1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s

Family patriarch 'Papa' John Keselowski started the family racing dynasty by competitively racing motorcycles. He won numerous top honors for hill climbing and ice racing in the late 1950s. The stock cars came a few years later.

Bob recalls a brand new fully loaded Chrysler that his dad bought in '61. His Dad never did tell mom why he bought the car. A few months later it disappeared and it eventually showed up again, gutted and reworked into a fully fledged race machine. Soon John's team - supported by his boys Ron and Bob - had become well known for racing prowess.  Under the mighty MOPAR name John would hire local drivers to drive his racecars while he and the boys would do the crewing. In 1968 after returning from Vietnam, Ron took over the wheel of the K-Automotive Dodges.  

John's two sons, Bob and Ron, were growing up in a racing atmosphere; Pop, a former motorcycle racer and garage owner, was now running cars driven in the NASCAR and USAC stock car series with such drivers as Dave Marcis, Homer Newland, Rene Charland and eventually young Ron Keselowski at the wheel. In their spare time, Bob and his brother worked on the cars and attended as many races as possible. By 1968 the boys were running cars too. Bob, 17, as the crew chief and Ron, 22, driving late models on the local tracks around Michigan.

GRAND NATIONAL / WINSTON CUP
K Automotive made its debut in the NASCAR Grand National Series in 1969, a team owned of course by John Keselowski. Fielding the #62 Kaye Engineering Dodge, Homer Newland finished 36th in the teams debut at Michigan International Speedway. Newland also ran K Automotive’s car at the inaugural event at Alabama International Motor Speedway, starting eighth, but dropping to twenty-seventh due to an engine failure.

Ron Keselowski had raced a 69 Charger at the USAC meet at the Milwaukee Mile in summer '69 and was ready for the wheel on the #62 car. 

Pictured: Ron Keselowski - June 1970 

In 1970 Ron moved into the Winston Grand National / Cup Series division running most of the races for the team beginning with the Daytona International. He retired the '69 Dodge on lap 35, and would have to wait until Atlanta to finish a full race at 18th place.

His first top ten was at International Raceway in August 1970.

Ron Keselowski's 69 Dodge at the 1970 Nashville 420. From Nashville420.com

He ran seventeen races for Team K, finishing eighth at the West Virginia 300, and finished 39th in the final points standings. They also fielded a car for Dave Marcis at the Southern 500, finishing 29th.

NASCAR on the beach - mentions Ron http://www.frontstretch.com/mmclaughlin/6825/

In 1971, K fielded entries for a variety of drivers, including Ron, Dick Polling, and Bill Shirley. 

1973 MIS - Ron Keselowski Dodge.
From http://mwphoto.smugmug.com/

Ron drove Roger Lubinski's 88 car at Winston Cup level during 71 and 72 too (best position 5th again at MIS)

After taking the following year off, K returned in 1973, fielding  the 88 car for Ron in two races. He finished fifth at Michigan International Speedway.

Publicity photo - April 1974, the month of the Pocono victory - Ron Keselowski

Ron would finally get his big win at Pocono, PA in the USAC Division. It wasApril 1974 in the #19 K car with brother Bob as owner. 500 miles and 200 laps. Ron led 61 laps of the race, and took home a check for $11,968. Bob had gained invaluable experience as crew chief for his father and this was a great debut as car owner.

Ron's last race as a driver was October of 74 in Lubinski's #99 car when he came home more than 50 laps off the lead.  

The team made one more start in 1974 with Bob Whitlow, before making their final Cup start at the 1975 Daytona 500 when Jim Vandiver finished 35th after a wreck. Ron's best finish for K was 5th at Michigan International Speedway 1973.

In 1975 the Winston Cup racing ended after Ron's equipment got tore up at Daytona with Jim Vandiver driving. Ron had raced over 70 races at cup level by this point. Hard times fell on the family in the early 70's recession causing "Papa John" to make the hard decision to quit racing for a period. Ron's own Cup driving hopes were dashed in the financial woes of the family business, which happened to be building Mopar engines for race cars of all disciplines. 

ARCA & USAC
After a few USAC outings at MIS in the summer 0f 74 Bob and his brother changed roles. Ron became the crew chief and Bob became the driver. Keselowski’s first race as driver was in 1975 at Toledo Speedway in Toledo, OH. They ran the local late model, then moved into the USAC division for the 1976 and 1977 seasons mostly driving 74 Dodge Challengers and Aspens.  During those two years his best finish was 7th at the Texas World Speedway. 

While racing in ARCA the K-Auto Chassis was the one of choice of for many of their competitors.

According to the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame, at one stretch they had won 28 straight features at Toledo Speedway at which time Sonny Adams called the boys and offered them the winning purse to stay home! They accepted and went Sandusky to take a feature win there.  Bob also started to run late models and in 1978, entered some USAC stock and NASCAR Late Model Sportsman events. The guys were running '74 and '77 Dodge Challeger cars under an increasingly familiar #19 number.

Then came a moment that put everything in perspective -  Bob was caught up in one of the most dramatic accidents in NASCAR history, and it became the catalyst for the guys taking a step back from the track for a while. Bob destroyed his stuff in that Texas 500 mile USAC race, the photos from which appeared on the cover of sports pages around the country -- the fireball went almost 50 feet in the air! Backmarker in that same race was one AJ Foyt.

From the Texas Star News June 4th 1978

The race was red-flagged to a stop after only eight laps when six cars smacked into a blazing chain-reaction pileup that was the worst in rect memory in stock car racing. Three drivers were hospitalized briefly, but miraculously there were no injuries. Five cars were destroyed.

The wreck started when Bob Keselowski spun in front of a pack of cars sending them careening in all directions. Ricky Otts spun and clipped the wall while trying to avoid Keselowski. Ken Rowley spun backwards into Ott and both cars exploded and were enveloped by flame as the fuel tanks in the cars were crushed on impact. 

A fireball 100 feet high billowed in the sky, reminiscent of the fatal Eddie Sachs/ Dave McDonald holocaust in the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Rowley managed to bail out of his moving ball of flame and was nearly run over by it. Ott also got out of his own power. The fire spread to field grass before it was extinguished. One firefighter was overcome by smoke and was hospitalized.

In 1978 Bob Keselowski ran in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Division as well as a limited schedule in USAC Division.  His best finish that season was 10th at Milwaukee in the USAC Division.

1980s

"My brother Ron and I both have been around racing for 50 years because we were born into this sport. When my family started racing, we knew nothing about it. My dad was a mechanic in a Ford dealership. We have done it as a family and never altered or changed it. My dad started this in 1956 and my mom still lives in the same house I was born and raised in.

I live a half a mile from there and we still frequent the same tracks we ran with my dad. Now I am doing that with my sons. I didn't realize that many years have went by. It's been a pretty neat life and career. I don't have any regrets except my dad hasn't been around for the last 20 years to see where we've gone."

Bob Keselowski, as he received the Michigan Automobile Racing Fan Club/ Eddie Sachs Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2003