The team was founded by John Keselowski and began competing in 1969, with Homer Newland driving the No. 62 Kaye Engineering Dodge in the NASCAR Grand National Series, debuting at Michigan International Speedway. Ron Keselowski became the primary driver from 1970, running seventeen races that year and recording an eighth-place finish at the West Virginia 300. The family team made scattered appearances in the Cup ranks through 1975 before pivoting to local and USAC competition.
In 1975 Bob Keselowski became the team's driver with Ron moving to the crew chief role. Bob progressed through USAC and NASCAR Late Model Sportsman racing before focusing on ARCA from 1986. He won his first ARCA race at Berlin Raceway that year and eventually claimed the 1989 ARCA Supercar championship. When Chrysler re-entered racing in 1989, K-Automotive was among the teams selected for the Mopar Performance programme, winning the 1990 ARCA season-opener at Daytona in the No. 29 Chrysler LeBaron and finishing third in the championship.
K-Automotive returned to NASCAR competition in 1995 when the new SuperTruck Series by Craftsman launched. Bob Keselowski drove the No. 29 Winnebago Industries Dodge Ram, making sixteen starts and logging four top-ten finishes in his debut season. He achieved a career-best fourteenth-place points finish in the truck standings in 1997 and won his only NASCAR truck race that year at Richmond International Raceway in the Mopar Dodge.
During the 1998 season Bob Keselowski was injured and replaced by Dennis Setzer, who won the team's race at Mesa Marin Raceway. In 1999 Keselowski created a second truck — the No. 1 — for Setzer while he drove the No. 29 part-time for research and development with Dodge. Setzer won three times that season and narrowly missed the championship by 108 points.
The team's most successful Truck Series era followed the switch to Ford and the hiring of Terry Cook in 2001. Cook won the pole at Nazareth and finished tenth in the standings in his first year; in 2002 he won four races and two poles. The team subsequently fielded Brad Keselowski in the truck from 2004 to 2006 before suspending full-time operations due to a lack of sponsorship.
Beginning in the 2007 Nationwide Series season the team partnered with Holloway Motorsports, fielding entries under car numbers 19, 49, 92, 26, and 96 at various points. Brian Keselowski drove the majority of these entries. In 2010 the team partnered with Team Penske to place Parker Kligerman and Sam Hornish Jr. in the No. 26 car for selected rounds; Kligerman finished 13th at the July Daytona race and 8th at Montreal in those appearances.
K-Automotive returned to the Sprint Cup Series in 2010 as the No. 92 Dodge but failed to qualify for any of the events attempted with Mike Wallace and Brian Keselowski. In 2011 Brian Keselowski qualified for the Daytona 500 from the last-chance position by finishing fifth in his qualifying race, starting 12th and finishing 41st after a crash. The team ran a partial Cup schedule through 2013 under car numbers 52 and 92 before ceasing operations due to persistent sponsorship difficulties.
The family returned to ARCA in 2004 with the No. 29 Chevrolet, fielding Brian Keselowski who recorded top-ten finishes in his debut at Kentucky Speedway. Brian won his first ARCA race at Berlin Raceway in 2006 with Holloway Motorsports and added further wins in 2007. In 2009 the team ran Mikey Kile and Chad Finley part-time in ARCA, with Kile recording four top-ten finishes and Finley recording three.
K-Automotive Motorsports embodied the family-owned, multi-decade independent team structure that characterised grassroots American stock car racing. While the team never fielded a championship-calibre Sprint Cup operation, it served as a launchpad for Brad Keselowski — who would go on to win the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with Team Penske — and maintained competitive ARCA and Truck Series programmes across more than three decades.
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