Keselowski Motorsports

(Redirected from K Automotive Racing)

Keselowski Motorsports, formerly known as K-Automotive Racing and Brian Keselowski Motorsports, was a stock car racing team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. K-Automotive previously raced in ARCA and the Nationwide Series. K-Automotive is owned and operated by Bob, Brian and Kay Keselowski. Brian Keselowski Motorsports is owned and operated by Brian Keselowski.

Keselowski Motorsports
Owner(s)Bob Keselowski
Kay Keselowski
Brian Keselowski
BaseMooresville, North Carolina
SeriesNASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Race drivers92. Brian Keselowski
Sponsors92. Melling Auto Parts
ManufacturerFord
Career
Debut2011 Daytona 500 (Daytona)
Latest race2013 Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (Watkins Glen)
Races competedTotal: 231
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series: 5
Xfinity Series: 52
Camping World Truck Series: 174
Drivers' Championships0
Race victories10 (0 cup, 0 xfinity 10 trucks)
Pole positions0

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

edit

K Automotive made its debut in the NASCAR Grand National Series in 1969, 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. Newland also ran K Automotive's car at the inaugural event at Alabama International Motor Speedway, starting eighth, but dropping to twenty-seventh due to an engine failure.

In 1970, 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, finishing 29th. In 1971, K fielded entries for a variety of drivers, including Ron, Dick Polling, and Bill Shirley. After taking the following year off, K returned in 1973, fielding a car for Ron in two races. He finished fifth at Michigan International Speedway. They made one start in 1974 with Bob Whitlow before making their final Cup start at the 1975 Daytona 500 when Jim Vandiver finished 35th after a wreck.

Local racing and ARCA Racing Series

edit

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 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 races in addition to the USAC series. He continued to run USAC and the NASCAR Grand American Series 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 sponsored Keselowski's number 29 Chrysler LeBaron 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 sponsoring and finished 29th in points. He followed that up with additional wins in the 29 in 2007. That year Mike Ciochetti 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 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

edit

Truck No. 29 history

edit

K returned to NASCAR in 1995 with the formation of the SuperTruck Series by Craftsman. Bob began driving the team's number 29 Winnebago Industries Dodge Ram, 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, he finished a career-best fourteenth in the standings and won his only truck race at Richmond International Raceway in the Mopar Dodge. During the 1998 season, Keselowski was injured and was replaced by Dennis Setzer. Over a span of five races, Setzer had two eighth-place finishes. Keselowski returned and finished tenth at Heartland Park Topeka 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. In 1999, 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 before he retired. Setzer won three times and lost the championship by 108 points.

In 2000, Setzer won one race at Nazareth Speedway 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 and finished seventh. When Setzer left, the team switched to the number 29 and Ford. 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.

 
The number 29 truck in 2003.
 
The number 29 truck in 2004 @ Michigan International Speedway.
 
Deborah Renshaw, driver of the number 29 truck in 2004 @ Michigan International Speedway.

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 finished out the season. Her best finish came at Martinsville Speedway, where she finished fifteenth. Brad became the team's full-time driver in 2005 with SUBcrews.com/Samson Stone 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 to run the O'Reilly Auto Parts 200 that season with Brad driving. He finished 34th after an engine failure.[1]

Nationwide Series

edit

Car No. 26 history

edit

Beginning in the 2007 season, the team partnered with Holloway Motorsports 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. After he drove briefly for Jay Robinson Racing, 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, 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.

In 2010 Brian ran most of the season, running full races until the team fell outside the top 30 in owner points, where the team start-n-parked

K-Automotive partnered with Team Penske, to have Parker Kligerman & Sam Hornish Jr run races in the 26. Kligerman would run 3 of the Races with the new Nationwide Series COT car, along with Montreal.

Kligerman finished 13th in the July Daytona race, 8th at Montreal, 15th in the fall Richmond Race & 43rd in the fall Charlotte race due to Kligerman crashing on lap 4.

Sam Hornish Jr drove the 26 car at the season finale at Homestead-Miami, finishing 26th.

Car No. 26 results

edit
Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Owners Pts
2007 Brian Keselowski 19 Dodge DAY CAL MXC LVS ATL BRI NSH TEX PHO TAL RCH DAR CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW NHA DAY CHI GTY IRP
23
CGV GLN 56th 422
49 MCH
33
BRI CAL RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM
10
TEX PHO HOM
11
2009 26 DAY
25
CAL
29
LVS
19
BRI
DNQ
TEX
DNQ
PHO
27
TAL
14
RCH
21
DAR
24
CLT
30
DOV
16
NSH
30
KEN
35
MLW
31
NHA
34
DAY
DNQ
GTY
20
IRP
DNQ
CGV
42
ATL
33
28th 2861
Dennis Setzer NSH
20
CHI
30
Michael McDowell IOW
8
GLN
27
MCH
17
BRI
10
RCH
19
CAL
38
CLT MEM TEX PHO HOM
Danny O'Quinn Jr. DOV
34
KAN
2010 Brian Keselowski DAY
11
CAL
34
LVS
32
BRI
39
NSH
24
PHO
20
TEX
36
TAL
33
DAR
24
DOV
DNQ
CLT NSH
37
KEN
DNQ
ROA
40
NHA
39
DAY CHI
DNQ
GTY
38
IRP
34
IOW
33
GLN
27
MCH
38
ATL
31
RCH DOV
41
KAN
42
CAL
40
CLT GTY
41
TEX
DNQ
PHO
34
HOM 35th 2182
Johnny Chapman RCH
33
Dennis Setzer BRI
42
CGV

Car No. 92 history

edit

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 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.[2]

Brian Keselowski drove the 92 in the 2010 Nationwide Series Finale at Homestead-Miami due to Sam Hornish Jr driving the 26. Brian attempted to run the entire race, where he le 4 laps during green flag pit stops, however he blew a tire and hit wall, finishing with a 34th place finish.

Car No. 92 results

edit
Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Owners Pts
2008 Brian Keselowski 92 Dodge DAY CAL LVS ATL BRI NSH TEX PHO MXC TAL RCH
30
DAR CLT DOV NSH
DNQ
KEN
35
MLW
27
NHA DAY CHI
DNQ
GTY
40
IRP
15
CGV GLN MCH
24
BRI
DNQ
CAL RCH DOV KAN
DNQ
CLT MEM
31
TEX PHO HOM 49th 629
2009 Willie Allen DAY CAL LVS BRI TEX NSH PHO TAL RCH DAR CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW NHA DAY CHI GTY IRP IOW GLN MCH
42
BRI CGV ATL RCH KAN
DNQ
CAL MEM
43
56th 293
Dennis Setzer DOV
38
CLT
42
TEX
42
PHO
42
HOM
41
2010 Johnny Chapman DAY
DNQ
CAL
DNQ
LVS
DNQ
BRI
43
41st 1111
Dennis Setzer NSH
DNQ
PHO
43
TEX
43
TAL
17
DAR
43
DOV
QL
CLT
39
NSH
43
KEN
43
NHA
43
DAY CHI
43
GTY
42
IRP
43
IOW
42
ATL
41
RCH DOV
42
CAL
42
CLT TEX
43
PHO
42
Brian Keselowski RCH
43
DOV
42
HOM
34
Andy Ponstein ROA
42
GTY
38
Dan Brode GLN
41
MCH BRI CGV

Car No. 96 history

edit
 
The number 96 car at The Milwaukee Mile in 2009 driven by Dennis Setzer
 
The number 96 car at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2009

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 and The Real Yellow Pages sponsoring, getting an eleventh-place finish at Montreal. Setzer was expected to drive the car for most of 2010, where he qualifed for 4 of the first 5 Races. However after Johnny Chapman failed to qualify in 4 of the first 5 races in the 92 car, Setzer was moved to the 92. The 96 returned for Darlington where Chapman failed to qualify. Dennis Setzer returned to 96 in Homestead.

Car No. 96 results

edit
Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Owners Pts
2009 Dennis Setzer 96 Dodge DAY CAL
42
LVS
43
BRI
38
TEX
QL
PHO
DNQ
TAL RCH DAR
DNQ
CLT
38
DOV
42
MLW
41
IRP
DNQ
MCH
42
BRI
DNQ
RCH
34
CAL
36
42nd 1455
Brian Keselowski TEX
38
NSH
41
CHI
DNQ
MEM
QL
HOM
DNQ
Willie Allen NSH
36
NHA
42
DAY GTY
41
Blake Bjorklund KEN
DNQ
Andy Ponstein IOW
DNQ
GLN
Michael McDowell CGV
11
ATL
35
DOV
29
KAN
DNQ
CLT
23
MEM
21
TEX
29
PHO
25
2010 Dennis Setzer DAY
Wth
CAL
42
LVS
43
BRI
DNQ
NSH PHO TEX TAL RCH HOM
42
67th 130
Johnny Chapman DAR
DNQ
DOV CLT NSH KEN ROA NHA DAY CHI GTY IRP IOW GLN MCH BRI CGV ATL RCH DOV KAN CAL CLT GTY TEX PHO

Sprint Cup Series

edit

Car No. 92 history

edit

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, and Golden Corral. Discount Tire 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 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 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, who fielded rookie Paulie Harraka. 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, who had switched to Chevy. However, the team never entered a race due to lack of sponsorship.

Car No. 92 results

edit
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results
Year Driver No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Owners Pts
2010 Mike Wallace 92 Dodge DAY
DNQ
CAL LVS ATL BRI MAR PHO TEX TAL RCH DAR DOV CLT POC MCH SON NHA DAY CHI IND POC GLN MCH 54th 61
Brian Keselowski BRI
DNQ
ATL RCH
DNQ
NHA DOV KAN CAL CLT
Wth
MAR TAL TEX
DNQ
PHO HOM
2011 DAY
41
PHO
DNQ
LVS
DNQ
TEX
Wth
TAL RCH
DNQ
DAR
DNQ
DOV CLT KAN POC 54th 9
Chevy MCH
DNQ
SON DAY KEN
Dennis Setzer Dodge BRI
38
CAL MAR
Wth
Chevy NHA
DNQ
IND POC GLN MCH BRI ATL RCH CHI NHA DOV KAN CLT TAL MAR
DNQ
TEX PHO
Scott Riggs HOM
DNQ
2013 Brian Keselowski 52 Toyota DAY
DNQ
PHO LVS BRI CAL MAR TEX KAN RCH
40
TAL DAR
Wth
CLT DOV POC MCH SON KEN DAY POC
Wth
GLN
39
MCH BRI ATL RCH CHI NHA DOV KAN CLT TAL MAR TEX PHO HOM 46th 17
Morgan Shepherd NHA
41
IND

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ http://www.truckseries.com/cgi-script/NCTS_06/articles/000081/008193.htm
  2. ^ "Race Results".
edit