As the Ford camp continues to struggle in the 2026 NASCAR season, questions have arisen about what the blue oval needs to do differently.

This comes amid Toyota’s dominant 2026 season, where the manufacturer has racked up 12 wins after Chicagoland, while Ford has just managed one thanks to Ryan Blaney’s win at Phoenix Raceway in March. Ford is now 270 points behind the standings leader, Toyota.

During his media availability before the Chicagoland race, Keselowski was questioned by Jeff Gluck about whether Ford could bridge the gap between Toyota without a much higher level of collaboration between Ford teams like Roger Penske’s Team Penske and RFK. In response, he gave a broader view of NASCAR’s collaborative landscape instead of speaking just about Ford.

"I sit in different rooms and sessions and see a much bigger picture and realize that a lot of these races are won much be way before who we ever get to the racetrack and they're won in boardrooms with elite decision making from team owners and now a lot of cases with with the OEMs and so that success you know is maybe not as easy to tell as a story you know it's certainly in different rooms and different settings," he said, as uploaded by Cup Scene on YouTube.

 Brad Keselowski also added that it is very easy for the NASCAR fans to blame either an engineer, crew chief, or a driver for having a bad season or a bad race, whereas he feels that that is not the case. He also pointed out how Joey Logano has become the center of criticism for not performing well, and that the races are in the hands of the OEM’s. 

"I think that the cars aren't where they need to be, and I feel the same way about myself. And that's not a dig on the crew chiefs or the race engineers, but that's philosophically, the sport has changed now where the races are less in the hands of the crew chiefs and the race engineers and more in the hands of the OEMs.

"And I think what I'm trying to say is you got to give credit to Toyota for, you know, pushing it to another level and innovating their organization and being successful. And everybody else needs to step up."

While talking about winning races in the boardroom, he credited Toyota for initiating collaboration between its two elite teams at the moment, and the results of the same can be seen on the race track. 

Brad Keselowski explains why Toyota is winning in NASCAR

Currently, it seems like the Toyota camp has been having a wonderful season, as the top two in the drivers' standings are currently occupied by manufacturer-backed Joe Gibbs Racing represented by Denny Hamlin and 23XI represented by Tyler Reddick. 

During the aforementioned interview, Brad Keselowski credited Toyota for their collaborative efforts, which have been paying off on track. 

"I think if you’re going to beat Toyota, you have to have at least two elite organizations collaborating at very, very high levels and sharing the elite resources that are specific to the OEM, and I only see Toyota doing that right now."

Taken together, both of Keselowski’s comments paint a picture that success in NASCAR is built by collaboration, and he believes Toyota has set the benchmark for the rest of the teams. 

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Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason