Brad Keselowski has been a NASCAR Cup Series team co-owner since 2022, and the 2012 Cup Series champion has learned a lot about the business of racing since then.
He shared part of that wisdom on Friday at Chicagoland Speedway in a detailed explanation of a major engineering shift in the garage and how it has changed the sport over the last several years.
NASCAR’s seismic shift
“Right around 2020, 2021, the sport went through what I considered a dramatic behind-the-scenes pivot to where all the engineering was taken from the teams based on rules and procedures and given to the OEMs,” Keselowski said. “That created a tremendous dynamic shift in this sport that prevents someone like a Furniture Row from coming back in the sport and having a chance to be successful.”
Furniture Row Racing was a Denver, Colorado-based team that won the 2017 Cup Series title with Martin Truex Jr. Despite Truex nearly winning the 2018 championship, the organization closed up shop at the end of the 2018 season.
“I think those rules were targeted exactly at Furniture Row and the fact that they came in and they were successful,” Keselowski said. “They spent a lot of money and they went away. The dialogue at that time was, that’s not good. There were comments that Furniture Row bought a championship.”
While Furniture Row was still an atypical Cup Series operation during its final, most successful years, its technical alliance with powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing from 2016-18 was a massive help as the team chased a title.
“The rules and all the things behind the scenes got altered and pushed in such a way as to prevent that from possibly happening again,” Keselowski said. “I think that’s kind of where they are right now. What’s the unintended consequences… is you created this stalemate of organizations. And the OEMs all, either consciously or subconsciously, decided who their favorite was because they had to, or felt like they had to.”
Since Furniture Row’s title in 2017, no driver from any team other than Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing or Team Penske has won a championship. And while those organizations have been top-tier for decades, there has been a relative lack of parity in recent years as to who the championship contenders are.
That dilemma has been quelled this season by 23XI Racing and Tyler Reddick. Reddick won five of the first nine races of 2026 and just relinquished the points lead for the first time all season after Sonoma. But 23XI, which is owned by Michael Jordan and JGR driver Denny Hamlin, is similar to Furniture Row in that 23XI has a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.
“What’s become unique over the last 2-3 years specifically is, and I give a lot of credit to Toyota for this, is they’ve recognized that that stalemate is not necessarily good for the sport or for them as an OEM,” Keselowski said. “They’ve done a lot of things to push elite collaboration amongst their top organizations, so they have two A organizations rather than an A, B, C. As I’ve seen to date, the other organizations have not done that.”
That move has certainly paid off for Toyota in 2026, as it’s won 10 of the 18 Cup Series races this season and has Hamlin and Reddick currently 1-2 in the standings.
If a Toyota driver were to win the 2026 Cup Series championship, it would be the manufacturer’s first title in the Next-Gen era and its first since Kyle Busch in 2019.
Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.