becoming the team's driver and Ron the crew chief. Bob made his late model debut at
Toledo Speedway
Toledo Speedway is a half-mile paved oval racetrack located in Toledo, Ohio, United States. It is owned jointly by Roy Mott and ARCA President Ron Drager. It is operated by ARCA and run as the sister track to Flat Rock Speedway in Flat Rock, M ...
and moved to full-time USAC racing in 1976, running 1974
Dodge Challengers and
Aspens, garnering a best finish of seventh in competition. In 1978, he also ran some NASCAR
Late Model Sportsman
Late may refer to:
* LATE, an acronym which could stand for:
** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia
** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law
** Local average treatment effect, ...
races in addition to the USAC series. He continued to run USAC and the
NASCAR Grand American Series
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
over the next several years, and won the 1983 track championship at Toledo.
In 1986, Bob Keselowski began running the ARCA series in the number 29 Chevrolet, making seven starts and getting two second-place finishes before winning his first race at
Berlin Raceway. He continued to win many races and awards through the next several years, and was the 1989 ARCA Supercar champion. That same year,
Chrysler re-entered auto racing, starting with the ARCA series. K was selected as one of the teams, and
Mopar Performance
Mopar is the parts, service, and customer care division (business), division of the former Chrysler Corporation, now owned by Netherlands-based automobile manufacturer Stellantis. It serves as a primary OEM accessory seller for Stellantis brands ...
sponsored Keselowski's number 29
Chrysler LeBaron
The Chrysler LeBaron, also known as the Imperial LeBaron, is a line of automobiles built by Chrysler from 1931-1941 and from 1955-1995. The model was introduced in 1931, with a body manufactured by LeBaron, and competed with other luxury cars o ...
throughout the 1990 season. Together, they won the season-opener at Daytona and finished 3rd in points. Keselowski would continue to compete in the ARCA series until the end of the 1994 season.
Ten years later, the Keselowskis returned to the series to field the number 29
Competition Graphics Dodge under a partnership with
Bob Ducharme. Brian Keselowski drove seven races and had a top-ten in his debut at
Kentucky Speedway along with two other top-tens. Despite failing to qualify twice in 2005, he had a string of five consecutive top-ten finishes out of seven starts. In 2006, he won his first career race at Berlin with
Holloway Motorsports A hollow way is a sunken lane. Holloway may refer to:
People
* Holloway (surname)
* Holloway Halstead Frost (1889–1935), American World War I Navy officer
Place names
;United Kingdom
*Holloway, London, inner-city district in the London Borough ...
sponsoring and finished 29th in points. He followed that up with additional wins in the 29 in 2007. That year
Mike Ciochetti
Michael Ciochetti Jr. (born April 23, 1959) is an American stock car racing driver and aviation entrepreneur. He is a former competitor in the ARCA Racing Series, and planned to compete in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series before suffering a career-en ...
drove at Talladega but wrecked and finished 39th. In addition, they expanded to a second car, the number 00
Orchard Chrysler Dodge Jeep Dodge owned by Brad Keselowski with
Robb Brent. Brent ran two seasons in limited schedules and had five top-tens in sixteen starts.
In 2009, K returned to ARCA with the number 29 Chevrolet and hired
Mikey Kile and
Chad Finley
Chad J. Finley (born March 17, 1992) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, driving the No. 42 Chevrolet Silverado for Chad Finley Racing.
Raci ...
to drive on a part-time basis. Kile had four top-ten finishes in the
Greased Lightning Cleaning Products Chevy, and Finley had three in the
Auto Value Chevy.
Jesse Smith drove the season opener at Daytona in 2010.
Craftsman Truck Series
Truck No. 29 history
K returned to NASCAR in
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
with the formation of the
SuperTruck Series by Craftsman. Bob began driving the team's number 29
Winnebago Industries
Winnebago Industries, Inc. is an American manufacturer of motorhomes, a type of recreational vehicle (RV), in the United States. In 2018, the company expanded into motorboat manufacturing with the acquisition of Chris-Craft Corporation. Winnebag ...
Dodge Ram
The Ram pickup (marketed as the Dodge Ram until 2010) is a full-size pickup truck manufactured by Stellantis North America (formerly Chrysler Group LLC and FCA US LLC) and marketed from 2010 onwards under the Ram Trucks brand. The current fi ...
, starting sixteen races and finishing in the top-ten four times, earning him a fourteenth-place points finish. He dropped to sixteenth in the standings the next year when he posted just one top-ten. In
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
, he finished a career-best fourteenth in the standings and won his only truck race at
Richmond International Raceway
Richmond Raceway (RR) is a , ''D''-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in unincorporated Henrico County. It hosts the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Known as ...
in the
Mopar
Mopar is the parts, service, and customer care division of the former Chrysler Corporation, now owned by Netherlands-based automobile manufacturer Stellantis. It serves as a primary OEM accessory seller for Stellantis brands under the Mopar bran ...
Dodge. During the
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
season, Keselowski was injured and was replaced by
Dennis Setzer
Dennis Setzer (born February 27, 1960) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He has driven in all three of NASCAR's top series, scoring eighteen wins in the Camping World Truck Series.
Beginnings
Setzer made his NASCAR debut in t ...
. Over a span of five races, Setzer had two eighth-place finishes. Keselowski returned and finished tenth at
Heartland Park Topeka
Heartland Motorsports Park, formerly known as Heartland Park Topeka, is a multi-purpose motorsports facility south of downtown Topeka, Kansas near the Topeka Regional Airport.
When it opened in 1989, Heartland Motorsports Park was the first new ...
before handing the driving chores back to Setzer for the rest of the season. Setzer then won his first career race at
Mesa Marin Raceway
Mesa Marin Raceway was a paved oval race track, located near the junction of CA 178 and CA 184 (Kern Canyon Road), east of Bakersfield, California. It opened in 1977 and was owned by Marion Collins throughout its existence. The Collins fami ...
. In
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
, K created a second truck, the number 1, for Setzer to drive while Keselowski drove the number 29 part-time, doing research and development for Dodge. Keselowski ran five races and had a top-ten finish at
Texas Motor Speedway
Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The reconfigured track measures with banked 20° in turns 1 and 2 and banked 24 ...
before he retired. Setzer won three times and lost the championship by 108 points.
In
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
, Setzer won one race at
Nazareth Speedway
Nazareth Speedway was an auto racing facility near Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania which operated from 1910 to 2004 in two distinct course configurations. In its early years, it was a dirt twin oval layout. In 1987 it was reo ...
and fell to seventh in the standings.
Terry Cook drove the number 29 in a one-race deal at the season finale at
California Speedway
Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previo ...
and finished seventh. When Setzer left, the team switched to the number 29 and
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
. Cook joined the team full-time with sponsorship from
Power Stroke Diesel. In his first year with the team, Cook won the pole at Nazareth and finished tenth in the standings. In
2002, he won four races and two poles but dropped to ninth in the final points. After he did not win again in
2003, he and PSD left the team.
![Kes-29-2004-mis-deb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Kes-29-2004-mis-deb.jpg)
The team began
2004 with
Frank Kimmel driving. He finished eighth at
Daytona before Brad Keselowski began driving. He made eight races, his best finish sixteenth at
Mansfield before
Deborah Renshaw
Deborah Renshaw-Parker (born October 28, 1975) is a former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver.
Background and family life
Renshaw grew up in Bowling Green, Kentucky and has two brothers. She raced and drove in several types of motor vehicles ...
finished out the season. Her best finish came at
Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville Speedway is a NASCAR-owned stock car racing short track in Ridgeway, Virginia, just south of Martinsville. At in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in ...
, where she finished fifteenth. Brad became the team's full-time driver in
2005 wit
SUBcrews.comSamson Stone
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
as primary sponsors. He had a seventh-place finish at Daytona and finished 21st in points. Due to a lack of sponsorship, the team only ran the first two races of the season before suspending operations. While they did not attempt a race for the rest of the year, they loaned their owner's points to
Morgan-Dollar Motorsports and partnered with
MB Motorsports
MB Motorsports was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The team was based in Foristell, Missouri, and was owned by Mike Mittler until his death in 2019. The team was one of few to ...
to run the
O'Reilly Auto Parts 200 that season with Brad driving. He finished 34th after an engine failure.
Nationwide Series
Car No. 26 history
Beginning in the 2007 season, the team partnered with
Holloway Motorsports A hollow way is a sunken lane. Holloway may refer to:
People
* Holloway (surname)
* Holloway Halstead Frost (1889–1935), American World War I Navy officer
Place names
;United Kingdom
*Holloway, London, inner-city district in the London Borough ...
to field entries in the Nationwide Series. They ran one race as the number 19 and then as the number 49 for three more races with Brian Keselowski driving, with a top-ten finish at
Memphis Motorsports Park
Memphis International Raceway (formerly known as Memphis Motorsports Park) was an auto racing park located near the Loosahatchie River in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, just approximately ten miles south of Millington, and a few miles ...
. After he drove briefly for
Jay Robinson Racing
Premium Motorsports (formerly Jay Robinson Racing) was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team last fielded the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 LE full-time for Brennan Poole, and the No. 27 Ca ...
, Keselowski moved to the team's number 92 Dodge to drive on a part-time schedule.
In 2009, the team changed numbers from number 92 to number 26 for their main car, and began to run full-time with limited sponsorship from Fischer Honda and Dusty's Collisions. Brian drove most of the races early on in the year with not a lot of luck with his best finish being 14th at Talladega. Later in the year Michael McDowell took over the ride. He drove to an 8th-place finish in Iowa as well as a 10th at Bristol. After one off starts with
Danny O'Quinn and
Dennis Setzer
Dennis Setzer (born February 27, 1960) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He has driven in all three of NASCAR's top series, scoring eighteen wins in the Camping World Truck Series.
Beginnings
Setzer made his NASCAR debut in t ...
,
Kevin Conway leased the team's owner points for the rest of the year and ran the
ExtenZe car with a best finish of 20th.
Car No. 92 history
The 92 car debuted in
2009 at Michigan with
Willie Allen driving. He and Setzer made a total of seven starts in the car that season, but neither finished a race.
Johnny Chapman
Johnny Chapman (born December 14, 1967) is an American stock car racing driver.
Racing career
Chapman has won 40 races in NASCAR's Late Model Stock Division as well as being a two-time Goody's Dash Series Champion on his way up the rankings in t ...
began the 2010 season as driver, but after only qualifying for one race, he was replaced by Setzer, with Brian and
Andy Ponstein occasionally filling. The number 92 is a start and park entry to help fund the number 26. However, the 92 ran Talladega in 2010 in its entire 312 miles (plus 7.98 miles more due to a
Green-white-checkered finish), and finished 17th, after getting in the catch-fence on the last lap and catching fire.
Car No. 96 history
![DennisSetzerDodgeMilwaukeeMile2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/DennisSetzerDodgeMilwaukeeMile2009.jpg)
The 96 car also debuted in the 2009 season, but in the second race of the season. Setzer drove for the first three starts, followed by Brian Keselowski and Willie Allen. Eventually Michael McDowell would become the driver of the car with
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...
and
The Real Yellow Pages sponsoring, getting an eleventh-place finish at Montreal. Setzer was expected to drive the car for most of 2010 before the team closed and merged with the number 92. Dennis Setzer ran the number 96 in Homestead.
Sprint Cup Series
Car No. 92 history
K-Automotive motorsports returned to the Cup Series in 2010 with the number 92 Dodge. The team attempted the
Daytona 500 with Mike Wallace and four races with Brian Keselowski, but the team did not qualify for any of the events. The team also raced in the Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway with Robert Richardson Jr. driving and sponsorship provided by The Grill Topper.
In 2011, K-Automotive shut down their Nationwide team and moved up to Cup full-time. Keselowski qualified for the
Daytona 500 after he raced his way from the slowest of the 48 cars who attempted the race to finishing fifth in his qualifying race, giving him the 12th starting position for the 500. Offers also started pouring in from
Ray Evernham,
Roger Penske
Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, t ...
, and
Golden Corral
Golden Corral is an American restaurant chain which offers an all-you-can-eat buffet and grill. It is a privately held company headquartered in the U.S. city of Raleigh, North Carolina, with locations in 43 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.
History ...
.
Discount Tire
Discount Tire Company is an independent tire and wheel retailer. Discount Tire operates in most of the lower 48 states in the United States, and is the largest independent tire and wheel retailer in the world. The company is headquartered in ...
later sponsored the number 92. The team finished 41st after a crash and did not qualify for the next two races. In March, Keselowski had his gall bladder removed, so
Dennis Setzer
Dennis Setzer (born February 27, 1960) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He has driven in all three of NASCAR's top series, scoring eighteen wins in the Camping World Truck Series.
Beginnings
Setzer made his NASCAR debut in t ...
took over the car for Keselowski in Bristol and qualified for Bristol and finished 38th after engine trouble. The team then entered with Setzer in Martinsville, but was forced to withdraw after a crash in practice when the cars brakes failed and they did not have a backup car. K-Automotive then scaled down to a partial schedule because they only had one car. They announced a switch to Chevrolet prior to the Michigan race in June and attempted the race with sponsorship from Melling but failed to make the race. Dennis Setzer attempted New Hampshire and the fall Martinsville race but did not qualify. Scott Riggs attempted Homestead but did not qualify that as well.
In 2013, Keselowski changed the number to 52, as he was using owners points from
Hamilton Means Racing to run a limited schedule. Keselowski attempted the
2013 Daytona 500, but failed to make the race. He ran Richmond and finished 40th. Later in the season, 71-year-old
Morgan Shepherd
Clay Morgan Shepherd (born October 12, 1941) is an American retired professional stock car racing driver and current team owner. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 89 Chevrolet Camaro for Shepherd Racing Ven ...
ran at Loudon, at the time the oldest driver to start a race. Keselowski would return to the car at
Watkins Glen, finishing 39th after starting 43rd.
At Sonoma, BKM lent their owner points to
Go Green Racing
Go Green Racing is an American professional stock car racing team that is currently on hiatus in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The team debuted in NASCAR competition in 2009, competing in the Nationwide Series, before adding a part-time Sprint Cup ...
, who fielded rookie
Paulie Harraka
Paul Peter "Paulie" Harraka (born September 15, 1989) is an American professional stock car racing driver and entrepreneur. He is a graduate of Duke University and a former representative of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program.
Personal life ...
. This entry was unrelated to BKM's entries.
In 2014, Keselowski changed the number back to 92 and the team switched to Ford, purchasing a car from
Germain Racing
Germain Racing was an American professional stock car racing team that last competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was owned by Bob Germain, whose family owns many car dealerships across the United States as Germain Motor Company. The team last fie ...
, who had switched to Chevy. However, the team never entered a race due to lack of sponsorship.
See also
*
Brad Keselowski Racing
Brad Keselowski Racing was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Started in 2007, it was owned and operated by NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series champion Brad Keselowski. The tea ...
References
External links
Team KeselowskiBob Keselowski Owner StatsJohn Keselowski Owner StatsRon Keselowski Owner StatsDusty Whitney Owner Stats
{{Keselowski family
American auto racing teams
Companies based in North Carolina
NASCAR teams
ARCA Menards Series teams