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Brad Keselowski re-signs with Team Penske for 2021 season

Brad Keselowski won’t be vacating the No. 2 car after the 2020 season.

Team Penske announced Monday that Keselowski had signed a contract extension with the team. Per the Associated Press, the extension is for the 2021 season. The announcement came a day after Keselowski won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for his third victory of 2020.

“I have been racing for Team Penske for the vast majority of my NASCAR career and to continue to represent Roger Penske, our partners and his organization is exactly where I want to be,” Keselowski said in a team statement. “We’ve accomplished a lot of things together over the years, including winning both the Cup and Xfinity Championships, the Brickyard 400, the Southern 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. Now, my goal is to win the Daytona 500, another championship and continue to build Team Penske into the best NASCAR team in the garage area.”

Keselowski moved to Team Penske in 2010 after running a partial schedule for Hendrick Motorsports in 2009. He’s gotten 32 of his 33 career Cup Series wins with the team and won the 2012 Cup Series title in his third season with the team.

“We are pleased that Brad will continue to be a part of our organization,” team owner Roger Penske said. “Brad not only demonstrates talent and skill on the track, but his leadership away from it and his dedication to our partners have had a huge impact in making our organization one of the best in NASCAR. I am proud that we will be able to able to keep the continuity we have with Brad, Ryan [Blaney] and Joey [Logano] and we look forward to competing for more wins and championships together.”

Blaney was also set to be a free agent at the end of the season and re-upped with Penske earlier in the year.

Who still needs to re-sign?

Keselowski was the biggest name potentially available at the end of 2020. And now that he’s staying with Penske, the potential 2021 NASCAR free-agent frenzy will probably be more like a quiet shuffle.

We still don’t know who will replace Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 car at the end of the year, but Keselowski, Blaney and (likely) Kyle Larson are no longer candidates. Alex Bowman is staying with Hendrick Motorsports for another season, too.

Stewart-Haas Racing drivers Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer have contracts that expire at the end of the year along with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones and Richard Petty Motorsports’ Bubba Wallace. RPM owner Andrew Murstein said that Wallace had been offered an ownership stake in the team as part of a contract extension offer.

It’s also not clear what Chip Ganassi Racing will do for the No. 42 car in 2021. The team hired Matt Kenseth after firing Larson for his use of a racial slur during a virtual race in April. But the early returns from Kenseth’s NASCAR return haven’t been great. The 48-year-old has just one top-five finish and two top-10s in 16 races since replacing Larson.

Brad Keselowski holds a giant lobster to celebrate his victory in Loudon, New Hampshire.
Brad Keselowski re-signed with Team Penske for the 2021 season. (Charles Krupa/AP)

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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