The NASCAR star Brad Keselowski is speaking out this week to reveal his secret to success. When he was growing up, he was encouraged to focus more on racing than on girls and boozing.
Keselowski Avoided Girls And Booze
While appearing on the FOX Sports podcast “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” Keselowski recalled drinking his first beer with Dale Earnhardt Jr. The 40 year-old NASCAR star revealed that he didn’t drink his first beer until he got his first deal with Miller back in 2011.
“Before I got the Miller deal, I didn’t drink at all,” he explained. “I grew up in a household that didn’t drink. It wasn’t like a super religious thing, but my parents just didn’t drink. … There was no alcohol in the house growing up that I remember. I just never really had an interest in it.”
“So, there was no drinking, there was no dating, there was none of those things because I wanted to race and my dad was very clear like ‘If you even touch any of that stuff, done. I don’t think he meant it in a mean way, it was probably actually really good for me. If you’re going to do this, you’re going to be 100% focused, we’re not doing anything at all. I’m not wasting my time with this.”
‘It Actually Served Me Well’
In the end, this traditional lifestyle paid off for Keselowski in a big way.
“It actually served me really well,” he explained. “I’m telling you that story because until I got to be racing with Dale and kind of like off on my own, none of that was even an option for me because I couldn’t race without my dad at least helping me in some way.”
Keselowski first achieved major success on the racing scene back in 2012 when he won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. After the 2021 season, he left Penske and started with RFK Racing the next year. He made it back to the NASCAR Playoffs in 2023, and this year, he returned to Victory Lane with a win in Darlington, South Carolina.
In his personal life, Keselowski has been married to his wife Paige since 2017. They are parents to daughter Scarlet, 9, and Autumn, 4, and to son Maize, 7 months.
Related: Brad Keselowski Advocates For NASCAR To Hand Out Penalties Like Candy: “The Games Have To Stop”
How Much Longer Will Keselowski Race?
In his latest interview, Keselowski also talked about how much longer he’ll race for RFK Racing.
“This last week, somebody asked me ‘How many more years you want to go?’ I said, Well, ‘I left the Coke 600 thinking if I had five more laps I could win the race,’” Keselowski said. “Then the rain came, and I got out of the car after the race and said I have 10 more years left.”
“Healthwise I feel great. It’s not really a health thing, it’s really a mental thing of how long can you endure the emotional roller coaster,” he added. “One of the big factors for me is I want my kids to see me winning races. There’s a lot of people that say when a race car driver has a family that ‘Ah, he loses a little bit of his edge.’ To some degree, I almost feel the opposite. I want to feel like a winner to my kids.”
In the end, it’s clear that avoiding booze and girls was the right decision for a young Keselowski. Good for him for staying focused and keeping his head in the game!
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