As Brad Keselowski’s comments towards Ford continue to spark discussion across the NASCAR garage, Dale Earnhardt Jr has now weighed in about the situation. 

While discussing the comments on his podcast 'Dale Jr Download' on July 9th, Earnhardt Jr argued that the RFK Racing co-owner was using the media to pressure Ford into improving its support. 

"So Brad's using the media as some leverage to try to get Ford to react in the manner that he wants them to react,"

At the media availability before the race at Chicagoland Speedway, Brad Keselowski commented on how Toyota has pushed for “elite collaboration amongst their top organizations,” which gave them two “A-organizations” rather than an A, B, and C”, and Toyota is the only OEM to achieve this.  

Junior added, "Brad isn't trying to change anything about what Toyota does. He's only trying to use the media to say so Ford will hear it and go, maybe we need to do something, you know, to make this better. Because I've noticed Brad over the last several weeks get more and more vocal about this."

And there's a reason why Keselowski is making these comments. Ford's performance hasn't been great. With 19 races down in the regular season, Ford currently sits at the bottom of the table. They have 622 points and just one win this season. That one win came at Phoenix Raceway in March courtesy of Ryan Blaney. 

And it looks worse for RFK Racing. So far this season, they have no wins at all. That's why Earnhardt also added:

"He's getting a little more frustrated with the lack of progress that they've been trying to make to close the gap. I just think that's him being savvy because sometime that's what you do man if you can't if the conversation behind closed doors isn't working or if you feel like it's not working you'll go in that media center and you'll make it known you'll go use that media center to your advantage if you can and so I think that's what's going on there."

Dale Earnhardt Jr shares honest take on Toyota’s dominance this season 

With 19 races down, Toyota has 16 wins under its belt and is leading the manufacturers' championship. Dale Jr has shared his thoughts about the same. 

In the aforementioned podcast, the NASCAR Hall of Famer spoke about how he initially enjoyed Toyota’s dominance but wants the other OEM’s to now step up. 

"I don't know how you guys feel, but there for a while I was like kind of digging the Toyota dominance, but as anything, as you know, you get too much of anything, you're kind of like, 'All right, now let's get some other boys up here. Let's see some, you know, let's see somebody come up here and challenge them." 

With the regular season races coming to an end, Toyota currently has firm control over the manufacturers' championship. They currently have 892 points in the championship. It will be interesting to see if Ford or Chevrolet can step up their game.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest. 

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar