NASCAR's Brad Keselowski: the circuit's six road races this year preposterously too many

This weekend's EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix will be the first of a record six road courses on the NASCAR Cup schedule in 2023. Veteran driver Brad Keselowski calls it overkill.

"Way too many," the accomplished 39-year-old from Rochester Hills, Mich., told the American-Statesman on Thursday. "Our circuit was built on ovals. It's always been a nice little throw-in of a road course here and there. I think six is a bit preposterous."

Keselowski, the 2012 Cup champion who has 35 victories in stock car racing's premier series, does enjoy the Circuit of the Americas stop though, now in its third year.

"It's an interesting track, we don't run on anything quite like it," said the driver of the No. 6 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing. "The turn 1 entry being so wide and drivers being what they are, we're just animals. This is a track made for animals, and we have a lot of them in our circus here in NASCAR. It's nice to be in the Austin market, an area with a lot of NASCAR fans. We want to serve them and we're glad to be here."

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Keselowski, one of only six to win a title in both the Cup and Xfinity Series, understands Formula One has quite the appeal here with the annual U.S. Grand Prix pulling well over 100,000 fans on race day. But he said popular F1 crossover drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button, both of whom are entered in Sunday's race, could be in for a rude awakening.

"They're about to enter the circus and, like I said, the animals here are ferocious," Keselowski said. "I'm not gonna say they're better drivers than ours. Those guys are pretty damn good drivers. They're meaner drivers, I'll say that, They will chew you up and spit you out and cry a few crocodile tears."

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F1 is rapidly gaining popularity in the States while NASCAR continues a descent from its glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s. The last five Cup races have posted year-over-year declines in TV numbers. Cup races draw more than 3 million viewers, still more than twice as much as Formula One, but F1 has practically caught NASCAR in the coveted young demographics.

"They're on top of the cycle, candidly," Keselowski said. "Kudos to them for getting as far as they have here. They recognize opportunity that North America presents and with the Liberty Media Group (U.S. ownership) they've done a great job leveraging that. It's still a cycle, though.

"The struggles we have are well-documented. That's not just in NASCAR, but across the planet. Ultimately I think NASCAR has a really compelling story to tell, the racing is as good or better than ever in a lot of ways. Generational preferences come and go. i don't see NASCAR falling by the wayside, I see it being a constant rollercoaster of ups and downs. What's key is for our sport to stay true to itself, not lose its fundamentals."