{"id":550620,"date":"2026-03-21T06:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550620\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T06:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:22:14","slug":"brad-keselowski-racing-through-injury-at-darlington-raceway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550620\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Keselowski Racing Through Injury at Darlington Raceway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Keselowski possesses two victories and a 12.13 average finish in 24 races at Darlington Raceway, but this is the first year he\u2019s faced NASCAR\u2019s oldest speedway while recovering from a broken leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cDriving the race car is a blessing and a curse,\u201d said Keselowski, who broke his right femur\/thigh bone in December while on a snow skiing trip with his family.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blessing because it provides the motivation for me to really push my rehab and do things faster than normal, which is not a bad thing. But it\u2019s a curse because when I get in the car it does hurt, it does pull me backwards. When I have the adrenaline and all those things, I don\u2019t really notice it, but when it wears off, I\u2019ve got to recover from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keselowski\u2019s injury required surgery and a rod insertion. Initially, he wondered if he would ever walk again when he was given a six-month recovery time. He skipped the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray but was in his RFK Racing Ford for the season opener at Daytona. In the season\u2019s first five races, Keselowski hasn\u2019t finished outside the top 20. However, he only has one top five and two finishes inside the top 10.<\/p>\n

\"nascar<\/p>\n

Patrick McDermott\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep having x-rays,\u201d says Keselowski, whose days are filled with physical therapy. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of hardware in my leg that\u2019s holding it together and if that hardware were to come loose it would be problematic for me at this time.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the 1.366-mile historic Darlington track, Keselowski\u2019s 12.13 average finish is the third best among active drivers. First is Denny Hamlin with 7.89 and second is Tyler Reddick with 11.54. <\/p>\n

Keselowski\u2019s last Darlington victory came in the 2024 Goodyear 400, and he believes this year\u2019s event will be a \u201creally difficult race.\u201d More difficult than normal because of his physical situation and the new package that has 750 horsepower, less downforce, and a softer right-side tire.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

\u201cMy eyes are wide open,\u201d Keselowski says. \u201cThe biggest thing I\u2019m thinking about at Darlington is to go 50 laps on a set of tires was almost impossible with the Next Gen car in the last two or three seasons, and now that we have more horsepower and less aero, I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re gonna be able to go 35 laps. So, keeping up with the tires is going to be a big challenge. It\u2019s always a heavy lift, but it\u2019s a heavier lift now.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brad Keselowski possesses two victories and a 12.13 average finish in 24 races at Darlington Raceway, but this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,213970,784,1642,634,213969,82,183339],"class_list":["post-550620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-2e37393d-9ffe-4c04-99ff-390a294a1c3a","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-keselowski-racing-with-injury-at-darlington-raceway","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}