Toyota has been the dominant force in the 2026 NASCAR season, with 13 wins in 22 races. Meanwhile, Chevrolet has six, and Ford only has three. However, NASCAR's latest rule change could affect the Japanese manufacturer's reign, as RFK Racing driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski shared his thoughts.

On the July 28 episode of Kevin Harvick's "Happy Hour" podcast, co-host Mamba Smith mentioned a tweak made by NASCAR to the splitter of the car, which could shift how the sport progresses in the coming days. This was further established by NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass on X.

"Starting with North Wilkesboro, the teams had to add some struts to the front of the splitter that should keep it from moving/deforming while at speed. Whether that was a significant advantage Toyota found is debatable in the garage. They still were strong at Indy," he wrote in response to a fan asking about Smith's statement.

Brad Keselowski, a Ford driver who hasn't seen any success of late, chipped in. In response to Pockrass' post, he wrote on X:

"This didn’t really get any media play but was a big deal imo."

As Pockrass pointed out, Toyota cars were not impacted much despite the tweak to the splitter. At North Wilkesboro, the Toyota cars held four of the top six places.

This was followed by another set of impressive performances at Indy, where the Toyota cars finished in first, second, fourth, and fifth. With that said, it is clear as day that Ford is in deep trouble, but despite that, Brad Keselowski has affirmed his loyalty with the American OEM.

Brad Keselowski sticks to Ford despite underwhelming performance

Brad Keselowski, the co-owner of RFK Racing, has decided that his team will stay with Ford despite the recent series of underwhelming performances. Currently, his team is one of the leading Ford teams alongside Team Penske.

Speaking about this in July this year, Keselowski said:

"We're committed to that. We want to be successful with them. We're hopeful that we can continue to innovate with them to this next level. We're in a lull right now that we don't want to be in. Ford doesn't want to be in the same lull -- I feel pretty safe in saying that. The onus is on us to step it up and figure it out." (As quoted by NASCAR.com)

Brad Keselowski has long been a Ford driver since his Team Penske days, and after transitioning to RFK. However, earlier this year, rumors had linked RFK to a potential OEM switch to Dodge, which is rumored to arrive as a fourth manufacturer in 2028.

Keselowski refuted those rumors in an X post and emphasized that RFK has a "multi-year agreement" with Ford and committed to making them championship winners.

With that said, it will be interesting to see how Ford or Chevrolet manages to get closer to Toyota with the playoffs only four races away.

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak