Winning has been a part of their racing life for nearly 30 years.  Ron Keselowski won a 500-mile USAC race at Pocono in the 1970s and spent many years in the premier NASCAR series before turning the seat over to his younger brother Bob.  Once behind the wheel, Bob won numerous races and track championships in the Midwest before moving on to win races and a championship in ARCA in the 1980s.  The team stepped up to the NCTS in 1995 and Bob picked up a win at Richmond in 1997.  Since his retirement as a driver, the team has fielded winning trucks for Dennis Setzer and Terry Cook, picking up 10 checkered flags all together.

High Sierra Photo

The team is a family operation all the way.  Owned by Bob and his wife Kay, the team also counts their sons Brian and Brad as team members.  Brad has had some seat time in the team’s No. 29 Ford, while older brother Brian has run some ARCA races this year.  Both young drivers have earned respect on the track and continue to look for an opportunity to take the steering wheel in hand on a full-time basis.

But both boys have put their full-time driving career on the back burner, instead offering their skills to get the Truck out on the track and make it as competitive as it can be on a very limited budget.

While many owners are hands-off, preferring to watch from afar, that certainly does not classify the Keselowski family.  Bob is the team’s crew chief, a duty he has had for the better part of seven years since he retired as a driver in 1998.  Kay runs the business operations of the team, keeps the team fed with some of the best Midwestern cooking in the garage on the weekends, and stands on the roof and spots every practice session and race.

High Sierra Photo

Despite high odds, the season started on a high note for the K-Auto team. Frank Kimmel, multi-time ARCA champion, drove the team’s truck to a top-10 finish in the season opener at Daytona.  After Kimmel ran the Atlanta race as well, youngest son Brad took the wheel at Martinsville, and stayed in the seat through the July event in Kansas.

“Brad did a great job, both with the way he handled himself on the track and with the other drivers,” Keselowski said.  “The results may not have always shown it, but he never had a bad race.  He didn’t lay a fender to anyone, didn’t do anyone wrong.  To have some of the other guys say they enjoyed racing with him was pretty neat considering he was a raw rookie.  If people could see what we saw, they were always impressed.”

TruckSeries.com Photo

But with sponsorship funds limited, the team was forced into survival mode.

After an accident not of his doing sidelined Keselowski at Kansas, a race in which he was running well within the top-10, the team had a decision to make.  Find some funding, or close the doors for the rest of the season.  Thankfully, that is when Deborah Renshaw came calling, sponsorship in hand, ready to climb in and keep the team afloat.

“Deborah came at just the right time for us,” Keselowski said.  “We probably weren’t going to go to the next race, and she and her family stepped in and saved us.  It was something we will never forget.  It has given us an opportunity to keep the team alive. She and her father are such wonderful people, and we are very grateful to them that they wanted to work with us and keep us in business.”

Ronda Greer Photo

Without Renshaw stepping in, the team would have been off the track, and there is no easier way to be out of sight, out of mind than keeping your trucks parked in the shop.  That would have been a double whammy for K-Automotive.

“It’s not something we wanted to do, but it was so close,” Keselowski said.  “There were a couple of reasons we wanted to keep going.  If you aren’t out there, no one will see you and you are quickly forgotten.  No one wants to sponsor a team no one knows exists.  We felt the best way to get that sponsor to come on board was to be at the track and be seen.

“The second reason we want to be here is we don’t want to fall behind from a competitive standpoint.  Things change so fast, and it’s very easy for it to pass you by when you stop coming.”

With Renshaw in the driver’s seat, it would be understandable if the Keselowski brothers felt some sense of bitterness.  However, nothing could be further from the truth.

“I am so proud of my boys,” Keselowski said.  “Both want to be in that truck so badly.  They both know they could do a heck of a job if they were driving.  But when we had to refocus, they both went to work.  They put their aspirations on the back burner so we could concentrate on the team.  That is a hard thing to do for young guys like that. But they have a real good way of seeing things from a perspective of someone with a lot more experience.

Keselowski points to some positive conversations with potential sponsors for 2005 as a strong ray of hope that things will be better next year.

“We’re talking to several companies for next year, any one of which would be a great sponsor for our team,” she said.  “All of the conversations have been very positive and no one has told us no yet.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that something good comes from all of this.  They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  We haven’t gone away yet, and when we get to the other side, we’ll definitely be stronger.”