Brad Keselowski's Hometown History Tour: Inside His Former Family Race Shops!

This was my dad's race shop when I was a kid. Pretty sure the cat peed in that office. Engine dino came out of the wall and I remember standing in that window like right there. That's when I knew I wanted to be a race car driver. I always felt like I had something to prove from a really young age. Like the most dangerous person to fight is someone who doesn't care if they lose. [laughter] I'll never forget that. I don't know if that's going to make the film or not, but So, you know how some people say like when I was a kid, I had to walk to the school bus. So, it was a mile both ways. No, no joke. It legit was It's My house growing up was all the way down here. See? Like all the way down here and one block over to the left. And the bus stop was at the end of the road. And if you look, it's technically uphill both ways. It was literally a onemile walk in the snow uphill both ways. And I really wanted to record this for like if my kids ever watch this one day and I tell them that, they're like, "No." It literally was. It was a onem walk uphill both ways. It actually It's really cliche, isn't it? Yeah. It's also downhill both ways. It is down, but there's an uphill to it as well. So, the story is true. It's all about the verbiage to go down on you, man. Whenever you're ready. It's already on. I thought it's already on. You were I could tell you were reminiscing. I was wondering. I was definitely reminiscing. As you started the video, I was looking at the basketball hoop and uh remembering how I always sucked the basketball. Um [laughter] there's plenty of YouTube videos to remind me of that. You know, Michigan's not uh really known as a racing state, which is interesting because, you know, it's a home of all the automobile companies, but it's kind of a stick and ball state. You know, I talk to people that are Michigan sports fans and they're going to be Detroit Lions or Pistons or Tigers and Red Wings so forth. So, it's kind of weird to people when I tell them that I grew up in Michigan as a and became a race car driver. My mom moved into this house uh in the late '7s. She was recently divorced, had three kids, made friends with the neighbor across the street over here who had a brother who was single and uh that was my dad really. And that's that's where it all began. So my mom and dad met here uh got married and uh next thing you know there was me and my brother. So I'm the youngest of five. For me this house means a lot for a lot of reasons. You know, I'm I'm from a different generation than I think uh a lot of the people in your videos are from, which is fine, but so I have a way different racing story. For me, one of the most significant things about this house is this is where I would sim race. And sim racing was how I started racing. You know, for my generation, uh I and generations going forward, I think that's going to be the the future of the sport, right? I was always the the late bloomer, late developer. So like when I was, you know, in sixth or seventh grade, I was barely 100 pounds. And my dad was kind of like, "Yeah, you're you're never going to make it in racing, right?" And so I sim racing was like my only thing I could do. What year would that have been when you were doing this? So when sim racing really came out, this would have been like 9495, that's when it really had its first breakthrough with uh all the Papyrus games and so forth. I quite literally had a station in the basement and uh I remember I would bother my dad all the time like come watch me race. Come on. And the last thing my dad wanted to do was watch his kid race on a computer. But yeah, and so I would uh I would race on a computer and I got my uh first chance to drive something real in a racing environment uh when a friend of my dad's uh kid outgrew his quarter My dad was kind of cynical. Well, he knew I loved racing cuz I would sim race every night. And he just like, "Hey, can you let my son have a chance in his car before you saw it?" And uh so I went and drove it in uh Waterford Hills, Michigan, which is probably 45 minutes from here. I won my first three races in it. And that was like the breakthrough uh for my dad. It was like, "All right, well, maybe we can see where this leads." Uh but I wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't sim race like as a as a kid. So, I feel like I was one of the first people to make it through sim racing to become a race car driver. And so, that kind of makes the environment of where you grow up and and the house that you live in so important, I think, for for my generation and generations to come. That is interesting. I didn't know that. I guess for people who don't know, you explain a little bit what your dad and uncle came from. Yeah. So the the significance of Rochester Hills uh you know my family obviously of Polish you know descent family uh immigrated uh and came here to work for Henry Ford. That's how they got to the Detroit area and Rogers Hills is a suburb of Detroit. Uh World War II broke out. Some different things happened and uh they actually moved up here to the suburbs uh because my grandfather was a uh a drill bit maker. We're going to go look at that house a little bit later, but he built his own house and got drafted in World War II. They sent him back as a a skilled tradesman, machinist, and uh he worked in the drill bit plant just down the road here and made drill bits during the war. So, that's how we got or my family got to this area. You like handprints in the concrete or anything like that? Uh, but you know, I think what sticks out to me when I'm here at the this house is uh I used to drive my go-kart in the front yard here. And it's crazy how when you get older, like it looks so much smaller. When my dad my mom and dad would go off racing in the summer, I would uh bounce back and forth between living with my grandma uh and you know, having responsibilities back here. And so when my parents would get back from a race, it was my job to mow the yard and wash the motor home. My dad paved that lot over there, which is where our our motor home would sit. And I hated it. Gosh, I hated doing that. So that's why that driveway is there, just to park the motor home on. Yeah. There used to be a pool there. And in true racing spirit, my dad leveled it, filled it in, and made it a a spot to park race car trailers and motor homes. So, yeah. So, where exactly did you drive a go-kart in here? This uh Well, I might have drove it on the street, uh, which is definitely illegal. So, uh, I didn't get caught, but probably should have. But I would run it through. So, I hated mowing the grass. And [laughter] so, I would run the go-kart through it to mow the grass. Oh, man did I make my mom so mad with that. But that tree wasn't there at the time. So, I had found a way to make like a road course track all the way winding up and through here. And I'm sure I drove the neighbors crazy. But, uh, yeah, that was that was my upbringing. You I didn't have a, you know, rich or affluent upbringing, but that's that's okay. It served me well. Did Brian also sim race with you? Yes, he did. Yeah, we would sim race together. Um, and it was a healthy sibling rivalry. Like we we complimented each other. He made me better. I made him better. How far down the street did you venture in your car? Did you use the whole neighborhood just right here? Here's the interesting thing about this this neighborhood I live in. And I think about Detroit in general, like all the roads are straight and kind of in a grid. So like our neighborhood block is shaped like Indianapolis and I [clears throat] definitely pretended I was running Indianapolis when I was here. So I'd run the whole block and run around and we were always like looking out for cops cuz we didn't want to get pulled over with our go-kart and get taken away, you know. Did that ever happen? Uh to a friend of ours? Yeah. It didn't happen to us. Like we would put people out here to look like, "Hey, if you see a car coming, like hide the go-kart, you know." So you had multiple carts out here running around at one time. Yeah. Did you like actively race each other at one time? Yeah, that was not a good idea. That was a great way to get the neighbors to call the cops. Yeah. So, was it like a drag race or were you guys Oh, no. We we race around the block. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh you know, it's different. You know, I grew up in the suburbs and uh you know what's interesting about this particular suburb uh is this is Rochester Hills and Rochester itself is a fairly affluent neighborhood. So, I grew up in the only non-affluent neighborhood in Rochester Hills. So, you know, that I think that uh put a bit of a chip on my shoulders from a really early age. When did you guys move to North Carolina? Uh I moved to North Carolina on my own. Uh I can tell you exactly when it was July 4th, 2007. I was I guess 20 what have I been 23. Um I didn't have any money. I didn't I mean I didn't grow up rich. I was a racer or trying to be a racer. And uh I remember I was I was here and David Jr. called me um and he uh he said I told him I I want to drive your race car. He asked me if I would drive this race car. I'm like absolutely I want to I don't have any money to get to North Carolina. I don't have I don't have anything to do that. And uh he said I need to stay in my guest house. And I lived in his guest house for probably a year. And uh that's how I made it to North Carolina. Wow. Yeah. So, I remember it was July 4th, 2007 because I I showed up at his guest house and it was like totally on brand for Dale at that time. Like this is my day one in North Carolina living with Darn Jr. and he threw a party. [laughter] Like so on brand. And it was a July 4th party and I was like, "Wow, I've really made it here." What were you driving when you left home and drove down there? I didn't have a car. I didn't own a car until I was probably 25. Uh he bought me an airplane ticket. That's how I got there. Yeah. And somebody picked me up at the airport. When that day when you left this house, did you know that that was like this is the end of my life at this house? No. No. I I mean, I was fully prepared to, you know, being around racing long enough, opportunities come and go. I didn't know if it was going to stick, right? Uh I I didn't pack anything. Like I packed a suitcase with like three days worth of clothes. That's all I brought with me in North Carolina. That was all I could carry on in the airport anyway. I'm pretty sure TJ Majors picked me up at the airport. You never really had like a a real All right, I'm moving out. Not really any closure. Just life just kind of just moved on, right? Yep. And um you know, my brother, my dad, my mom eventually all moved to to North Carolina. And uh you know I actually had to buy the house in the process because it was getting foreclosed on. So I bought the house and uh now uh my niece lives in it. Yeah. But we just we didn't have any money, right? We split my my family put everything they had in racing and uh you know I was very fortunate uh to kind of like break through, but there was never any guarantees, right? Did you ever play with toy cars in the dirt or anything? Oh, absolutely. Yep. This driveway here saw a lot of matchback, particularly that porch. Uh, you know how some people like pitch quarters? Yeah. To see how close they can get to the end of the porch. We would roll Matchbox cars or Matchbox cars from this side all the way to the end and see who could get them closest to the edge without falling off. Yes. Yeah. And I remember I had all of them. I I'm talking like 1992 the all the cars from NASCAR. That was probably my favorite game. And at one time they cut there was a bunch of shrubbery here and they cut the shrubbery out and I think my mom told me they found like half a dozen Matchbox cars. Some didn't make it. You were a kid. I was always a Cow Petty fan. Cow petty. I liked cow and this is kind of a funny story. So I was uh about 5 years old when Days of Thunder came out. You know Days of Thunder had the Mel yellow car. Yeah. And I thought that car was just so cool. Right. And uh I didn't at that age I wasn't able to associate like drivers. I just knew paint schemes and so when I saw that car I was like that's the car from the movie and I just became a fan of the car and then eventually learned that it was Kyle Petty and I became a fan of Kyle. That's awesome. Yeah. But I love that car and he went from the Melo car to the Kors Light car which I just went with it cuz I thought it was cool. Did you have any um you know desires to go for Alan Kwicki because he was Polish a little bit. Uh by that time I was all in on Cal Petty. So it was kind of hard. I I still remember like I watched there's living rooms right here behind those windows. I can't tell you how many Daytona 500s and races I watched uh right there. And I remember watching the 92 championship race right there on that floor. And it wasn't a big living room, so there' be like one chair and a a couch. So my spot to watch the races was literally the floor. But I can remember watching the races on the floor and particularly that race. So, you were asking me uh Mitch just a few minutes ago about, you know, did you take your stuff when you left? And uh No, no, not really. I think it's a perfect story. This is This is my brother's snowmobile trailer from 20 years ago, and I'm pretty sure there's still a snowmobile in it. [laughter] I just totally ruined these, but that's okay. It looks great. 2008 was the last uh was the regist. Yeah. [clears throat] 2008. Oh, that that would have been 16 years ago. So, no, we didn't take anything. We just like off to the races. Left everything and went on. Before we started filming, didn't you say that was uh Risers? Yes. Yeah. Robbie Riser, Triton Trailer. That's his family's uh trailer brand, although we didn't know that at the time. Where was the pool at that got dug up? Right there. That was the pool. This is like the edge of it. You can see the plug in in the wall. I remember my dad wiring that plugin in to plug the motor home in. That was my bedroom right behind that window. A small little bedroom. Did you have your own room or did you share it? Uh I shared with my brother for a long time and eventually uh I got my own room when my sister moved out. So three-bedroom house. When I had a sister, me and my brother would share or watch stuff sisters, but when my sisters live here, we had to share. So, you can still kind of see Yeah. the outline of the pool like the pad where the where it would have been next to it. His diving board, all of that. There was a diving board. Yeah. Oh, it was actually a really nice pool. Now it's uh you know, fallen to time. That shed wasn't there. I don't think it was at least. But So, your dad's always had a race shop somewhere else. Did he ever work on any race cars in the driveway? Uh, no. But what sometimes they would do is they would load the race car up and they would uh like drive the hauler to here and leave from here in the morning. That would happen a lot. Uh, I can remember that very vividly as a kid. And you know, this area here was just long enough to park not today's race car haulers, but keep in mind race car haulers in the 80s and 90s were not like today's race car haulers. you know, they were tower homes at best or trailers with, you know, like an awning on them and this was just big enough at the time to to park that. Did you go travel with them a lot? Yep. So, the summer I would get to travel off and on. Um, it was really difficult for my parents for me to travel with them. Uh, in particular, the reason why it was so difficult for me to travel with them is I was really little and you know, they were working, right? Even my mom like she worked on the race team. So because of that uh like I I needed some kind of babysitter, right? I was a little kid and uh so they would take me to some races and you know if if MRO or one of those things was there I would get to go to MRO but it was really hard especially the races that were long trips to get to. Right. So um it was kind of off and on but I remember when I as I got older in my teenage years I I got to go to more races. being around it when you were so young, watching your dad and your uncle. Is that what influenced you or Probably the biggest reason at least at an early age that I fell in love with racing is it was the only way that we really had family time as a kid, right? We would travel, we would do all these things. And I didn't grow up like there was no summer camps. Like I didn't do any of those things that the other kids do. So if I wanted to be with my family, if I wanted to have a life with them and and have fun like you went to the racetrack and that was it. So you know it was racing at an early age and my interest in it was it was the pathway to be with my family. So that's how I looked at it. Where's the next stop on the hometown tour? The next stop on the hometown tour is we're going to go to my grandma's house uh which uh my grandma and grandpa's house which my dad grew up in and where I would uh spend a lot of time during the summer. and I went to tell a couple fun stores. Okay. And do you have one more question? Yes, sir. So, you said your mom also worked on the race car. Yes. So, what was her role? She ran the front office. So, she, you know, did the travel. She paid the bills and, you know, made all made sure all the paperwork stuff was legit so that my dad and uncle could just work on the car, you know. So, if a check came in from a track, she took it to the bank, you know, things like that. Was that her full-time job? Yep. Well, a yes and no. Uh, it became her full-time job when my dad started his truck team uh around 1995. So, as an early age as a kid, no. Uh, my mom worked actually at General Motors until then, and she was a what's called a relocator. Uh, so if you're an auto executive that worked for General Motors, uh, and you had to move locations, she would relocate you so you could not have to worry about that. She'd hire the movers. She'd get your house, you know, running with the electrical, utilities, all those kinds of things. And uh she did that until about 95, 96. Well, cool. You want to go to the next stop? Yes. Let's go. Are you uh you still running? I just turned it back on. Yeah. Yeah. You could tell the story about the dog barking and left us alone for no time to film that. But when your dad did the Dodge truck deal, did he have Dodge Oh, yeah. stuff. Yes. And that was one of the reasons why I'd never owned a car. Um, is there was always a company vehicle of some sort that you could use. This is different. They made this a four-lane road. So, it's always a two-lane road. How do you pronounce the road name? Which one? This one? Yeah. Dwinder. Okay. Is that right? I I thought it was Dwindre. Am I You know what? I've always I don't know. It's like the really Maybe I'm wrong. random most random street name I've seen. Uh, you know, Detroit is a uh it's like a French name, right? So, there's uh French and French Indian references all over. What if this was developed when you were a kid? Oh, this was here. This freeway was here. It wasn't when my mom and dad were here, but when I was a kid, um, this was here. It's changed a little. They've added like that hospital I think is new. Never seen that one before. I'm really curious what I'm going to see on this road. I think it's funny because, you know, one of the things that neighborhoods do nowadays is they um they take landfills and they put golf courses on them. And that there was used to be a huge landfill back there. And I'm almost positive there's a golf course on it now. My uh grandfather passed away when I was uh probably one year old. So, I never knew him. So, um but my grandma and I, we were really close. uh she passed away in 2006 uh year before I moved to uh to…