Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Media Availability — Phoenix Raceway
Saturday, March 7, 2026

Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Phoenix Raceway infield media center to answer questions about his season to date and this weekend’s race. Keselowski is currently 12th in the series point standings.

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT COOL SHIRTS SINCE AUSTIN. WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR TEAMS AS FAR AS THE BALANCE OF KEEPING A DRIVER COOL VERSUS POTENTIAL MODIFICATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE? “Our group, we let the teams have that autonomy of what they want to run, so if the driver wants to run a cool shirt, he runs a cool shirt and we try to provide the necessary engineering support to make sure that there isn’t an issue. I had one last year where we probably didn’t do a good enough job with that and we came back in and buttoned it up. Cool suits are a tough thing because they’re not designed in our environment to fail to safe, so when they fail, it’s fairly devastating and occasionally those things are gonna happen. It’s unfortunate when it happens to anyone, not just our team. There’s a solve that’s being worked on for all the different teams, but nothing seems to have been bulletproof yet. It’s one of the nuances of currently racing in the Cup Series.”

YOU HAD JOEY HAND ON STAND BY LAST WEEK, BUT YOU OPTED TO STAY IN THE CAR. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT WHEN YOU ALMOST HAD A FAIL SAFE PLAN TO HAVE A GOOD POINTS DAY? “Well, Joey was a fail safe in case I wasn’t able to run the race, where if I felt I couldn’t be competitive. In the car, I felt competitive. I felt like I could drive it to its limits and any change was just gonna put us further back, not because Joey isn’t a good driver, but by the time you execute a change and go to the back of the pack and do all those things and he can re-acclimate in a car that’s not made for him, not fitted for him, etc, that’s a lot to ask of somebody. If I felt like I was holding the team back, I would have made a change, but I didn’t feel that way.”

DID YOU ENJOY PARTICIPATING IN THE FULL SPEED SHOW? “I watched a few clips. I can’t say I’ve seen the entire thing. I think it just came out a day or two ago and I’ve been pretty jammed up, but that said, it’s great that this sport has that level of coverage. I think when I started in the Cup Series the teams and the sponsors were really, really protective around doing things like that, but the industry has found a way to get the teams in a better place and the different producers have over the years been more accommodating as well to making sure we don’t put things in there that embarrass ourselves or the sport, so I think that we’ve found a nice balance. I’m really proud of the sport for being able to put those types of things together, and I think Amazon as a whole, what they’ve brought to our sport, in my eyes at least, is underappreciated. They’ve put a big investment in the sport. They’re promoting really hard with not just the races that they cover, but the things they do outside of covering the races to cover the sport, so it’s refreshing to see that level of engagement.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE SHARING THE WEEKEND WITH INDYCAR AND WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO RACE IN AN INDYCAR? “I tested an IndyCar at Road America about 10 years ago and I loved it. I had a lot of fun. What’s really, really difficult is that all of my time in Cup I’ve never been with a manufacturer in the Cup Series that competes in the IndyCar Series and to go back and forth between the two is considerable pain for the OEMs that is tough to justify. I think that window for me has probably come and gone. There was a time where I was very, very interested, but life takes us in other places and I’m not complaining.”

HAS THE PREPARATION FOR PHOENIX THIS TIME AROUND CHANGED SINCE IT’S NOT HOSTING THE CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT ANYMORE? “One of the things that I really like about the format that we have switched to for 2026 is every race is kind of a championship race. The way the points stack up, significantly with a bonus to the winner. That has large ramifications to how the championship is gonna play out. Tyler Reddick winning the first three races is not just huge in the sense of how hard that is to achieve, it’s huge in the sense of the ramifications it has for him for being a real contender for the championship because of the extra bonus points that are offered. The structure of last year’s points, honestly, him winning the first three races was not super meaningful to the playoffs or to the championship. It was just a nice stat to have, so I look at this format and what it’s intended to do. It’s intended to make every race a big race and, for us specifically, this is what I think most of the teams would tell you is the start of the regular season. It’s more of a traditional racetrack and more of what we’re going to see. It values the things that most of the races from here on out are going to value, whether that’s speed in the race car, tactics by the driver, execution by the pit crew, or strategy by the crew chiefs. Those four elements are more represented here than they are the first three weeks of the season and more representative of the challenges we’re gonna have throughout the rest of the year.”

HOW ARE YOU FEELING AFTER THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE FIRST THREE RACES? HOW ARE YOU HEALING? “Really well. This is supposed to be a six to 12 month recovery and I’m on track to do it in three to four, which is great. I was just saying to my team when I was coming here that I got out of the motorhome and took my first three or four steps without a cane. I’m like, ‘I’m almost ready to be rid of this thing.’ Mentally, I’m ready to be rid of it, but physically I’m not. It feels good. Yes, driving the car is not the best thing for me in some ways, whether it be the vibration or the loads or just the movements to get in and out, but once I’m in the car I feel reasonable. I can’t say it’s the best I’ve ever felt, but I feel reasonable. There are little setbacks that come from driving the car with dehydration or just the workload in general, but with a day or two of recovery I’ve been able to come back even stronger each of the three races we’ve had so far. I’m really happy just staying the course and putting the work in and dealing with the pain. In some ways, it’s good for me because it provides the motivation to put the work in to do the rehab at a really high level and I think that’s been really good for me.”

THERE IS SOME IRONY THAT YOU’RE HIGHER IN POINTS THIS YEAR THAN A YEAR AGO WHEN YOU WERE HEALTHY. IS THAT A REFLECTION OF THIS ADDED WHATEVER YOU’RE HAVING TO DEAL WITH? “Certainly from the outside-in it could appear that way, but I would say that the start of last year was not very good for the 6 team and there was a lot of reasons for that. Some of it was poor luck and some of it was just poor execution. We turned over pretty much the entire team from ‘24 to ‘25 and that was a big transition. Now, the team has got its legs underneath it and I think it can position itself to be a contender.”

MICHAEL JORDAN HAS A TEAM THAT HAS WON THREE IN A ROW. DO YOU FIND THAT HIS PROFILE HAS BEEN GOOD FOR EVERYBODY IN THE SPORT? “Yeah. It’s hard to argue against Michael having a positive influence on the sport. I love the fact that he’s so engaged and at the races. I just can’t emphasize enough how important that is, not just for Michael, but for any of the key stakeholders to just have a physical presence at the racetrack, and that’s at all levels, not just the team level. So, for him to have a physical presence, I think it’s a testament to his fortitude for being a part of this sport because, let’s face it, even though he’s won the first three races, he’s lost a lot more as every car owner will. It’s not a dig on him. If I’m a guy like him, personally, and I wake up and say, ‘Where do I want to be today,’ and I know that I have less than a 10 percent chance of winning, flying my butt all across the country when I have all the things that Michael has is probably something that takes me a minute to emotionally justify, but he does. I’ll give him a lot of respect and credit for that because this sport is a grind, not just for the people that work in it, but also for the key stakeholders, whether it be team owners, executives, etc. He’s made the decision and choice to participate at a high level to be engaged. The fringe benefit for the sport is the brand that he has outside of it, which naturally comes with him, which I think is a great thing. I’m happy for him. I’m happy for the sport. It’s hard for me to see any negatives. I’m sure there are probably some out there, but I don’t see them and I”m genuinely happy that he’s a part of our sport.”

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Media Availability – Phoenix Raceway
Saturday, March 7, 2026

Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Phoenix Raceway infield media center to answer questions about his season to date and this weekend’s race. Keselowski is currently 12th in the series point standings.

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT COOL SHIRTS SINCE AUSTIN. WHAT DO YOU TELL YOUR TEAMS AS FAR AS THE BALANCE OF KEEPING A DRIVER COOL VERSUS POTENTIAL MODIFICATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE? “Our group, we let the teams have that autonomy of what they want to run, so if the driver wants to run a cool shirt, he runs a cool shirt and we try to provide the necessary engineering support to make sure that there isn’t an issue. I had one last year where we probably didn’t do a good enough job with that and we came back in and buttoned it up. Cool suits are a tough thing because they’re not designed in our environment to fail to safe, so when they fail, it’s fairly devastating and occasionally those things are gonna happen. It’s unfortunate when it happens to anyone, not just our team. There’s a solve that’s being worked on for all the different teams, but nothing seems to have been bulletproof yet. It’s one of the nuances of currently racing in the Cup Series.”

YOU HAD JOEY HAND ON STAND BY LAST WEEK, BUT YOU OPTED TO STAY IN THE CAR. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT WHEN YOU ALMOST HAD A FAIL SAFE PLAN TO HAVE A GOOD POINTS DAY? “Well, Joey was a fail safe in case I wasn’t able to run the race, where if I felt I couldn’t be competitive. In the car, I felt competitive. I felt like I could drive it to its limits and any change was just gonna put us further back, not because Joey isn’t a good driver, but by the time you execute a change and go to the back of the pack and do all those things and he can re-acclimate in a car that’s not made for him, not fitted for him, etc, that’s a lot to ask of somebody. If I felt like I was holding the team back, I would have made a change, but I didn’t feel that way.”

DID YOU ENJOY PARTICIPATING IN THE FULL SPEED SHOW? “I watched a few clips. I can’t say I’ve seen the entire thing. I think it just came out a day or two ago and I’ve been pretty jammed up, but that said, it’s great that this sport has that level of coverage. I think when I started in the Cup Series the teams and the sponsors were really, really protective around doing things like that, but the industry has found a way to get the teams in a better place and the different producers have over the years been more accommodating as well to making sure we don’t put things in there that embarrass ourselves or the sport, so I think that we’ve found a nice balance. I’m really proud of the sport for being able to put those types of things together, and I think Amazon as a whole, what they’ve brought to our sport, in my eyes at least, is underappreciated. They’ve put a big investment in the sport. They’re promoting really hard with not just the races that they cover, but the things they do outside of covering the races to cover the sport, so it’s refreshing to see that level of engagement.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE SHARING THE WEEKEND WITH INDYCAR AND WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO RACE IN AN INDYCAR? “I tested an IndyCar at Road America about 10 years ago and I loved it. I had a lot of fun. What’s really, really difficult is that all of my time in Cup I’ve never been with a manufacturer in the Cup Series that competes in the IndyCar Series and to go back and forth between the two is considerable pain for the OEMs that is tough to justify. I think that window for me has probably come and gone. There was a time where I was very, very interested, but life takes us in other places and I’m not complaining.”

HAS THE PREPARATION FOR PHOENIX THIS TIME AROUND CHANGED SINCE IT’S NOT HOSTING THE CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT ANYMORE? “One of the things that I really like about the format that we have switched to for 2026 is every race is kind of a championship race. The way the points stack up, significantly with a bonus to the winner. That has large ramifications to how the championship is gonna play out. Tyler Reddick winning the first three races is not just huge in the sense of how hard that is to achieve, it’s huge in the sense of the ramifications it has for him for being a real contender for the championship because of the extra bonus points that are offered. The structure of last year’s points, honestly, him winning the first three races was not super meaningful to the playoffs or to the championship. It was just a nice stat to have, so I look at this format and what it’s intended to do. It’s intended to make every race a big race and, for us specifically, this is what I think most of the teams would tell you is the start of the regular season. It’s more of a traditional racetrack and more of what we’re going to see. It values the things that most of the races from here on out are going to value, whether that’s speed in the race car, tactics by the driver, execution by the pit crew, or strategy by the crew chiefs. Those four elements are more represented here than they are the first three weeks of the season and more representative of the challenges we’re gonna have throughout the rest of the year.”

HOW ARE YOU FEELING AFTER THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE FIRST THREE RACES? HOW ARE YOU HEALING? “Really well. This is supposed to be a six to 12 month recovery and I’m on track to do it in three to four, which is great. I was just saying to my team when I was coming here that I got out of the motorhome and took my first three or four steps without a cane. I’m like, ‘I’m almost ready to be rid of this thing.’ Mentally, I’m ready to be rid of it, but physically I’m not. It feels good. Yes, driving the car is not the best thing for me in some ways, whether it be the vibration or the loads or just the movements to get in and out, but once I’m in the car I feel reasonable. I can’t say it’s the best I’ve ever felt, but I feel reasonable. There are little setbacks that come from driving the car with dehydration or just the workload in general, but with a day or two of recovery I’ve been able to come back even stronger each of the three races we’ve had so far. I’m really happy just staying the course and putting the work in and dealing with the pain. In some ways, it’s good for me because it provides the motivation to put the work in to do the rehab at a really high level and I think that’s been really good for me.”

THERE IS SOME IRONY THAT YOU’RE HIGHER IN POINTS THIS YEAR THAN A YEAR AGO WHEN YOU WERE HEALTHY. IS THAT A REFLECTION OF THIS ADDED WHATEVER YOU’RE HAVING TO DEAL WITH? “Certainly from the outside-in it could appear that way, but I would say that the start of last year was not very good for the 6 team and there was a lot of reasons for that. Some of it was poor luck and some of it was just poor execution. We turned over pretty much the entire team from ‘24 to ‘25 and that was a big transition. Now, the team has got its legs underneath it and I think it can position itself to be a contender.”

MICHAEL JORDAN HAS A TEAM THAT HAS WON THREE IN A ROW. DO YOU FIND THAT HIS PROFILE HAS BEEN GOOD FOR EVERYBODY IN THE SPORT? “Yeah. It’s hard to argue against Michael having a positive influence on the sport. I love the fact that he’s so engaged and at the races. I just can’t emphasize enough how important that is, not just for Michael, but for any of the key stakeholders to just have a physical presence at the racetrack, and that’s at all levels, not just the team level. So, for him to have a physical presence, I think it’s a testament to his fortitude for being a part of this sport because, let’s face it, even though he’s won the first three races, he’s lost a lot more as every car owner will. It’s not a dig on him. If I’m a guy like him, personally, and I wake up and say, ‘Where do I want to be today,’ and I know that I have less than a 10 percent chance of winning, flying my butt all across the country when I have all the things that Michael has is probably something that takes me a minute to emotionally justify, but he does. I’ll give him a lot of respect and credit for that because this sport is a grind, not just for the people that work in it, but also for the key stakeholders, whether it be team owners, executives, etc. He’s made the decision and choice to participate at a high level to be engaged. The fringe benefit for the sport is the brand that he has outside of it, which naturally comes with him, which I think is a great thing. I’m happy for him. I’m happy for the sport. It’s hard for me to see any negatives. I’m sure there are probably some out there, but I don’t see them and I”m genuinely happy that he’s a part of our sport.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
PHOENIX RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
MARCH 7, 2026

Connor Zilisch, driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Phoenix Raceway.

Media Availability Quotes:

You’ve raced a lot of other stuff outside of NASCAR. Is there any realistic possibility or chance we see you one day racing in endurance in Europe?

“Not anytime soon. No, I’m pretty committed to NASCAR and what I’ve got going here. I’ve always dreamed of racing at Le Mans and stuff like that. But yeah, it’s going to have to wait.”

Did you enjoy participating in the latest edition of Full Speed? What was the most satisfying aspect of that for you?

“Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I’m very new to NASCAR, obviously, and although I feel like I’ve made it to the Cup Series quickly, not a lot of people really know me, how I got here or much about me at all. So yeah, it’s cool to share my story a little bit through that docuseries. I haven’t watched it yet, but I saw clips from it before they posted. I thought they did a really good job piecing everything together. I was going to watch it on the flight here, but I ended up playing Mario Kart the whole flight. But I’ll end up watching it sometime here in the next few days.”

With some of the drivers having issues with cool shirts last week, do you relook at what you do, or do you just have confidence in what your team’s doing with it?

“Yeah, I mean, it’s always a risk when you wear that thing is that it could always fail. But you know, you have t to have airflow to it. That’s a big part of it. If you cut off the airflow to the cool shirt box, it gets hot and fails. I’ve always made sure to tell my team that I’ll give up a count or two of downforce to make sure that I’m not going to burn up inside the race car, and if that means flowing a little extra air to it, then so be it.

But you know, I’ve never had one of those fail… knock on wood. But yeah, surely last week if mine failed, it would have been a really tough day. It was already hot and when those things fail, it gets hotter than just being in the car without anything.

Yeah, it’s always a risk. But thankfully, I haven’t had one fail on me yet.”

I don’t know how many times you’ve run for points, but is it startling to see yourself 32nd?

“It’s not what we want, obviously. Although it’s early, you still think about it. But it’s a very long season. We’re three races into 36, so although I’d rather be sitting inside the top-10 and say ‘yeah, it’s good’, a lot of it’s out of our control. I feel like we’ve ran better than 32nd in points so far this year, and the results just haven’t really shown it. So yeah, we just got to keep doing our thing and it’ll turn around.”

I’m curious if you’ve found that people are willing to run with you because you bring such a strong resume into the series? Have you not had that kind of a problem in terms of getting people to run with you? What would you say has been the biggest lesson that you’ve learned as a full-time Cup Series driver?

“Yes and no. I mean, I think if Joey Logano’s lined up behind me and he has the option to push Brad Keselowksi who’s got 25 years of experience, or me, he’s probably going to push Brad.

But I think it definitely helps not having a bad reputation, so I think there’s a lot of guys that are willing to work with me. But, you know, not a lot of people have seen me on track to trust me or whatever it is. But yeah, it’s definitely something that you build over time and it’ll continue to grow.

I would say after each race, you can’t let it get to you. Obviously I’ve had a couple rough weeks so far, but you just have to keep doing the same thing and know that it’s going to turn back your way eventually and that things are going to start to go well. After the first two weeks, I was sitting dead last in points. I went to COTA last week and felt like I had a chance to win the race and finish 14th. It sucks, but you got to know that there’s a lot left in front of you and you can’t stress on the things that are out of your control.”

You said you played a little bit of Mario Kart on the flight down here. Who’s your main character and what’s your favorite track?

“Yeah, a couple of my crew guys on my team, we all have Nintendo Switches and we hop on Mario Kart on the flights to make them a little quicker. When you don’t have Wi-Fi, I guess that’s the stuff you do (laughs). I switch around. I was running Donkey Kong for a little bit. You know, he’s my go-to, but my favorite track would probably be rainbow road. I like rainbow road. But it’s fun. It passes time. The flights out here on the charter planes can get long, so it’s good to have something to keep your mind busy.”

With this being a combination weekend with INDYCAR here today, I know that one of your bucket list races is the Indianapolis 500. Have you had any interaction with those drivers so far, or are you going to have some today?

“No, I haven’t. I’ll probably walk out to the grid before the race. I’ve got a couple of friends out there that I’ll go say hello to and wish luck, but I’ve been pretty focused on what we’ve got at stake this weekend in the Cup Series. I’ll watch their race. I’ll hang out for the race. You know, I’m curious to see what it’s like, but I haven’t been doing anything around the paddock.”

Coming to Phoenix for the first time in a Cup car, you had good runs here in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. What’s your expectation? What have you heard about the shortcut there in these next generation race cars? How do you prepare to get ready for this new challenge you have this weekend?

“Yeah, I’m excited. Phoenix is a really cool racetrack. There’s a lot of ways to go about it. I think the dog leg is rough no matter what race car you’re in. You’ve always got to readjust your helmet after you get done with rolling through there. I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s like in a Cup car. I know it’s a little bit quicker. You know, you’re shifting. It’s my first time ever shifting at an oval. I guess I shifted at like St. Louis last year, but in the Cup car, at least, it’s my first time.

So yeah, I’m excited to see what it’s like. It’s going to be cool to figure it out, and hopefully we can have a good weekend.”

You’re three starts into your first full-time Cup season and a handful more before that. Would you say your comfort level is with the Next Gen car compared to all the other cars you’ve driven?

“Yeah. I mean, we’re three races in, but really, the season starts this weekend in a way. Obviously, I can’t say that exactly, but the first three races, we had two speedways and a road course, so this is the first race where you kind of start to figure out where we are as a team and how fast our race cars are going to be. Phoenix is the first test to that. So yeah, it really all starts this weekend. I feel like I’ve done a good job at the speedways and last weekend at the road course, but this will really be the test of how comfortable I am. I think it’s just going to continue to get better as the year goes on.”

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