NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski, less than 12 months since suffering a leg injury so severe that he said he considered having the limb amputated, delivered an update on the injury just hours before the final race of the 2026 season — and his final outing for RFK Racing.
The update arrives on the final race of his tenure with the team, with his 2027 plans unsettled and a last-place starting spot awaiting at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
According to what Keselowski told reporters Sunday morning, the 42-year-old driver’s broken right femur is healing well and will not need another surgery this offseason.
The leg, however, is not all the way back.
“I’m not 100% on that stuff, but I’m getting closer,” Keselowski said Sunday in an interview posted by Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. A thorough medical review about a month ago found no need for further operations.
Keselowski, 42, is a Rochester Hills, Michigan, native who won the 2010 Xfinity Series title and the 2012 Cup Series championship for Team Penske. He has 36 Cup victories and 39 Xfinity wins. After the 2021 season he left Penske to join Roush Fenway Racing as co-owner, and his lone victory with the team came at Darlington Raceway in 2024.
Keselowski’s Broken Leg: Injury and Recovery Timeline
The injury happened Dec. 18, 2025, when Keselowski dropped his daughter off for ski lessons, parked, then slipped on ice and sheared his femur, according to Fox Sports. The bone did not break the skin, but he needed emergency surgery at a hospital in Boone, North Carolina.
“Think about the soldiers in the Civil War,” Keselowski said at Daytona 500 media day earlier this year, according to NASCAR.com. He was picturing amputation, and he called the pain the worst of his life.
Nerve damage followed. Keselowski initially had no feeling from his right knee to his hip. One operation was required, and RFK Racing called the surgery a success on Dec. 19.
“I’m now made of titanium in my leg,” Keselowski said, according to Fox Sports.
The injury cost him one event, the non-points Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, where Corey LaJoie drove the No. 6 Ford. Keselowski then passed a driving test at Charlotte, according to the Associated Press, and was cleared Feb. 9. He finished fifth in the Daytona 500 eight weeks after the fall, his first top-five in the race since 2014.
By July, the nerves had started to reconnect.
“Feels like 100% recovery will be possible,” Keselowski posted on social media in a July update on his recovery.
Brad Keselowski’s Chase Standing and 2027 Future
Keselowski did not make the Chase. He finished the regular season 18th and 79 points short of the cut. Both RFK teammates advanced, Ryan Preece won at Daytona for the last spot.
After Martinsville, Keselowski sat 19th with 714 points, more than 1,700 behind points leader Kyle Larson. Only the top 16 drivers qualified, so he cannot affect a title that Larson, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell will decide. Larson leads Bell by 67 points entering the finale.
Saturday’s qualifying lap ended in the wall for Keselowski. His car spun and hit the inside wall exiting Turn 4, according to NASCAR.com. He was unhurt and starts 40th, last in the field, in his final full-time start for RFK.
RFK and Keselowski will part ways after the 2026 season, and “I’m nowhere near ready to be done as a driver,” he said in a statement, according to NASCAR.com.
For now, Keselowski has no announced 2027 deal, a leg that is nearly healed and one last race in the No. 6 Ford.
Brad Keselowski Reveals Broken Leg Update Before NASCAR Championship Race