CONCORD, N.C. -- The numbers say that Brad Keselowski is off to his worst start to a season since 2010. However, the RFK Racing driver-owner remains optimistic about his team's growth as he seeks his first top-10 finish of the season.
He knows that the team continues to move in the right direction. It's just taking more time as the fresh faces on the No. 6 group build chemistry with each other.
"I feel like I can strike at any moment," Keselowski told media members Tuesday at the NASCAR Production Facility. "We just need to trust our process. We're developing a lot of people.
"And they're not all clicking together yet, but there's a lot of signs that say they can and should, whether that's on pit road or with the team and the mechanics and engineers. All those pieces have to click to have a great race and to win on any given weekend. And we haven't experienced that yet."
Keselowski says that he has seen these signs of growth this season, albeit sporadically. The team has run well at certain races before an unexpected issue disrupted the finish. He pointed to Darlington Raceway in April as an example.
The No. 6 team performed well early in the race and locked up some stage points. However, he lost a lug nut after a pit stop and fell off the lead lap while spinning and sustaining damage. Keselowski had to make another trip down pit road for fresh tires.
Another example from the 2012 Cup Series champion is the Daytona 500. He nearly won the opening stage while racing inside the top 10, but another issue on pit road dropped him further back in the pack as the race progressed. He was then collected in the crash that sent the race to overtime.
What has led to slower growth this season? It would be easy to point to the limited amount of time to make changes over the offseason, the shortest in professional sports. However, Keselowski traces the issue all the way back to the 2020 season.
"The bigger impact is kind of this trailing effect of (Covid-19)," Keselowski said. "If you look back at the 2020 season, 2021 season, most all of the teams made significant cuts to be able to sustain business, whether that be by financial need or by regulation.
"The people that were most susceptible to those cuts were the most junior people across the industry, as you could probably imagine. And now the entire industry is reaping what they sowed, where there's just no depth to the industry at all."
This lack of depth forced RFK Racing and other teams to take a step backward before they could begin moving forward. It meant that they would experience some struggles early while trying to build into consistent contenders.
Yes, Keselowski has no top-10 finishes and an average finish of 25.0. He's 31st in the Cup Series standings after nine races. That doesn't mean he is necessarily out of contention for a playoff spot.
Keselowski has 17 more opportunities to punch his ticket to the postseason, either by winning or with points.
This will not be a simple task as his team continues to showcase signs of growth. However, he knows it is possible after watching another champion bounce back from a slow start last season.
"We saw this last year with (Joey Logano), right," Keselowski said. "I mean, up until, I think, Nashville, they were effectively not a contender at all. And they win one race and get locked in the playoffs and parlay that into a better effort in the playoffs than what they had to start the season.
"Next thing you know, they go all the way, right? So the current format, for better or worse, doesn't particularly value the start to the season. It values the end of the season and a small amount in between.
"And in that case, you're just looking to put together all the right pieces to get hot when it matters."